Wow, those concerts seem pretty awesome. I've only heard jalathrangam in recording.

In fact I missed the first hour because I wanted to see somebody I know sing. When I apologised that I wouldn't be staying for her whole concert, both she and her mother said that they had never seen jalatharangam in the flesh

I first heard it as background music in a shop, when I was a tourist, from UK,  in Kerala. I had to just listen. I recognised violin and mridangam, I recognised a couple of the songs, and from general knowledge I worked out what I was probably listening to. It was very frustrating that none of the shop staff seemed to have a clue where the CD player was and couldn't help at all.

The concert I went to was in NYC with Samir Chatterjee on tabla and a student of U. Srinivas on electric mandolin playing Srinivas' own compositions and favorite kirtis. It was moving, they would stop to reminisce about srinivas after a few pieces, then return to the music.

That must have been a very moving experience. Probably not many dry eyes.

Tonight I went to see  Brinda Manickavasagam sing. I first noticed her playing tambura for her guru Suguna Varadachary and was amazed by her total absorption in the music,  punctuated, from time to time, by a radiant smile.

This is the third or fourth time I have seen her giving her own concert.

Here's a sample

My queen of music, my goddess, she's just wonderful. I have even stolen the Grateful Dead saying: There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that is anything like an R Vedavalli concert...



(This was a live webcast. According to whatever arrangements were made with the organisers and artists, it may or may not remain available on Youtube)

I've attended two of the four Women's Voices Indian Classical concert series here in NYC. http://harmonyom.org/concerts__events
I might see the last one as well.

The opening concert, which I attended was the young london-based sitarist, Roopa Panesar.

Here's a little clip from a london concert:

She's a fine sitar player in the stylistic lineage of Ustad Vilayat Khan. Her alap in rag jog was lovely and she pulled off a few rhythmically challenging improvisations in the following composition. I think she will continue to improve and be a truly excellent sitarist.

She's also drop dead gorgeous in person.

I'll just steal this image from her website.

I also attended the concert of one of my favorite sitarist, Anupama Bhagwat. She also plays in the stylistic lineage of Ustad Vilayat Khan. Anupama is pretty great now and since the younger son of the late Vilayat Khan was at the concert, along with a senior vocalist and a few other Indian classical musicians, she really brought it for the concert. It was among the best concerts I've attended. Just a series of, "wow, that was beautiful". There was a sustained intensity of continuous inspired improvisation that really makes an Indian classical concert superlative.

Here's a clip of her playing in the jor-jhalla section of a performance from a concert in the Bahamas.




I wrote her on facebook, politely encouraging her to record more CDs.

I hope to see Debashish Bhattacharya this saturday.

I definitely would like to get more into carnatic music. I'll give some of the youtube links you've postrd a listen when I have some time. You're right, it requires a mental retune from one to the other. There are lots of parallels, and the hindustani musicians I've talked to have a lot of respect for carnatic musicians. Plus, carnatic ragas have been coming into hindustani music quite a bit in the 20th century, with really important musicians such as Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Vilayat Khan and Z. M. Dagar all playing south indian ragas.