Some music is better than no music
This fall season was a muted affair when it came to attending music concerts. Had to make an emergency unplanned trip to India and a bunch of other obligations made it difficult to attend concerts.
Did manage to attend 5 concerts , some of them partially.. had to leave a Thissur brothers concert early because wife double booked me for a dinner at friends. Ended up attending last half of Asha Ramesh concert.
Managed to attend Amritha Murali concert from beginning to end. The Mandolin Rajesh concert was fantastic, but started 90 minutes late, had a bunch of folks talking to make it late by another 15 minutes and that pissed me off so much. Good thing he played amazingly well to calm me down. Had to leave after an hour though as we had to get back to the routine.
It has been that kind of a year. They say you have to have a "kuduppanai" for everything. This years kuduppanai seems to be limited.
Thissur brothers were just outstanding.. this is my third time attending their concert in as many years. Every concert has been better than the previous one!
Amritha Murli was great. No gimmicks. Clean singing. It was a demo in how to keep things simple and yet bring out so much!
Asha was so energetic. She is one of the most popular bay area artists and it is always a treat to listen to her. She is the Usha Udhup of carnatic music. Her singing makes me want to get up and dance ! The wide range of accompaniments in this concert including a veena was excellent.
Mandolin Rajesh wrapped up the season finale at SIFA. was glad to catch at least a little over an hour of his concert. The tabla and kanjeera combo was scintillating. They even said the Jathi before playing their respective openings for the thaniaavarthanam.
Just when we thought the season came to an end too soon, got invited to attend a fund raiser concert by my wife's Hindustani music guru Jaya Vidhayasagar at the MA center. Loved this concert. We all got to sing along with her for some of the bhajans. Enjoyed the music.
That pretty much wraps up this Falls music season. Hopefully will get to attend more next spring!
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