March Madness...

It was different type of March madness for me – like a basketball bouncing between hoops, I was shuttling between events from one city to another.

Mar 6th -Tampa Malayalee Association celebrated their inaugural function and I was invited to perform with Biju Narayanan who flew in all the way from India just for this program. ASIANET, the Malayalam channel , covered this event which was colorful and well organized . Got to catch up with Biju who is a family friend and who I have grown up with since my childhood.

Mar 20th- Rock Island Telugu Association celebrated Ugadi, on Mar 20th- the name of the town may sound like it is off an island by the sea- It actually is a suburban town a few hours from Chicago,Illinois. Harnadha Raju and I had a great time performing for this crowd. Great sound system and a great audience vindicated my belief that small towns are great places to derive artistic satisfaction.

Mar 27th-Bharathi Kalai Mandram Houston celebrated their 30th anniversary at the Meenakshi Temple auditorium in Houston. This is probably my fifth performance at Houston and like the previous ones, C.S.Ainkaran led the efforts and with his impeccable organizational zeal and attention to minute details, this concert was very well received by the audience and organizers. It also reinforced my belief that all my concerts in a temple auditorium are hugely successful.

Jab/Feb 2010

January is festival time for Indian Associations- Pongal /Sankranthi programs are usually the first of the events for the New Year. Tennessee Tamil Sangam celebrated Pongal on Feb 6th at Nashville- the seat of country music. Under the stewardship of Ainkaran, this turned out to be an amazing roller coaster- with a great turnout and response bundled with some great performances. The energy and enthusiasm of the Tennessee Tamil Sangam committee members was very infective and the hard work and toil of the team certainly paid off.

Harrisburg Telugu Association celebrated Sankranthi on Jan 23rd. Baba Sontanya ,the President indeed did display his organizational skills with a unique style of putting together a variety entertainment. It would not be surprising to see him play a key role at TANA, ATA or NATS :).

Happy New Year - 2010 !

Like a candle that flares up before dying, December was a slew of unexpected musical events before 2009 faded out into 2010…

NEMA- New England Malayalee Association (http://www.nemausa.org/) under the stewardship of Ms Rema Nair celebrated Christmas on Dec 19th at Boston. The event had skits, dance and music and the performances were of high quality. This was one of the really well organized events I have been part of the recent past-Kudos to Rema and team!

When I returned home after the Chicago concert, there were a couple of voice messages from none other than M.G.Sreekumar, the Malayalam playback singer- He had completed 25 years in the music industry and Florida Malayalee Assoication was felicitating him and he invited me to the event and the concert that would follow. I first met MG in Houston(thanks to Vincent) almost 6 years ago but it was during the Europe tour that my relationship with Lekha(his wfe) and MG was reinforced. At that time, I was wary of celebrity singers from India and expected a similar experience but MG and Lekha turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. It was great catching up with them in Florida.

There is another person who made a lasting impact on me in 2009. It was my ambition to be able to read and write in Telugu. I made some attempts with the Teach yourself series without much success. During the Telugu Maazza cruise event, I met Kallakuri Lakshmi Rao garu from Cincinnati, very accomplished in Telugu literature and education who agreed to help me out with my 2009 resolution. Her methods were truly amazing- she did not follow the traditional methods and had a very unique method of imparting the skill and did it work ! In one month I was able to read through articles and write the song list and lyrics. Lakshmi garu, I will forever be indebted to you!

For more photos please click
http://picasaweb.google.com/kri.anitha/20091228FloridaMg?authkey=Gv1sRgCPfQh5KhgaWTuAE#
http://picasaweb.google.com/kri.anitha/20091221Boston?authkey=Gv1sRgCLWcloCY39-7rAE#
http://picasaweb.google.com/kri.anitha/20091213?authkey=Gv1sRgCNSn-d6X5N_z6QE#

Winter blues...

The last few months of the year are usually slow from a musical event standpoint- organizers do not want t risk schedules going haywire due to the vagaries of the weather and typically go into hibernation during this part of the year. Surprisingly, this year was different- a Hindi concert in Virginia late November, a devotional concert in Chicago and a few more in the pipeline all the way until the end of the year.

The weekend at Chicago was indeed exciting. The Hindu temple celebrated its Annual Murugan Day celebrations and Aingaran who is very popular in the Chicago area performs at the event almost every year. I was very happy to be part of this event - for what better way to end the year than with a ode to Lord Murugan.

While in Chicago, I also had the opportunity to record for a Hindi album- produced, written and composed by a Pakistani- Sarfaraz William- and he was compsoing a Christian ghazal album- sounded very interesting and was truly an astounding and enjoyable experience. The recording took place at Sheno’s studio- Sheno is a well known keyboard player in the Chicago area. I wish professionals in the US had opportunities to be busy throughout the year on recording projects- Alas, the budget and market realities do not help realize such dreams. I will post the song once the mixing and production is complete- The album has 7-8 ghazals with voices of some professionals from India and Pakistan.

Nov 14th- Kerala Day celebrations at NBA

NBA-this association has nothing to do with basketball- but NBA as in Nair Benevolent Association at New York celebrated Kerala Day on Nov 14th. Thahseen and I got 90 minutes with Rajeev Menon and Kala Satish joining the fray. The audience seemed to have very refined musically tastes, for there was a request to delve into the raga for each song- a segment that was both entertaining and enjoyable. Rajiv Menon, apparently a hardcore Hariharan fan, was remarkable on Tu Hi Re. Another highlight was my impromptu opportunity to anchor a segment on the event for Amrutha-TV. The past few years has witnessed proliferation of US based segments on Indian TV channels with the Malayalam and Telugu channels taking the lead. Some of these are hugely popular in India but I have always wondered why we don’t have major productions like the ones in India. Sponsorship may be one issue-Getting buy in from Corporate America will surely help, perhaps. Any takers there ?

To view photos click http://picasaweb.google.com/kri.anitha/20091115Nov14thNBA_NewYork?authkey=Gv1sRgCMDO076YlLSHsgE#

Nov 7th 2009- Kerala Day Celebrations at Philadelphia

Nov 7th 2009 was an interesting weekend. I was at the Kerala Day celebrations at Philadelphia-was there to perform with Thahseen but we did not get to sing that many songs what with the slew of dances, fashion shows and other items and the usual late start. George Nadavayal, the president of the Tri-State Kerala forum sensed our disappointment perhaps, and invited us to judge the beauty pageant – which was a different experience. It was not one of those events, that would remain etched in memory for eternity but I still had fun catching up with Thahseen, who I was performing with after a gap of three years. It was almost like a rehearsal for our next event at Nair Benevolent Association at New York.

Click here to view more photos http://picasaweb.google.com/kri.anitha/20091108Nov7th2009_KeralaDay_TriStateKeralaForum?authkey=Gv1sRgCIrS9OGY8NDIXw#

Oct 31st 2009 Weekend...

Musical events in India happen almost everyday, including weekdays and weekends. I have even heard stories of celebrity singers in Chennai, singing a few songs at TTK hall then rushing to another venue to perform at another event! In the USA, most Indian events are limited to weekends. However, New Jersey seems to be fast crossing that threshold. This past weekend, I performed at three different events.

On Friday Oct 31st, I was at a reception dinner for Dr.Karan Singh, former Indian ambassador to the US. The invitees included senior business leaders in the NY area and the agenda was basically a get-together with Dr.Karan Singh. I was actually surprised to learn that Dr Singh had a very good knowledge of music and is a sitar player himself. Thanks to Mahesh Saladi for letting me be part of this event.

On Sunday Nov 1st, the North American Telugu Society (NATS) a newly formed amalgamation of Telugu speaking community from across North America had a kick-off fund raiser in NJ. NATS organized its first national celebration “America Telugu Sambaralu” in Orlando, Florida last year and will have the second in Edison, NJ in 2010. This event was the kick-off fund-raiser and a host of invitees from India that included Award winning Telugu ghazal singer Srinivas, TV singing competition winners Sreenidhi and Raghuram, Anchor and mimicry artiste and singer Simha. I felt honored to be one of the invitees. Thanks to Dr Madhu and Sireesha Korrapati !

Ghazals has its roots in the Persian region and for long has been a staple cultural artifact of Northern India. Changing audience tastes have led to its popularity in the South particularly around the Kozhikode region in Kerala. Ghazal Srinivas is hugely popular in Andhra Pradesh and he has a unique style of delivery. He uses just a Kanjeera for the rhythm, dwells on the lyrical beauty and walks you through a tale of emotion and passion and leaving you in a trance at the end. This was the first time I heard him and I was very impressed. What was also impressive was his insistence on the audience maintaining absolute silence during his performance which is a rare feat to achieve among Indian audiences.

That same evening I attended a Shirdi Sai Temple fund raiser event. This time I was basically part of the audience to watch a group from Mumbai perform. The organizer was known to me and he invited me on stage and I had a good time singing a song with a very competent team of musicians from India.

To view more photos click http://picasaweb.google.com/kri.anitha/20091031DrKaranSinghDamu?authkey=Gv1sRgCMXxrI72qbXdPg#