Lata ki awaaz

Is there an adjective to describe something "more melodious" than "melodious"? I run out of words to describe Lata ji's voice. Although her singing career started in 1947, her popularity rose in 1949 with songs such as Aayega aanewala, jiya bekarar hai etc. Another beautiful song from 1949 was Uthayeja Unke Sitam composed by Naushad for "Andaaz". I had attempted recording this earlier but received some constructive criticism from my father and decided to improve it. So here is the improved version dedicated to my father :). He also requested me to sing a song composed by Madan Mohan. I am a big fan of Madan Mohan's compositions myself and was recently obssessed by one of his compositions Maaye Ri from "Dastak". This song is not as popular as Baiyyan na dharo but caught my fancy last year when a contestant Abhilasha of "Star Voice of India" sang it (beautifully I must add). I could not get the tune out of my head. Being not that familiar with the song and also not being able to find the song online (knowing the movie name might have helped!) the tune started evolving in my head into "my version" of the song. Thankfully, I soon found the a video of the song on youtube. I was thrilled on finally hearing the whole song and also disappointed a little when I realized how off my version of the song was. Recently found a karaoke track of the song and could not resist recording it. It is a difficult song for me and here is my first attempt. Again dedicating it to my father. With your comments and suggestions I hope to revisit and improve the song later....



Song: Uthaye ja unke sitam; Movie: Andaaz


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Song: Maaye Ri; Movie: Dastak

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The Magic of Umrao Jaan

Rekha's beauty, Khayyam's soulful compositions and Asha's beautiful voice. Is it really possible to disassociate them from one other when you think of Umrao Jaan. The music of Umrao Jaan was really beautiful. I cannot even find words to describe the magic in Asha ji's voice when she sings Dil cheez kya hai, In aankhon ki masti, Yeh kya jagah hai doston or Justju jiski thi. I very recently started singing and recording songs and really wanted to sing something from Umrao Jaan fully aware that I may not even be able to recreate 50% of the Umrao Jaan magic :). The very second song that I recorded was Justju jiski thi (you can hear my first recording on esnips if interested) and I wanted it to be the first one on my blog because I am a huge huge fan of Asha Bhonsle. I want to thank Krishnan Sir and Smitha for the encouraging comments they left on my esnips folder. I also specially want to thank Smitha for introducing me to this world of audio blogging so this posting is dedicated to her. Please listen when you have time and don't hesitate to give your positive/negative feedback.



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Let's start at the very beginning...

My family has a deep interest in music. My grandmother used to play the veena, my parents have a very good ear for music(my mother sings too) and my sister plays the violin. I began taking lessons in carnatic music at the age of 8 on Vijayadashmi day. I learnt a lot from my teacher Nagarajamani Natarajan about discipline and perfection in singing. Upon her relocation to hyderabad my singing lessons continued with Jayalakshmi Ramachandran who also gave me very valuable lessons. Despite religiously attending my music classes, I was extremely lazy when it came to practising. Such was my laziness that my mother had to enforce rules such as "You cannot meet your friends in the evening unless you sing atleast 3 Keerthanams". Little did I value that during childhood days and stubbornly sang 3 songs with a pointed gaze(one that would give Arjuna a complex) at the clock to show an urgency to leave. I really appreciate her effort now and wish I had valued it more then. After coming to the US my practice started reducing gradually and I blamed it on long hours at work, stressful life of a graduate student etc. etc. Deep within I know these are just excuses. I guess it is never too late to make amends so here is my blog. I have to thank my husband for getting all the recording paraphernalia and encouraging (read pushing) me to do this :).