Usha Ramamoorthy, Music Club IIT Madras

Usha Ramamurthy - Gottuvadhyam
Padma Shankar - Fiddle
Mannarkoil J Balaji - Mrudangam
Madipakkam A Murali - Ghatam

Music Club IIT Madras. CLT
6 Apr 10. 7 pm

chalamEla - khamAs - Adi - ST [varNam] (short sketch)
gajavadanA karuNA sadanA - srI ranjani - Adi - PS (short sketch)
paramAtmuDu - vAgadIsvari - Adi - T (R)
gangAdhara tripurahara - pUri kalyANi - rUpakam - Mysore Sadasiva Rao (RNS)
smara janaka - bEhAg - misra cApu - ST (sketch)
sarOja daLa nEtri - shankarAbaraNam - Adi - SS (RNS)
tani
venkaTAcala nilayam - sindhubhairavi - Adi - PD (short sketch)
tillAnA - senjuruTTi - Adi - Veenai Seshanna
vEga nIvu - suruTTi - Adi
nI nama rUpamulaku - saurAshTram - Adi - T
madhyamAvati short sketch

It was a good concert. Her Gottuvadhyam did not have resonating strings on the fret board, which i am told is the distinct stamp of the Budalur school of gottuvadyam, and hence, it was a little prone to sruti lapses. One locally known exponent of this style is, i am told, Sri D Kittappa, who served AIR, Madras for many years until his retirement.

Smt Usha's concert was gripping with a neat presentation of kritis and adequate justice done to the manodarmam parts. The accompanists provided excellent support to the main artist.

From an artist who is probably not very popular in the madras music circuits, to be listening to a concert of good quality music and with a lot of vyavahAram and saukyam was indeed great. Notwithstanding an occasional lapse here and there, it was indeed one of the really satisfying concerts we have had at IIT Music Club in recent times.