By: Joe Lang
 |
| Nirmala Rajesekar - Photo by Ilya Ratner |
Unless you are a devoted follower of local Indian music, you probably haven’t heard of Nirmala Rajasekar. That would be unfortunate; you’d be missing out on one of the most accomplished all-around musicians in the Twin Cities. Since age 13, Rajasekar has been singing and playing the veena, a stringed instrument similar to a lute or guitar and one of the oldest instruments in Carnatic (South Indian) history. For close to three decades, Rajasekar has toured the globe and has garnered awards Indian Radio and Television, the BBC, American Composer’s forum and the Bush foundation. One of the more eclectic and broad-minded musicians of Carnatic music, she’s recorded with jazz musicians, Chinese musicians, poets (see my Cedar review) and symphonies (most recently with composer Jan Gilbert and the St. Paul Civic Symphony Orchestra last May).
Nirmala’s forthcoming release, Song of the Veena (INNOVA Records) features South Indian classical compositions ranging from the 8th to the 20th century. As part of the release, she’ll be joined by the band members featured on the album including Viaja Desikan (violin), V. Srinivasan (mridangam), Marcus Wise (tabla) and Balaji Chandran (ghatam) for a free appearance at the Minneapolis Central Library on July 21. I sat down to talk to Nirmala and V. Srinivasan about the release and the live appearance.
HowWasTheShow: The new album is called Song of the Veena. What can you tell me about the instrument?
Nirmala Rajesekar: Veena is the oldest stringed instrument in India. It’s 2000 years old, along with the bamboo flute and mridangam and there are two of them on the album! Guitar is the closest [western instrument] to the veena because it’s hard to sustain sound. [It’s] not like a violin with the bow, or sitar with the sympathetic strings. Plus, it’s got a huge fingerboard.
HWTS: This recording was made three years ago. Why did you decide to record the album, and what took so long for the release?
Rajasekar: Srini’s (V. Srinivasan) longevity of stay was suspect, so we decided to do it. I didn’t think about it. At the moment, we were doing a lot of work on the team and I was just having so much fun. Dan Ryan was the audio consultant and he understood the balance of how things need to sound. He was there to help record. I trusted him to give me the best sound on the Veena, and I just had a feeling, so there we were, recording. We were having a tremendously good time. I toured Switzerland that spring, so other things took priority [instead of the release].
HWTS: You have another band, Carnatic Energy. Can you tell me a little about that group and how it compares with this?
Rajasekar: Carnatic Energy is a cultural collaboration that’s great. It’s Anthony Cox on bass, Marcus on tabla and Srini on mridangam, along with me. For one thing, when I play the new material, I play a composition or song. Alapana, or alap, is the mind’s creation of the melody at the time. It’s the emotion, feeling, audience, auditorium. It’s what goes at the beginning of the piece. It’s the artist’s creation and they all sound different. When I play with Carnatic Energy, it’s one big improvisation, one big creation of Alap, or Swarakalpana (translated as note imagination), which includes improvisation with rhythm. Eighty-percent of an Indian concert is created on stage—that’s why there’s no sheet music.
HWTS: Most people are familiar with Indian music through Ravi Shankar, who is a Hindustani, or North Indian musician. How does this music compare with that?
Rajasekar: Carnatic music is Indian. North [Indian music] comes from Persian influences so it thrived and grew that way. Musically, the whole grammar is different. Both styles have ragas (melody) and a cycle of rhythms known as talas. The South [Indian music] is in the composition and grammar rules that make up the raga and tala. It’s a very well defined system of music and the theory is amazing—so easy to understand. [This album] is developed with compositions in the raga. We’ve gone from the 8th century to the 20th century, dealing with how each composer deals with each composition.
HWTS: I’m familiar with Srini, of course, and Marcus from his stuff with Dean Magraw and Steve Tibbets. Can you tell me a little bit more about how they and the other band members and creators fit into the project?
Rajasekar: All of the performers are Minnesota made, so to speak, including the graphic designer of the album! Well, the amazing thing with Marcus is he’s just the most easy going and open kind of mind and amazing artist. Before Srini, it was only Marcus, so we spent a lot of time integrating tabla (a Hindustani instrument) and Vina, so it sounded like it was meant to be.
Srini: One key difference between tabla and Mridangam is that during the course of the song, the tabla tries to keep the tempo more than follow the melody. But in the south, we try to play the melody itself, so on the CD you can hear Marcus play the gamakam, or oscillation, which is really hard to do while accompanying the veena because of the subtlety.
Rajasekar: Along with Dan Ryan, Matt Zimmerman has captured the most amazing sound on the Vina. You can hear the movements of the hands. I like that. But he hasn’t gone overboard. We did the whole thing in two days. We had a good amount of recording, so it was a beautiful experience. And they are two of the most unflappable individuals—calm all the time. It was a totally relaxing recording environment. Srini is going to be playing at the musical academy in December in Chennai [India]. It’s the biggest South Indian music festival in the world. You go from morning to night. Srini is already arriving.
Vijaya used to live here. She comes from the famed school of violin playing in India. She now lives in Madison, and she’s one of the best I’ve ever worked with. Balaji is a pleasure to work with. The veena and ghatam have an inborn relationship. It’s my first instrument of choice [to play with].
Nirmala and the band will be playing a one-time performance at the Minneapolis Central Library on Saturday, July 21 from 2:30-4:30 pm. Admission is free.
Artist Info: Nirmala Rajasekar
Share this story:
Article comments powered by Disqus