The saxophone in the opening credits to this Tamil Film (“Duet”) is by Kadri Gopalnath; it’s unlike any other commercial film opening credits music you’ve ever heard. Gopalnath has been in the news quite a bit over the past few weeks, following his collaboration with Indian American jazz-maestro Rudresh Mahanthappa, who has a new album out called Apti. I haven’t “Itunesed” Mahanthappa’s album yet (any reviews? the excerpts played on Rudresh’s NPR interview sound great), though I will be, but it prompted me to check out the Indian musician he’s talking about. (Incidentally, Kadri Gopalnath has several albums for sale on Itunes as well, at the bargain price of $3.99 each.)
Here is a quote from the New Yorker piece on Mahanthappa that describes what Gopalnath is doing on Sax:
While Mahanthappa was at Berklee, his older brother teasingly gave him an album called “Saxophone Indian Style,†by Kadri Gopalnath. As far as Mahanthappa knew, “Indian saxophonist†was an oxymoron, but the album amazed him. Gopalnath, who was born in 1950, in Karnataka, plays a Western instrument in a non-Western context—the Carnatic music of Southern India (distinct from the Hindustani musical tradition of Northern India). Gopalnath, who generally plays in a yogalike seated position, has perfected something that jazz saxophonists have been attempting for decades: moving beyond the Western chromatic scale into the realm of microtones, a feat harder for wind instruments, whose keys are in fixed positions, than for strings or voice. Jazz players, such as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and Albert Ayler, had gone about it by varying intonation, blowing multiphonics (two or more notes at the same time), or squawking in the upper register, where pitches are imprecisely defined. Gopalnath does none of that. Using alternate fingerings and innovative embouchure techniques, he maintains faultless intonation while sliding in and out of the chromatic scale. (link)
I don’t play any wind instruments, and I have no idea technically what “innovative embouchure techniques” might be describing, but it sure sounds hard.
Also check out: Mahanthappa interviewed on NPR.
Here’s a melodious song with sax segment, presumably from the same movie.
It’s the closest my kids come to uttering Tamil words. It’s daily staple in my home.
Btw, the composer/music director for this movie is the man in the news, A. R. Rahman.
More about the Dakshina Ensemble – http://www.myspace.com/dakshinaband (more vids here!)
The violinist for the ensemble is another veteran – A. Kanyakumari
Wow. Any idea where that scene was shot?
Sorry for the multiple comments. Wanted to mention a couple of other musicians that play desi style with western instruments.
One’s “Guitar” Prasanna (http://www.myspace.com/guitaristprasanna), who incidentally did the music for the short documentary “Smile Pinki” that won at the Oscars a few weeks ago. Here’s him playing a live concert a couple of years ago – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaJX_B98jzA
Another is “Mandolin” U. Srinivas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U._Srinivas), who was considered to be a child prodigy in the early 80s. Very famous down in South India, Srinivas is a part of John McLaughlin’s Remember Shakti quintet. Here’s a video of U. Srinivas from a televised performance on the Chennai station of Doordarshan – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAQLjzR-424
I don’t play any wind instruments, and I have no idea technically what “innovative embouchure techniques†might be describing, but it sure sounds hard.
I play the clarinet (which has the same type of mouthpiece and very similar fingering to a sax), but I had no idea there was more than one way to blow. Also, I’ve always wondered how Kadri empties his spitvalve! 😉
Yes, there’s a Carnatic Musician on the Clarinet too… A. K. C. Natarajan. He’s been at it for a very long time, he’s now 78 years old. The Madras Music Academy awards the title of “Sangeetha Kalanidhi” every year and it’s considered to be the most prestigious honour for a Carnatic musician. Last year, it went to A. K. C. Natarajan.
You should be able to find samples of Prasanna, Kadri Gopalnath, U. Srinivas, A. K. C. Natarajan on the musicindiaonline.com website.
I’m sure a fair number of Sepia readers were at the pair of sold-out concerts Rudresh, Kadri and the group gave at the Asia Society in NYC in 2007. It was really spectacular. Hearing — and watching — Kadri was quite a revelation. Not only does he play some of the music you’d least expect to come out of a saxophone (for the reasons discussed in the post), but he does so beautifully, and he’s a character, with all kinds of gaudy ornaments hanging off his horn, and just an incredible presence and charisma. As a commenter about noted as well, violinist A. Kanyakumari was spectacular too.
As for Rudresh, he’s getting his propers at the moment, with the New Yorker feature by grand jazz arbiter Gary Giddens, and the “Fresh Air” interview. It’s highly deserved. He’s an astonishingly good musician and an incredibly nice guy to boot. For a while he’d been kind of defined as the sidekick to Vijay Iyer, and although their work together (as a duo and in each other’s working groups) is fantastic, Rudresh’s own projects are no less important and compelling. There’s this one with Kadri, and then there’s also Indo-Pak Coalition, his project with guitarist Rez Abbasi, with their new CD “Apti.” (There’s others too, but these are the ones with the Desi Angle:))
Manish has an archive of Rudresh coverage here. I did a story about Rudresh about a year ago, it’s here.
I play jazz tenor saxophone 🙂 and embouchure is basically the position of your mouth (which obviously affects the way air moves through the instrument). Bill Clinton has very strange embouchure, IMHO.
My New Yorker has not arrived yet! But now I am excited to read it.
Sugi, thanks for explaining embouchure to me. Incidentally, the profile on Mahanthappa was a couple of weeks ago, in the March 2nd New Yorker. So you might already have it.
Siddhartha, ah yes, 2007. For me, a year of changing diapers, ceaselessly and sleeplessly — and not seeing any live music.
My dog Jagat – IIRC the song was shot in Vizag – Vishakappatinam – K. Balanachader’s favorite location.
Malathi the song is from the same movie.
Kadri is a Carnatic master and a true innovator. I thought he owned Rudresh (and his relentless, muscular noodling) on the album, which was the runner-up to Sonny Rollin’s “Road Shows – Pt.1” in last year’s Downbeat poll of critics. The western critics really loved it, but I found myself longing for more Carnatic and less jazz.
The Hindustani flautist Deepak Ram (South African desi, disciple of Harisprasad Chaurasia) also released a jazz album last year called “Steps – interesting, New Agey take on Colrane’s Giant Steps. Worth a listen.
M.I.A, Rahman, and now this guy make me wish I was Tamil.
7 · suresh said
I’ve heard AKC before. My dad has a fairly extensive collection of woodwind Carnatic music, actually. In fact, as a kid, I always thought the clarinet sounded better when used in Carnatic music than it did when we played it in band. (Of course, maybe that was a reflection of our skill level more than anything else! :))
Searching for some information about A. K. C. Natarajan the Carnatic clarinet player, I came across the website of William Powell who had apparently learned from Mr. Natarajan. Scroll down to the end of the page to catch a startling picture of Mr. Powell in action at the Krishna Temple at Tiruvannamalai (Tamil Nadu)!
9 · V.V. Ganeshananthan said
He said the same thing about Ms. Lewinsky.
16 · obvious joke comes full circle said
Thank the Gods for the low-hanging fruit that saves short people from going hungry.
I would never have even recognized that instrument as a sax. It’s impressive how much potential these instruments had that was never tapped. One of my friends is doing peace-corps in Senegal right now and is all excited about these fellows in her village who play Afro-Celtic fusion music after one of the previous Peace Corps volunteers thought them about some of the instruments he played.
Isn’t playing clarinet similar to playing nadaswaram or shenoy .. is shenoy the same as clarinet? When I was younger I thought Mandolin U Srinivas was more of an innovator because he plays/played a totally new genre of music in a new western instrument as opposed to Kadri Gopalnath because he played clarinet which looked similar to nadawaram.
I went to a Kadri/Rudresh joint concert a couple of years ago. While Kadri was unsurprisingly superb, Rudresh sounded a bit cacophonous to my (semi-trained) ears. Even while hearing Rudresh’s NPR interview I couldn’t shake off the feeling that he was trying to do too much with complicated rhythms and math formulas that he kept talking about. I was questioning my own sense of ragam and taalam, until they played a little clip of Kadri’s music during the interview, and it felt like all was good with the world again. Rudresh is good, and sounds like a really nice guy, but has some distance to go before he’s as good as the master.
the inoffensive version of the madrasi joke :). kadri is from the western part of karnataka.
you should also check out prasant radhakrishnan (www.prasantmusic.com). prasant plays carnatic and jazz on the saxophone. he lives in phoenix/oakland and tours extensively in the US—sometimes by himself, sometimes with his band vidya.
the title song linked here would be improvised/self-composed by kadri himself.
Ah, then I must excavate it from the backed-up-from-travel pile. Excellent.
I look forward to seeing women (South Asian and not!) become as successful as men in jazz. I love jazz, but IMHO, it’s quite gendered. Lots of refs to Vijay Iyer, etc here… can anyone name some South Asian women…? Siddhartha? I’d love to know of some. (Fan of Vijay’s for sure.)
18 · sozzler said
Nadhaswaram and shenoy are both double-reeded, whereas the sax and clarinet are single-reeded. My problem with Kadri Gopalnath’s sound is that he takes what I love about a single-reeded instrument (sexy mellowness) and throws them out the window to emulate a nadhaswaram (shrill).
I remember how thrilled I was to get a good subtone, and I can’t understand why anyone with a saxophone wouldn’t want to use one as often as possible.
That said, his substitution of rubber bands for springs in his horn is way cool. I wish I knew enough about mine to be able to do it.
Amardeep, thank you for this post. I checked out the Mahanthappa NPR interview, and then, since he mentioned Kadri Gopalnath, also checked out a 33-part playlisted concert by Gopalnath on youtube. Enjoyed both immensely.
Susheela Raman sounds like someone you may be looking for. Aside, Vijay Iyer went to Bombay Scottish with a dear friend
Thanks for this post, Amardeep! It’s amazing how many awesome desi musicians are creating fusion between western music and Indian classical:)
Sighed Bobby:
MS Subbalakshmi makes me wish I was Tamil. Hey wait, I am Tamil! Anyway, if there is one person I would like to like to grow old like, it would be MS.
21 · V.V. Ganeshananthan said
Yeah, as soon as you get the band back together…
Well some desi musicians, like this saxophonist, who had her own 4-piece jazz fusion band, take up other pursuits like this one
Kadri Gopalnath is IIRC now married to his long time companion, Violin Kanyakumari – who is a v.aggressive Karnatik violinist. Kadri played for many years with a ramshackle instrument. In the early ’80s when he performed with John Handy and the then tiny tot U. Srinivas at Berlin, Handy is said to have given away a couple of saxophones away to Kadri. Playing slow and low on the flute/shehnai/nadasvaram is an awesome challenge and takes years. Kadri does play the low notes v.well, but he is more popular for his high notes. In the meanwhile let’s not forget the other guitar impressario from Madras, Ilayaraja. You can listen to quite a few clips composed by Ilayaraja and rendered by Prasanna on Prasanna’s website.
The movie Duet was released to thin audiences in 1992. The music although chopped and shuffled on the soundtrack, drew decent crowds.
Thanks, umber desi. But I should have been more specific: can someone tell me about a South Asian woman who is active in jazz as an instrumentalist?
Throughout middle and high school——and part of college——I found myself outnumbered by men whenever I played in a jazz group. I never saw another South Asian girl… would love to hear any names of South Asian women pursuing this as a career!
Was not good enough to pursue one myself——but thanks, ptr_vivek. 😉
Saw her on the William Powell website above:
http://www.williamepowell.com/Malathi.html
13 · Bobby said
Which guy would that be, exactly? Not that these things matter too much, but I thought both Mahanthappa and Kadri Gopalnath were/had roots in Karnataka. I thought Mahanthappa said he was from a Kannada-speaking family; Gopalnath is described as being born in Dakshina Kannada district in his wiki. Though there is little doubt that most Carnatic musicians are Tamil; these two don’t appear to be.
In Britain, there’s pianist Zoe Rahman. Amardeep talked about her here.
But you are right Sugi, the jazz world is pretty male-heavy, and it’s not surprising that desi American male artists have surfaced sooner than have desi American women. There are a number of East Asian sisters making it happen in jazz and improvised/creative music, though. Two who come to mind off the top of my head are Korean-American violinist Okkyong Lee (who’s worked with Vijay and Rudresh, btw), and Filipino-American drummer Susie Ibarra, who’s fantastic — check her out.
Oh and Canadian pianist Renee Rosnes is desi (either half or full) but didn’t grow up in the culture (she was adopted by white parents). Really terrific pianist.
There is this pianist as well. Though she is not into jazz.
Despite having a a few years of Carnatic training, I wouldn’t consider myself very educated in music, but I tend to listen to more Indian (including, yes, Bollywood) music than Western music and bands. It’s my personal opinion, but I find that mainstream Western musicians, in general, seem to be scared to experiment with Eastern instruments, mostly sticking with the guitars, pianos, etc., while mainstream Eastern, especially S. Asian, musicians are very comfortable blending the two. One of the few exceptions (and I don’t even know if can really be classified as mainstream) is Bear McCreary.
For me AR Rahman is the man
Pt. Barun Kumar Pal plays an Indianized version of the Hawaiian guitar which he created, the Hansaveena.
What excellent timing! I heard that NPR interview, and had read about Rudresh in the new yorker a few weeks back. I had heard of Vijay Iyer before, and somehow missed Mahanthappa. I bought kinsmen and apti, fantastic stuff! Especially since I learnt carnatic music for 8 years and played in a jazz band in HS and college 🙂 I’ve been waiting for legit “fusion” (oh how I hate that word) — what I really love about Kinsmen is that it is true, and I am fundamentally true, to both traditions. No one’s sacrificing the strengths and virtues of straight-up jazz or carnatic, and yet it works so damn well.
If you haven’t yet, get the albums!
Also, having heard Kadri in concert a few times, it is super, super awesome to see him pick up more publicity in the West. Anyone else out there who’s learnt both carnatic and jazz? If so, you’ll just adore this.
Oh, reviews:
Kinsmen is fantastic. I think it’s more “important” than Apti in the sense that it has Mahanthappa and Gopalnath on the alto sax (sometimes at the same time) dueling, and playing off of each other. I think if you’re someone who’s into jazz (especially of the coltrane variety) it serves as a wonderful bridge to carnatic music, which can be rather esoteric and difficult to appreciate at first listen. Similarly, I’ve passed the cd on to Indian relatives who are carnatic afficianados par excellence, as a way of introducing them to contemporary jazz. I love how they work some ragas in different ways that works really well; Rudresh gets the essence of carnatic and has figured out a nice way of sliding it into a jazz context, and vice versa. This, along with L Subramaniam’s Global Fusion and, of course, Shakti I think rank as some of the best Indian Classical + Jazz/Indonesian Singers/Erhu out there.
Others can probably speak about Apti more, but its quite nifty as well.
Correct me if I am wrong, but AKC Natarajan was far from being the only Carnatic player of the clarinet. The clarinet is not uncommon in Carnatic music and other carnatic musicians play it too, I think.
In any case, an interesting note is that the violin (and I think, the clarinet) crossed over into Carnatic music in the 1700s, at the time of the Carnatic wars between England and France in South India. Locals were recruited into the respective militaries, including musicians to play fife, drum and other band instruments. As it happened, the 1700s were a classical period for Carnatic music, and the great South Indian composers of the time, one of whom actually served in the military, incorporated some of the instruments (again, notably, the violin) into Carnatic music. I can still remember a time when the violin was referred to as the “fiddle” in colloquial Tamil, thus preserving the usage of the word long after it had become extinct in England and America (aside from the nursery rhyme ‘Old King Cole’) 🙂
I’m no jazz afficionado (my fav jazz album is probably Bitches Brew which is almost as much rock as jazz, and Shakti/Mclaughlin stuff of course). I saw Rudresh play with Amir El Saffar (yay free/subsidized culture) and enjoyed it. And I was looking to buy an album of his and from preview listens, I was liking Kinsmen most. Unfortunately it wasn’t available on emusic (the subscription mp3 service that I use that allows you to download a fixed number of mp3s per month).
Then I heard Terri Gross’s interview with Rudresh last week and that incredible excerpt that they played from Kadri’s album. So I was very pleasantly surprised to find a lot of Kadri’s stuff on emusic (and furthermore; at the generous rate of 27 minutes of music on a single mp3s !); and downloaded a track this weekend. It’s great. I have a feeling that I’m going to enjoy Kadri’s more traditional carnatic style more than Rudresh’s “mathy” jazz. But rudresh does seem like a really nice guy.
Another cross-over instrument: the Harmonium of course.
29 · V.V. Ganeshananthan said
VV I wish you had clicked on the link I posted A surprise waits for you.
Looks like there is a bunch of them out there playing saxy Indian style. From youtube
Prasant Radhakrishnan Siddharth AKC. Natarajan
Kadri Gopalnath
Who?
40 · cookiebrown said
hi cookiebrown, I’ve heard passing references to how English military bands influenced Indian music — do you know a good source (other than Google :)) when I can get more info? Thanks!
40 · cookiebrown said
The violin was introduced to Carnatic music in the early 1800’s by Baluswami Dikshitar, brother of the renowned composer Muthuswami Dikshitar. There is no connection to the military at all. Some mudaliar patrons of the Dikshitar brothers lived and worked in the Madras cantonment for the British, and perhaps convinced a British violinist to teach Baluswami. Some of Muthuswami Dikshitar’s compositions (called “English Notes”) show that he heard British millitary band music like “God Save the King” etc.
Kadri is a highly talented artist, glad to see him getting recognition. As a “pure” carnatic musician he is nowhere close to AKC Natarajan or Mandolin Srinivas though – who have truly made their foreign instruments native.
46 · portmanteau said
I can speak for South Indian music.
The “English Notes” are a series of simple compositions (perhaps for practice?) by Muthuswami Dikshitar. There is also a well-known raga invented by Patnam Subramanya Iyer called Kathana Kuthoohalam directly influenced by band music – you can probably find a famous composition called Raghuvamsa Sudha in this raga online.
Beyond that, there was probably indirect influence – probably nadaswaram/thavil players found employment in bands and through that influenced film music. However, in the south (as opposed to Goa etc) I believe the influence is quite limited.
Thanks, rasika. Lovely handle, btw.
rasika, many thanks for the corrections and additional input.
My only source for this information was my grandmother, (born c. 1879) so it is possible the details are incorrect being hearsay or folk history.
On the other hand, it would be intriguing if it actually turned out to be true, (notwithstanding the obvious ideological potential such a historical detail would offer, if you wanted to slantedly Eurocentrize and thus belitte the origins of Carnatic music.)