In 2006 I had gone on a concert tour of North America with Nagai Muralidharan (Violin), Guruvayur Dorai (Mrudangam) & Neyveli Venkatesh (Khanjira). It was a memorable tour filled with music, fun and learning. The seniors made Venkatesh and me feel so one with them. Nagai Muralidharan always encouraged me to pick up songs from various sources. He had such a vast experience of accompanying so many different artistes. He would sing and show snatches from the music of many legends. Once he was humming Nijagadasa in Sindhu Bhairavi that was a huge BMK favorite, and I was immediately hooked. I hastily wrote down the lyrics and learnt up the song. Interestingly Nagai had forgotten the tune a bit but Dorai mama was quick to help out, having accompanied Dr BMK so many times in the past. For many years I always started this song as ‘Nijagadasa’ until I finally heard the BMK version a couple of years back. I went through the lyrics once more and realized certain differences including beginning the song as ‘Kuru yadunandana’ which I decided to adopt. When I sang this in a concert a couple of years back, Rahul who had played the tambura remarked ‘this sounds like a new song entirely!’ My guru always believed that musicians should not be afraid to refine and revise their renditions, if it made sense to sing the same that way. This is a natural process that polishes the musicians’ sense of aesthetics and skill sets. This image is from my diary when I first noted down the lyrics. I still use a lot of pen and paper!
Kuruyadu nandana – Sindhu bhairavi – Jayadeva Ashtapadi https://youtu.be/gnb8X3B-0S0
