Vinayak Hegde

I am back to blogging after a hiatus of nearly a year. I recently went to the Big Junction Jam festival after reading about on NH7. (NH7 is a fantastic site if you like indie music and is a great place to find the latest gigs.)

Big Junction Jam was a good fest with more than 25 bands playing from morning to late night. The list of bands that played on Day 1 included Evergreen, Old School Rebels, Bourbon Street, Joos, Mad Orange Fireworks, Black Sun, Indian Blues, Khalihann, Pralayh, Live Banned, Indigraffiti, Paradigm Shift, Bridge, Agam, Parvaaz and Beat Gurus. The list of bands that played on Day 2 were Dark Desolation, Amethyst, The Renegades, Verses, Corrode, Mechanix, Audi-o-file, Heretic, Jekyll and Hyde, Brahmm, Flee, Chronic Blues Circus, Blakc, Kryptos, Ministry of Blues, Sulk Station and DJ Vishnu.
There were several good and talented bands and the light and sound system was fabulous. Unfortunately the event was not very well marketed and attendance was thin. On the flipside, that was good as few photographers including me got stage access and could get good photos in the brilliant lighting. In this gig, I experimented a lot with the square format, B&W post processing and triptychs. Below are few samples of the three formats. Click on the photos to make them bigger. You can see the complete set on flickr at Big Junction Jam Festival 2011 slideshow.

Square format is fairly uncommon in photography but in this cases it looked apt like CD covers.

Recently London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) – Renga Ensemble performed with Karnataka College of Percussion Quartet (KCP4) at the Chowdiah Hall in Malleswaram. The pieces played were a fantastic blend of Western Classical and Carnatic music. The last three pieces played were the finest (“17th Cross”, “Bangalore” and “Guru”). This was also the first time I heard the instruments – The Basoon and the Double Bass. The beautiful compositions got a standing ovation from the crowd (twice). Sadly their music is not available on a CD. Otherwise I would buy it in a jiffy. Leave a comment if it is not so.

Last weekend I went to the Fireflies festival of Music. Fireflies festival was relatively less known underground indie festival on the outskirts of Bangalore but has become popular over the years. This years edition had several good bands crossing various genres and covering everything from traditional and experimental sounds of Kerala to sufi inspired hymns to Lounge Piranha’s alternative grunge and Low Rhyderz Reggae and Hiphop.

I reached a little late around 7pm and stayed through the night through till the last two acts. All the acts were very good and the variety was staggering. The only downside was the time taken to setup the stage and occasional problems with the sound setup.

Esperanto Soul Fusion

With Geeta Navale on the Veena, the esperanto project had some funky psychedelic sounds combined with Carnatic music.

HFT Jazz

Shabnam Virmani rendtion of “Kabir ke dohe”

Shabnam Virmani – Filmmaker-turned-singer regaled the audience with her soulful rendition of couplets of Kabir. She explained the meaning of the couplets before singing them. Her performance got a fantastic response from the audience.

Hulivesa

Definitely the highlight if the evening was Huilvesa – a traditional dance from coastal Karnataka. Hulivesa (Loose Tulu translation “In the form of a tiger”) is performed by young males typically aged between 5 years to 10 years are painted with yellow and black stripes like tiger adorning tiger masks and other props. The kids dance to a familiar drumbeat and perform various acts such as eating a coconut and doing acrobatic acts.

Lounge Piranha

Lounge Piranha are a post-rock alternative grunge band. They performed several songs from their released (and upcoming) albums. They played some good guitar riffs. The lead singer had a wry sense of humour and kept making jibes at “world music”.

Qawwali – Bharat Sargam and group

The Qawwali troupe got the audience on their feet by playing some popular songs such as “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom” and “Mast Kalandar”. There was almost a mini riot when the audience wanted to play one more song but the organisers wouldn’t relent and let them play the request.

Vayali – Traditional Kerala songs and experimental bamboo orchestra

Vayali started with an experimental bamboo orchestra in which all the instruments (mainly percussion) were made of Bamboo. They ended their performance with traditional Kerala songs.

Low Rhyderz

Low Rhyderz is a Hip-Hop/Reggae band. Probably the least interesting on all the performances, they were not able to engage the audiences like the other artistes. They were high on style but disappointingly low on entertainment.

Yamini is a annual Dusk-to-Dawn Cultural Festival at IIM Bangalore. Last year, I went to Yamini and it was a fantastic experience. It is conveniently scheduled on the eve of 26th January. Yamini 2010 continued till the wee hours of dawn and featured perfomances from :

• Carnatic Vocals by Nityashree Mahadevan
• Veena performances by Vidushi Gayathri
• Kathak Performance by Shambhavi Vaze (and troupe)
• Hindustani Vocals by Anand Bhate (from the Kirana Gharana)

Some of the strains of earlier songs performed by Veena Gayathri reminded me of the early blues and distortion guitar (One of the songs performed eerily reminded me of Jimi Hendrix’s guitaring). Anand Bhate’s hindustani vocal was the standout performance and had the audience begging for more. The performance continued well into the morning as Anand Bhate sang the Rag Malkauns, kannada bhajans and marathi abhangs. His was one of the best voices I have heard in a long time and the amount of control and range he had was amazing. The performances were co-ordinated by SPIC-MACAY IIM Bangalore sub-chapter.

Some of the photos from the Kathak Performances by Shambhavi Vaze and group are posted below. The complete set on flickr .

Yamini is a annual Dusk-to-Dawn Cultural Festival at IIM Bangalore. This year Yamini 2009 featured perfomances from :

• Carnatic Vocals by Sisters Ranjani and Gayatri
• Violin Performances by Mysore Nagaraj and Dr. Manjunath (popularly known as the Mysore brothers)
• Bharatnatyam Performance by Urmila Sathyanarayanan (see pictures below)
• Flute by the reknown Pandit Ronu Majumdar (The best perfomance of the night has the audience begging for more)

The perfomances were co-ordinated by SPIC-MACAY IIM Bangalore sub-chapter. More pictures here.