Vinayak Hegde

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.

Nokia had a free touch the tune concert at Palace Grounds featuring the Raghu Dixit Project, Karsh Kale and MIDIval Punditz. On Friday, I got a chance to meet Raghu Dixit and Gaurav Vaz from the Raghu Dixit project at Cafe Coffee Day.

After getting passes from them, I inadvertently blurted out that I was looking forward to hearing Karsh Kale (who is one of my favourite artists). Raghu heard that comment and then started pulling my leg. I also met Swaroop and Varun from Ionlabs who are also fans of the Raghu Dixit Project. After a dinner with Swaroop and Varun at the Sigma mall (Moti Mahal in Sigma Hall has really good ‘Butter Chicken’), I left for home.

Next day, I reached the venue early and had a chat with some people from the RAVE magazine in London. I also met Kalyan at the venue who was also photographing the concert. The crowds started coming in at about 8pm and the concert started a bit late with Raghu Dxit project being the opening act. I had access to the stage and backstage. They played some of their hits such as ‘Hey Bhagwan’ , ‘Mysore se Aayi’ , ‘Khidki’ and ‘Gudgudiya’. Raghu was his witty self and had the crowd on their feet within no time with people requesting their favourite songs and singing along.

They were followed by Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale who were playing together for the first time in Bangalore. They played some of their hits such as ‘Milan’ , ‘Ali’ and ‘Bhangra Fever’ amongst others. The last song played was ‘Banao’. It was a funny song which chronicles the making of a rolling of ganja (cocaine) for a smoke. It is an unreleased song but is available for download as an bootleg mp3 on the web according to the MIDIval Punditz singer.

After the concert I was got to talk to Karsh Kale and Midival Punditz back stage. I was able to show him the photos of him taken during the concert. It was great to meetup with him. I have been listening to his music for more than 3-4 years and it was dream come true.

More here

During medieval times, Jaisalmer was a stop on the camel routes across the Thar desert. After independence, Jaisalmer gained strategic importance being in the middle of the Thar Desert and close to the border of Pakistan. This “unknown musician” was playing on the banks of the Gadisar Lake (‘Sar’ is lake in Marwari and is derived from ‘Sarovar’ in Sanskrit) in Jaisalmer, playing mellifluous music on his Dotaar. The Do-taar – literally “two-stringed” is a cousin of the Sarangi.

More technical details about the photo at my photoblog (click on Image Info).

I really like the lyrics of an Emmylou Harris song titled “Born to Run”.

Born to Run

Well I never did crawl and I never did toe that line
No man is a master to me I ain’t that kind
I just put on my traveling shoes
If you wanna win you just can’t lose the time
Or stay behind
Well I was born to run
To get ahead of the rest
And all that I wanted was to be the best
Just to feel free and be someone
I was born to be fast I was born to run

Well I take the chances sometimes I’ve made mistakes
But you don’t get nothing unless you take the breaks
Living as dangerous as dynamite
Sure makes you feel nervous but it makes you feel alright
Makes you feel alright
Well I was born to run
To get ahead of the rest
And all that I wanted was to be the best
Just to feel free and be someone
I was born to be fast I was born to run

Nobody’s gonna make me do things their way
By the time you figure it out it’s yesterday
Well it comes to he who waits I’m told
But I don’t need it when I’m old and gray
Yea I want it today
Well I was born to run
To get ahead of the rest
And all that I wanted was to be the best
Just to feel free and be someone
I was born to be fast I was born to run

If you listen to a lot of music like me, you should install Lyrics Plugin It is available for Winamp and Windows media player both.