Semamngudi nostalgia on his birth centenary birthday
My tribute to vocal maestro Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer on his 100th Birth centenary. The first thought that came to my mind is that had I been born a day earlier, I would have had the privilege of sharing my birthday with this great maestro. People (musicians /his students/ critics ) have written a lot about this doyen of music who also earned the name Pita Maha of Carnatic music as he had a long innings of 70 + years as a performing artiste and lived to a ripe old age of 96. So I won't delve on these aspects. I felt that the best way of paying tribute to SSI on his birthday was by listening to a concert of his as he he will leave on for ever in the form of his music. I chose a vintage concert of his in which he is accompanied by Lalgudi G Jayaraman and Vellore Ramabhadran. I had picked this concert album released by Carnatica at the Rama Navami Festival at Fort High school ground music this year. It includes a lot of songs which SSI made famous and which one will always associate...