The Mar 8, 08 spicmacay/ ggs jam(s) (What are these?) took place at ICEC upstairs, meditation room:

7 adults participated including one grandparent visiting from India; Jam Moderator was Meera Sitharam

***Session 2 (set pieces+ lecdems):
Please go to karnATik website to get any of the below lyrics (nearly 2500 lyrics) and also go to really good audio archive by Shivkumar Kalyanaraman which include his and others' renditions of many pieces

---Varnams in Vasantha, Mohanam, -- by Vinata, Prasanna, Aniruddh, Deepak (vocal) -- Vinata's mom corrected us when we went wrong; and Meera (veena)

--Gopika manoharam (Mohanam, Adi, Dikshitar) --by Prasanna

--Yogeendra Shayinam (Kuntalavarali, Misrachapu, Swathi Tirunal?) - by Vinata

--Sketched other Kuntalavaralis (Malemanivanna, SaraSara samari, etc.)

***Session 3 (Improv + other):

--Raga identification We went through 3 Lalgudi Thillana ragams (and played them): Mohana Kalyani, Behag, Desh

--Sketched others in Desh (Thunbam nergayil, etc.)

---Break with tea and snacks courtesy UF SG

--listened to Muddy waters (Chess album from the 60's), Mark Whitfield jazz guitar

--Veena blues sketch (Meera)

Other Topics discussed :
-- The approach to improvisation in traditional Jazz is based on chord progressions, so even in a single melodic line, say on a guitar, there are big interval jumps, and travelling between strings, which takes a little getting used to. But listening carefully, one can detect the continual shruthi bedam (shifting tonic within same sequence of notes, hence changing scale) and modulation (shifting tonic, but keeping scale same, so different but harmonizing sequence of notes).