Oct 27th Jam 3:30-7:30 pm

This spicmacay/ ggs jam (What are these?) was held at ICEC upstairs, meditation room:
Overall 10 adults and 1 child participated. The attendance was less than usual. One regular participant, Ranga, had out of town visitors and I think Mathura/Krishna were in Jax.
But we had a long and satisfying meeting, with some new faces, including a visiting parent from India.
Another new development: We had short, pleasant break in the middle for masala chai and biscuits from taste of india, courtesy UF student govt.

Jam Agenda and Moderator:

As usual, Meera Sitharam moderated the jam.

We followed the Jam format. Since Meera's veena string broke and tools were unavailable, Meera was forced to sing which meant some necessary changes had to be made to the agenda. For example, the planned Ghana ragam demonstration had to be postponed to the next time. Also, since Ranga didn't show, his Deva Deva Kalayamite got postponed. Deepak did not bring his Flute, which meant we did not hear his planned piece.
But, there was a new participant, Divya(??), who filled in and sang a few pieces nicely.

***Session 1 (for children ):
Didn't go too well since there was only Anousha she was uncharacteristically reluctant, but both she and Kavina joined in the adult sessions, see below
--Vandemeenakshi, Shankarabharanm, Ekatalam -- sung by Anousha
--Very short swara recognition exercise went tolerably well.
-- Simple improv on Ragam Shankarabharanam and 4-beat Talam was cut short; but 3-5 and 3-3-2 splits of 8 were discussed, and these came up again later during Session 2.

***Session 2 (set pieces+ lecdems + not in the order sung):

-- Anousha was requested to sing two pieces she knows in Thilang, and while she slowly got into the mood, we proceded with a sketch of the jeeva swaras for Thilang, and since it has 2 different nishadhams (on the way up and down) we could demonstrate how they could legally be used. (This was when the veena string broke).
-- Shree ganesha charanam - Thilang, Adi, Papanasam Sivan -- sung by Divya(??), occassionally accompanied by Meera, Anousha.
-- We mentioned composers' signatures
-- Ramakrishnaru - Thilang, Adi, Purandhara -- sung by Anousha, occassionally accompanied by Meera.
-- Appears that Thilang is a hindustani ragam, but still there are plenty of compositions in carnatic music, including a varnam, and ofcourse a lalgudi thillana.
-- Varnam in Bhairavi -- Ata thalam (14 beats), Veenai kuppaiyar, sung by Ganga and Meera
-- Gopika Manoharam - Mohanam - Adi - Dikshitar -- sung by Prasanna
-- We briefly mentioned how there is an internal "layam" to all pieces even without the external Talam. The Talam, Jathi and the Arambippu or Eduppu can all be found out from the lyric, from the way the syllables are distributed and where the strong syllables are. We mentioned how the "thattu's" in various Talams (for example, 1st, 5th, 7th beats in Adi talam) help with the lyric's and the musician's internal layam.
-- A Tamil kriti in Aboghi, Adi (I forget the composition) --led by Krithika
-- Again, a 3-5 split came up as an mudippu during one of the Krithika's sangathis. This slight, common, syncopation (as opposed to a 4-4 split) gives is not just more interesting, it gives a better grip on the layam.
-- Palvadiyum mugam, Nataikurinji, Adi -- led by Sendhil
-- Shrichakraraja (senjuruti, punnagavarali, nadanamakriya, sindubhairavi), Ragamalike, Adi --led by Prasanna
--We briefly mentioned that nataikurinji, senjuruti, punnagavarali were all probably very old ragas or thamizh pans predating the carnatic classification by several centuries.
--We also mentioned a book compiled by anthropologists of very old folksongs from the kolli hills (transcribing a purely oral and dying continuous tradition from the time of Valvil Ori Mannan from at least the 7th century AD). Only very few of these are sung outside: kutrala kuravanji, pachaimalai pavazhamalai, typically as dance songs.

Session 3 Surprise sketches (some of these interspersed Session 2)

-- Kurai ondrum illai -- ragamalika(sivaranjani, kapi, sindhubhairavi) - adi was sung by everyone
--Vishweshwara (Meera Bhajan) in Sindhu Bhairavi was sung/hummed.
--Yaman/Yamuna Kalyani were discussed, including the use of the saadarana madhyamam as anu-swaram. They appear to be identical to the hindustani ragas by the same name. Krishna ni Begane Baro was sung/hummed by everyone. We decided it was not purandara dasar, since it did not have his signature. I just looked it up, the composer is Vyaasaraya
-- Sri ranga pura vihara in Brindavana saranga, Rupakam, Dikshitar -- was partially sung by Meera on request by a visiting parent from India.
--Differences (lots) of Yaman to Behag/Hamir Kalyani were sketched; hamir kalyani prayogams were hummed, along with "thoomanimaadathu" andal thiruppavai.
--Dhanashri swathi tirunal thillana -- sung by Anousha, Kavina, Meera
-- A few widely different janya ragams of Karaharapriya were mentioned
--The discussion continued in the parking lot about the wide differences between reethigowla and ananda bhairavi -- reiterating how scales do not determine ragas at all, how the jeeva swarams and swara prayogams are the important part.

Other Topics to discussed: -- MSB auditorium for the Dec 1 Vaijayanthi Gopinath Baithak: need to ask them when they will let us know for sure.
--Apparently the Bellydance group from Gainesville is holding an event with Bhangra music in it -- at ICEC. Sometime in November.