The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Blending classical with modern

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Saturday, Jun 27, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Blending classical with modern

V. Geetanath

Singer-cum-musician releases third fusion album
Songs of second album released on the Internet

-Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

Making music: Uday Shankar composes music in Hyderabad.

HYDERABAD: After Annamayya and Ramadasu, can Tyagaraja can be far behind? Uday Shankar, once a top manager in a software giant, who chucked the corporate world to dive headlong into fusing traditional Indian music with notes from modern times, has just released his third fusion album ‘Fusion Tyagaraja’.

That Uday has travelled quite some musical distance is apparent from the fact that noted music label ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ has decided to release the album in all music stores down South. “As I had resolved, it is part of my effort to give a new flavour to the traditional music without diluting the divinity associated with it to reach a larger audience,” he says.

The singer-cum-musician firmly believes that while a significant section swears by rock music or gets inundated with film songs, they too look for “calmness and serenity of our traditional music”. His belief in fusion music was further strengthened when his second album, ‘Fusion Ramadasu’, got a “tremendous response”.

All the seven songs of the album were released on the Internet and were made available for free download. “We got as many as 4,000 hits on the website www.humma.com and they were also made available in all other noted music websites,” he explains. It also got him the ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ offer even while he was already into the Tyagaraja album.

Uday ( info@fusionmusicians.com; 9849041841), whose first album after quitting an 18-year corporate career was ‘Fusion Annamayya’ in 2007, is at peace with himself and his music. Though he sings and plays more than one instrument, he is learning Hindustani music from a teacher besides continuously using the Internet to enrich his musical repertoire.

“My technical background helps me in my quest to search and blend traditional music. And, unlike the earlier two albums I did not take too much liberty with ‘ragas’ this time because Tyagaraja is Father of Carnatic music,” he avers. His fellow singers Pranavi, Gayatri, Sunil, Meera and Chakri, assisted him in the vocals.

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