Style, performing technique and reposefulness… everything about Bombay Jayashri's concert was exceptional. The special bond between insight and introspection ensured for her the ideal of sangita's classicism. This endowment gave a cultured stature to her exposition.
If a smooth rippling flow constitutes performing enchantment, Jayasri is a repository of it. Her gentle, elegant voice blended seamlessly with melodic harmony, creating an amicable aura.
She struck a balance between a general appeal to the non-connoisseur and sublimating the riches for the musical elites.
These aspects were the focus that guided her to expressional excellence. The ebb and flow of the rhythm took care of aesthetic subtleties. In alapanas, her tonal manipulation gracefully grafted the nestling passages that accounted for the ragas' poetic face.
The presentation was impressive, but what mattered more was the sensitivity it carried. Unerringly Jayashri sensed the rakti whereabouts and conferred enriching articulation on them. It was her music's attractive feature.
Sankarabharanam was the crest jewel in the recital. In the raga vinyasa, Jayashri captured the scintillating moments throwing light on its many morchana folds. The initial movements opened an arc of the raga's radiance. Its mood inhabited her manodharma to bring it to beauty's door step.
Jayashri capitalised on its ecstatic profile. The haunting charm that enveloped the sancharas was where her mind was located. In every such passage there was Sankarabharanam's euphoria. Progressing on picturesque familiarity the effect was reflective and deep. She used silences between sancharas and cadences in the tara sthayi to make the raga a rhapsody of sound. The monumental kirtana, ‘Swara Raga Sudha,' scored with streamlined compactness, the swara-bhava gracefulness of sahitya enunciation giving it a pearly profile.
The diction and majestic structure were well grasped and it resonated with her internalised interpretative brilliance. The raga and the kirtana with niraval were full of classical echoes.
Jayashri's mellifluous philosophy was evident in the other items: ‘Mundu Venuka' (Durbar), ‘Anuragamuleni' (Saraswati with an alapana) and ‘Lekana Ninnu' (Asaveri).
At her hands they attained alluring depth. Jayasri's delectable programme evoked admiration as well as envy.
Embar Kannan was the violin accompanist who easily read the vocalist's mind. He savoured her music to lift his solo versions displaying exceptional playing, geared towards enjoyment. His support was versatile.
The laya team - Arun Prakash (mridangam) and K.V. Gopalakrishnan (ganjira) - provided quality patterns during the song session. The thani was comfortably developed.
