Three musical streams blended into a river of melody, delighting those who walked into the open-air auditorium at Spaces, Besant Nagar, recently. In a rare outing, the audience was treated to a two-hour-long concert of Sufi, choir singing and namasankirtanam — all on one stage — underlining how music transcends faith.
The concert was the first in a series of cultural events that will culminate in the Urur Olcott Kuppam Vizha – an annual festival of music and dance held at Elliot’s beach.
Tamil Sufi music: “We have been singing for 50 years,” said Abdul Ghani (67), the senior artist of the Nagore Trio. The other two are Haja Maideen (48) and Mohammad Mursa (43). It’s a family tradition for the three. The 300 songs they have memorised are mostly by Vaalidasan and Gunangudi Masthan Sahib. “Ours are gnana-padalgal in Tamizh with a sprinkling of Arabic/Urdu words.” On stage, they sat with their pagadis, beat the dayeras (dapsu/tambourine) and called out to Allah for peace on earth.
The Loyola Choir: “It is a floating crowd represented today by three girls and five boys,” said Shiromi, a trained singer of the group, introducing Eremias (keyboard), Geo Joseph (guitar), Anand (tabla) and vocalists Albina Jerome, Velentina, Jesanth, Paul and Joseph.
Members are regular choristers at evening mass in college. . Their repertoire includes songs in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, English and Hindi.
Namasankirtanam: This group’s baani follows the format of the Dakshina Desa Sampradayam.
Like a lot of children, the bhajan mandali comprising Karthik Gnaneshwar, Nagarajan (harmonium), Ganapathyraman (mridangam), Srivatsan, Manikantan, Sankara Subramaniam, Hari (vocal support) grew up in homes where chanting was a daily routine.
The quiet melody accompanied by the harmonium gave way to chants of ‘Vittala Vittala’, ‘Jai jai Ram’, ‘Krishna Hari’ that were inviting and pulled the audience into a vortex of repetitive lyric and beat. When the jangle of cymbals and thumping of the mridangam came to a close, a voice called out, “You took us all to Pandaripuram.”
