Its a 'Jazz Car' Baby, Abso'fuckin'lutely....

I need to thank Mr. Big of Sex and the City for the above dialogue. Er..not the whole one, only the abso'fuckin'lutely part. The way he says it sweeps Carrie Bradshaw off her feet and had me and many of my friends hooked on to the series.
Now, before you get any ideas that I am going to turn into a bouquet-carrier for S&C, let me tell you that this blog is intended for three things, two of which are related to Jazz and two of which are related to Carnatic music. That means, if you apply De Morgan's theorem for the intersection of sets, you wil find that there is one element which is common to both jazz and carnatic music. A list follows:
1) Sex and the City: for Jazz (about the sex, well it requires an entire blog..will write about it sometime)
2) Morning Raga: Jazz and Carnatic....(the other pillars of this movie Shabana Azmi, Perizaad Zorabain and the singers Bombay Jayashree, Ranjani Ramakrishnan, Sudha Raghunathan, Kalyani Menon, Gayathri, Nandini Srikar, Suneetha Sarathy, Veena and Rajesh Vaidya deserve volumes and volumes of space for the excellent work that they have put in...)
3) Sangeetha Shivakumar: Carnatic

Morning Raga: A very different film to say the least. But I'll confine my writing to only the soundtrack of the movie because 1) i haven't seen the movie 2) because of this review in the NY Times by Anita gates, where she says, "The screenplay doesn't have a shred of subtlety. The strange man who talks to his cow, apparently intended as comic relief, isn't very funny. But the performances of Carnatic music, Southern India's classical form, are heaven"...check out the full review at
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/18/movies/18raga.html?ex=1142658000&en=c21aaedc59dc060a&ei=5083&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes

The songs are trendsetters in the carnatic-jazz-rock remix field. Listen to these songs guys. They are available at http://www.raaga.com/channels/hindi/movie/H000765.html
Each song has a unique characteristic. But the underlying theme is fusion. Songs like 'Thaye Yashoda' sung by Sudha Raghunathan and Ranjani Ramakrishnan; 'Mathe' by Sudha Raghunathan and Kalyani Menon; 'Saamaja varagamana' by Gayathri; 'Alaap Jam' by Nandini Srikar; 'Mahaganapathim' by Bombay Jayashree are mindblowing. Apart from this there are instrumentals like 'City Interlude', 'The Chase' and 'Charminar'. The use of Jazz in 'City Interlude' and 'Mahaganapathim Jam' are just awesome. read more about Jazz at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz

Sangeeta Shivakumar: This lady is a revelation in the field of Carnatic music. Her rich voice mesmerises you. She renders even the difficult Ragas with consummate ease. A pity that I haven't atended even a single concert of hers ,my friend Malavika scores over me in this aspect; but as far as listening to her voice on CD goes, i guess the scoreline is in my favour.

Sex and the City: This show is not only about sex, nor is it only about New York City. Its also about Jazz...The subtle use of jazz makes each and every scene a treat to behold (which in any case it is..he he he)

Have always wondered, what is it that makes jazz and cities gel so much together? classical music certainly cannot capture the entire essence of a city..nor can rock.....lets take an example of carnatic music, rock and bangalore. while carnatic may capture the essence of some areas like malleshwaram, rajajinagar jayanagar or basavangudi (grudgingly giving some credit to the home of the rival of MES college (the place where I studied for my 12th), National College); it certainly cannot capture the spirit of Koramangala or MG Road. on the other hand, rock and roll, techno, trance will capture the essence of these areas but fail miserably when it comes to malleshwaram and sutta mutta (as a community on orkut goes)....'sutta mutta' translates to in and around
But jazz....aah..jazz is different..it incorporates the naughtiness, soberity, rebelliousness, modernity, ancientness and most importantly the cultural composite of a city. thats the beauty of jazz....
would certainly like to hear about this from you guys.....

Let me conclude this post with a list of some of the best musical voices that I have heard among my friends/relatives/acquaintances/people i have just seen once....please note that the serial number is just that..a serial number..not a rank
Male:
1) Nagachetan: this chubby disciplinarian was a schoolmate upto 12th....wonderful voice, very particular about the technique and the rules of music
2) Vasu: my colleague at my music class. we have given a couple of performances together. unfortunately he is no more...
3) Mahadevan: my cousin..he's now in the US and is still continuing full time with music. amazing voice..
4) Shakeel: the lead singer of my college rock band
5) The Unknown Singer from CREC: This chap sang 'My Sharona' and 'Highway Star' during Incident in KREC in 2002.....
6) Noel Fernandes: the Pink Floyd expert
7) Keshav Desai: every list needs a rebel in it...though not a singer in the conventional sense, Kesh managed to sing well if u judge him solely by the interest that he shows and the effort that he puts in

Female: this is going to be tough..I may be accused of favouritism..but I steel myself against criticism and barbed comments...he he he
1) Ranjani: my friend from school....guess shes out of touch now, but when in form she was the musical 'Sourav Ganguly' of our school...Dravid's dialogue about Ganguly "On the offside, there is God first, then there is Ganguly" would turn into "On the music scene of SPHS, theres Ranjani first, then the rest"....
2) Shwetha Keshav: If Ranjani is Ganguly, this lady must be the Rahul Dravid of SPHS music....technically superb....
3) Sreedevi: my senior....undoubtedly The Javed Miandad....very good at singing..but i brand her as Miandad for all the games hours that she has made me miss for music practice....but thanks all the same for all the prizes that we won together.....
4) Malavika: She was with me in KREC..her rendition of 'Chaiyya Chaiyya' had all of us guys floored...wonder why she never performed in a musical show after that....
5) Melissa: this female was in Nitte when I was in KREC...she sang a Roxette number 'Sleeping in my car'.....anyone who can sing that certainly has talent..