Maestro Ilayaraaja's Classics With Mandolin U Shrinivas

Mandolin Shrinivas no more. Child prodigy, brought Mandolin to the world map, finest Mandolin player in ages, a talent for the ages. RIP. It is shocking. Just now coming out of denial. Mild grief now.

My humble tribute. 2 tracks I could upload from IR's aforementioned album which had Mandolin Shrinivas playing when he was about 25 yrs.

Shri Shivasutha:



Arul Thavazhum:

Uploaded another krithi from the same album, Eka Dhantham:



Raagam Raaja Lahari, a discovery of Raaja.

Shocked and saddened to hear this news. I went to his concert last fall when he came to our town. Still remember his smiling face as he plays the mandolin. Extra-ordinary talent gone too soon.

Dad's partner's nephew is into marketing CDs of dramas and Carnatic albums. He kinda knew Srinivas. Apparently it was a blood related genetic disorder which led to liver failure and subsequently required a transplant which failed leading to a multi-organ failure.

A full Obituary section from The Hindu. Has all the relevant news:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/obituary-mandolin-u-shrinivas/article6426381.ece?homepage=true

Sad to learn that such a talented musician dies at such young age

Drunkenmunk wrote:Dad's partner's nephew is into marketing CDs of dramas and Carnatic albums. He kinda knew Srinivas. Apparently it was a blood related genetic disorder which led to liver failure and subsequently required a transplant which failed leading to a multi-organ failure.

A full Obituary section from The Hindu. Has all the relevant news:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/obituary-mandolin-u-shrinivas/article6426381.ece?homepage=true

GOD gives and then takes em away..its a sad world of mediocrity when the hope in something greater is provided by such talents only to make us feel even worser when they depart.A rather cruel design..

Thanks for this thread, Munk. A great loss for the Carnatic community in particular and the Indian music fraternity at large. Condolences to his family and hope his students carry the torch forward.

On the Krithis themselves, I have heard them a couple of times before and might have even shared the raaga.com links here before. As Munk and I discussed online,  IR can stake a pretty good claim to being an accomplished Vaagyekaara in his own right. As I also pointed, I still feel it is not fair to compare IR's (or anyone else's) carnatic compositions to the unsurpassed transcendence of Dikshitar's best viz the Kamalamba Navavarna Krithis, but one could make a well-argued case for him being a "Kutti Thyagarajar" as some gifted Carnatic musicians have called him. Dikshitar is, well...simply another level (as far as carnatic music is concerned).

Still unable to digest the news.  By some quirk of fate, I lost one of my chinna paatis also on Thursday only.  In hindsight, I feel glad I went to see him along with Zakir Hussain and McLaughlin when Shakti toured, what, a couple of years back.  Little did I know then that it would be the last time (for me).  

I imagine and hope that he is in a better place somewhere, happy and jamming with the likes of John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix