CD/Cassette Reviews

[Oldposts]

Sowmya albums (I got these while in India last month - don't know if they're new releases): Try the Marga Music Festival 2 tape HMV release of her live concert at the Krishna Gana Sabha in 1996. The Aruna Sayeeram album in this series is good too. Also, Sowmya's chinnanjiru kiliye, bharathiyar songs, and kavadi chindu albums on AVM. The Marga album has a very nice nekkurugi (papanasam sivan/abhogi). chinnanjiru kiliye is an all-tamil album in the traditional mode (i.e. - no orchestration), but there's not a lot of scope for elaboration ( 10 songs in 60 min). I liked kaanavenum laksham kangal seetha devi than kaalukku nigaraamo pengal by arunachala kavirayar on side A. Haven't listened to side B yet. The bharathiyar songs album has several standards like theeraatha vilayattu pillai, aasai mugam maranthu poche as well as some unusual ones like munnai ilankai, kaalaa unnai, ninnai chila varangal. Haven't tried this either. The kavadi chindu album is a must buy - arunachala reddiyaar's melodies as well as others like azhagu deivamaaga nindru, kaalamaam vanathil, and thedi unnai charan adainthen desa muthumaari. I also got a AVM Classic Series album titled Classical vocal Sowmya which has her singing kanden kanden (vasantha, arunachala kavirayar), vaa velava (sivaranjani, S ramanathan). As you can tell by now I'm partial to albums with multiple tamil songs in them That's b'cos I can understand only tamil and sanskrit and some malayalam. BTW, there is a video CD called nadhopasana with a bharathiyar song concert (15/16 songs) acc. to an interview she gave to Sun TV's vanakkam thamizhagam program around Pongal.