root salad f20 Aruna Sairam
She’s life changing on an up-there-with-Nusrat level, reckons Ken Hunt, and he’s the expert!
They were sharing their life experiences. And in the middle they were bursting into a song or a dance. For me, the borders between music, work, discipline, play, life, everything diffused and became one enjoy- able fantasy, dream-like situation.”
She pauses. “It may sound clichéd but my mother was my first inspiration because I think she – and my dad who supported her all the way – would do things like wake me in the morning at four and make me sing. But I never felt the strain of it. She had a way of getting you disciplined without real- ly being harsh. I think that’s a great skill to have. You’ve got to be really something to do stuff like that. I would be singing at seven in the morning before going to school. I’d come back at three and sing again. At seven I’d be singing again. But I also had a lot of playing time: it wasn’t just work, work, work. When I look back at my childhood I don’t remember work. I only remember play. She got me to do a lot of things without me ever feeling stress. I think the credit goes to my parents to hav- ing created that kind of beautiful bubble around me. So that’s my first inspiration.”
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runa Sairam is a one-in-a-genera- tion musician. In terms of passion, fire and heightened otherness, she is within the uppermost eche- lons of life-changing vocalists. That compa- ny includes, for me, the Czech violin-voice virtuoso Iva Bittová, the Azerbaijani art and bardic music vocalist Alim Qasimov and the Iranian classical singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian. To breathe the names of the dead, her artistry also rivals the Pak- istani qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and is a whisker away from to the Karnatic singer MS Subbulakshmi. Aruna Sairam is that spectacular.
An expressway to her music is a 16th Century composition by Oothukkadu Venkata Subba Iyer. Kalinga Nartana is in a rhythmical song form called thillana and is set in the south Indian ragam Gambhira Nattai. It adds a new dimension to rockin’ in rhythm. It is likely to be quite unlike any- thing you’ve heard from the south. It defies expectations. The song’s subject matter con- cerns a confrontation in the River Yamuna between the many-headed naga or serpent being, king Kalinga and the Boy Krishna. The wondrous boy defeats Kalinga (else-
where Kaliya) by dancing on his heads. To experience the song’s sheer rhythmicality and dynamic twists and turns search YouTube. It is a tour-de-force that tran- scends linguistic and musical traditions. When Kirsty Young calls for me to appear on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Kalinga Nartana is one of my eight.
Aruna Sairam was born in Bombay in October 1952. Of Tamil stock, she was the second child born to Sethuraman and Rajalakshmi Sairam. (“I have a brother and he, too, loves music like crazy. I ended up becoming a practising musician and my brother is a practising audience.”) Their father was an official on the world’s largest railway network. Both parents were fasci- nated by music. Their small, 650 square foot apartment in Bombay rang with music. Many notables enjoyed the family’s hospi- tality as they passed through the city. Among them were vocalists from both Indi- an classical traditions such as Amir Khan, Madurai Mani Iyer and MS Subbulakshmi.
“Our home provided a welcome to so many great musicians. When they came it was all work and play mixed together. They were joking around. They were talking.
ny potential new historical or con- temporary compositions have to meet a set of criteria. “Any piece when I explore it as new material, my first acid test is, does it move me when I hear that piece or think of that piece? It should set me alive and make me all perked up and on fire. If that happens to me, I think eight out of ten times that can hap- pen to the audience when I present it. Every time I’ve tried to analyse why I like a certain piece, I’ve always found that alche- my of lyrics versus melody has to be proper- ly balanced. Only then does that piece appeal to me.”
Another major and abiding influence is
MS Subbulakshmi. “She deeply inspires me,” she says. “I remember her, of course, for her great music but for something beyond that. Every time I heard her it made me feel a sense of joy beyond the details of the musicality of her expression.”
In September 2016 the Shanmukhanan- da Sangeetha Sabha in Mumbai awarded her with the prestigious Bharat Ratna Dr MS Subbulakshmi Centenary Commemora- tion Special Award. (The Bharat Ratna bit is India’s highest civilian decoration conferred for contributions to the nation’s culture and life.) Hand on heart, Aruna Sairam is the worthiest of successors to the Queen of Melody. She is the sound of surprise.
arunasairam.org F
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