Vadakanchery Ulsavam (Festival)

Some of you know the middle V in my name stands for Vadakanchery (pronounced Vud-uh-kun-jay-ree), the village in Kerala from where my father grew up (my mother's from the nearby town, and district capital, called Palghat).

Every year, on the day after Dussehra, there's a big festival (Ulsavam) in Vadakanchery, with a procession of elephants and a traditional Kerala musical ensemble called Pancha Vadyam. Gracie, my sister Shyamala, and I were in Vadakanchery last October for the festival, and this video was recorded then (Oct 3, 2006). I made this edited version from that footage.

The procession starts at the temple at the top of the Gramam (Tamil Brahmin village) in Vadakanchery, stops in front of my aunt's house (where this video ends), and then continues on to the second village temple, at the bottom of the hill.

Dussehra, also called Vijaya Dasami in Tamil, is one of India's two major Hindu festivals. The day afterwards is called Eka Dasi, or the "eleventh day after the new moon."

Pancha Vadyam (or "five instruments") is one of Kerala's great folk art forms, called Pancha Vadyam. Featuring three different types of drum, horns, and the conch shell (and the bells that are common in Hindu religious music), it really shows off the great syncopated rhythms of south Indian music.

The video is below, or you can view it on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNuv79As1QY

Nobody In Mind

This is a version of the song by the great blues "shouter" Big Joe Turner (vocals) and Pete Johnson (piano). It's a simple 8-bar blues, but a hard song to get worked out and play with the right groove to it. This is getting close.

The lyrics are kind of strange at the end, but it's a cool song as long as one doesn't take the lyrics too seriously.

Swami

Georgia On My Mind - Updated

It's taken a long time to work out this arrangement of the Hoagy Carmichael song (based on Ray Charles' chord changes). Coming up with an arrangement that worked for solo piano and vocal was hard, but fun. I like this result. Lemme know what you think.

I posted a rehearsal of this earlier, last year. This is much more polished. Still not quite done, as you can see :)

Swami