Tavil Nadasvaram Group Madras – Music from South India (CD2090)

The sound of South India’s temples and festivals, live on stage in Germany. The Tavil Nadasvaram Group from Madras(today’s Chennai) plays the traditional periya melam ensemble music of Tamil Nadu. There are two nadasvaramplayers, T.G. Palaniswamy and T.N. Jayaraman, and two tavil drummers, K.P. Ramu and S.V. Vazrapani. The concert was recorded live on August 1, 1981 in Hannover.

The nadasvaram is a long double-reed wind instrument with a large flared bell. It’s a relative of the North Indian shehnai, but much longer and louder. It’s considered one of the loudest non-brass acoustic instruments in the world. The tavil is a barrel-shaped drum carved from jackfruit wood. One head is played with the fingers, protected by hard thumb caps, and the other with a short, thick stick. Together they create music of enormous power: long, ornamented melodic lines over complex, driving rhythms.

The CD moves between full ensemble pieces, nadasvaram and tavil solos, and two spectacular tavil duos, one lasting more than 19 minutes, where the two drummers trade rhythmic patterns at breathtaking speed. More than an hour of live music. Released on Moers Music. When you buy here, you’re buying directly from the label, and we only sell originals.

The Side Story

In South India, nadasvaram and tavil are much more than instruments. Their sound is considered auspicious, and no Hindu wedding and hardly any temple festival in Tamil Nadu happens without them. The tavil is especially linked to the ancient city of Thanjavur, where most of the drums are still made today.

Early European visitors didn’t know what to make of this music. Travellers in the 19th century described the sound as wild and even “hideous” to European ears. For millions of South Indians, though, the same music stands for blessing and majesty. This concert shows how much had changed by 1981. Moers Music, a label from the free jazz scene, presented this temple music for European listeners who were discovering it as one of the great rhythmic traditions of the world.

South Indian percussion also appears on another Moers release: on Percussion Summit (CD2056), Carnatic percussionists meet jazz drummers like Ed Thigpen and Okay Temiz.

Tracklist

1. Nadasvaram Ensemble – 11:55

2. Tavil Solo – 1:20

3. Nadasvaram Solo – 7:33

4. Tavil Duo – 19:08

5. Ensemble – 3:51

6. Ensemble – 7:26

7. Tavil Solo – 1:19

8. Ensemble – 3:42

9. Tavil Duo – 5:19

Total running time: approx. 62 minutes

Personnel

• T.G. Palaniswamy – nadasvaram

• T.N. Jayaraman – nadasvaram

• K.P. Ramu – tavil

• S.V. Vazrapani – tavil

Details

• Format: CD

• Label: Moers Music

• Catalog no.: CD2090

• Recorded: Live, August 1, 1981, Hannover, Germany

• Price: €14.00