Miles to go…

Photo: R. Ravindran

revelling in ragas U. Shrinivas

Boys are said to be mama’s pets. But, mandolin wizard U. Shrinivas seems to be papa’s boy. Nana (dad in Telugu) rushes to locate the car keys, puts the mandolin back into its case, fondly watches as his shy son poses f or the camera and serves him glasses of chilled water. “My father [Satyanarayana was a mandolin player too] didn’t want me to pursue music. He would say ‘I don’t want you to struggle like me.’ It was only at the insistence of his friends that he started teaching me. But once he realised how passionate I was, he’s been always around. Amma too,” says Shrinivas, who, at 40, still exudes a boyish charm.

Up next on Shrinivas’ calendar is the prestigious ‘Miles Davis from India’ show with prominent ex-Davis team men at the Montreal Jazz Festival on July 4. In the album “Miles from India” released last year, Shrinivas played a track with John McLaughlin, the jazz fusion guitarist, who played for Miles Davis.

“Davis is the Semmangudi [Srinivasa Iyer] of jazz,” says an unassuming Shrinivas. About the India angle to the international concert, and he says: “I am told Davis had a fondness for Indian music and used the tabla in some of his records. His experiments with cross-cultural sounds paved the way for many modern collaborative works.” And, it is through several such musical exchanges that Shrinivas struck a chord with audiences worldwide. Ironically, the mandolin is a Western instrument, which he adapted to play Carnatic music. In 1998, he was the youngest musician to receive a Padma Shri.

He was just 13 when he performed at the Berlin Jazzfest. At the Olympic Arts Festival in Barcelona, he had to prolong his concert following the demand for an encore from the audience. Joining “Remember Shakti,” a brainchild of John McLaughlin and Ustad Zakir Hussain, was another milestone.

“I was thrilled when Johnji made me a part of his musical adventures.” “I remember Vikku sir playing the Shakti [Vikku Vinayakram was part of the Shakti band] record on our way back from kutcheris. Amazed by the power-packed music, I would ask him if one needs to eat a special diet for it.”

An enviable bond with national and international music maestros apart, the melody of Shrinivas’s mandolin has held several celebrity-listeners in thrall. The popular British musician Sting was so taken in by Shrinivas’s music that he commented: “I am jealous of you, I want to kill you.” Steven Spielberg came in asking for an autograph — only Spielberg fan Shrinivas could not recognise him! He still rues the loss of a momentous photo-op! Back home, late Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran once saw Shrinivas perform on TV and immediately called the Doordarshan office for his telephone number. “I had no phone connection then. He sent his secretary home. He wanted me to play at a government function. I apologised that I had already committed for a concert that day and he postponed the function for my sake.”

A hardcore Carnatic musician , how does the young maestro maintain his identity when part of multi-genre global ensembles? “Through understanding and experience,” he says. “You should have the maturity to identify a common ground and work around it. Right from childhood [he went up on stage at age six] I have performed with Carnatic stalwarts and strove hard to match up to their skills. Believe me, it gave me the confidence to take on creative challenges,” says Shrinivas, who astonishes you with his new-found sense of humour and articulation.

“It’s the fusion-effect,” he jokes, but adds on a serious note: “I don’t like forced change. I just let things happen. To me, only the mandolin matters. But that does not mean I don’t have dreams.” And, what are the dreams? To record an album with a full-fledged symphony orchestra and to build a Shrinivas Institute of World Music in Chennai.

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