Jathi - Unusual conversations

Raja had the opportunity to set to music several songs that had a dance background. Jathis are part of the dance tradition and Raja has considered it as another musical instrument, in my view. He has used them as part of his interludes, charanams and sometimes as part of his pallavis too.

Let’s explore Raja using jathi in C&R mode in this post. The segments are from the song Ther Kondu from Ennakkul Oruvan (Tamil 1984).

1. In the first 5 seconds, the call is by the jathi voice and the response is by the mirudhangam. Very routine in the dance circuit
2. Between 15 and 20 seconds, the call is by the flute and the response is by the jathi voice. Now, Raja takes standard practice from the dance circuit and replaces it with his own creativity
3. In the third segment after 27 seconds, Raja further embellishes this with the call from the violin and the response is by the jathi voice.

Let’s hear the sample of Raja’s unusual jathi based conversations ...