Finding Dhwani in Junk Cycle Parts

Children singing rhymes, youngsters crooning Chancey Illa to the tune of old ads, and jugalbandi between a table and drum — sounds fun right?
Finding Dhwani in Junk Cycle Parts

CHENNAI: Children singing rhymes, youngsters crooning Chancey Illa to the tune of old advertisements, and jugalbandi between a table and drum — sounds fun right?

Dhwani concert organised by Jus Fusion, an initiative by Jus Drums School of Percussion, saw all this and more at Vani Mahal recently. Over 600 people from all age groups — from a two-year-old to an 88-year-old — were seen at the event.

On the first day of the 13th annual celebration of Jus Drums, the fusion was led by A K Palanivel on tabla, Muralikrishnan on drums, Sivaramakrishnan on the sitar, Raghavendra Rao on the violin and Varun Ramakrishna on the keyboard. The jugalbandi beats between Palanivel and Murali received a thunderous cheer from the audience. “He  (Palanivel) played really complicated rhythms and I repeated those challenging beats on the drums,” said Murali, who is also the founder of Jus Drums.

Many popular compostitions like strotamala, a combination of many devotional songs, and new ones on sitar and violin were played at the event.

While the first day saw a lot of soulful music, the second saw a display of new talent. Around 70 students between the age of six and 63 performed at Dhwani. Kids aged six and seven played a few rhymes on the drums and the older ones played Anirudh’s Chancey illa, and Ilayaraja’s and A R Rahman’s music such as Maasi Maasam, Innum Ennai and Mersalayiten.The audience sang along with the artistes and the auditorium rang with energy.

The performers also paid tribute to veteran musician M S Viswanathan with Bollywood retro songs Mehbooba and Laila O Laila. Villu Paatu from Uthama Villian was also performed as a tribute to director K Balachander.

About creating music using cycle parts, Murali said, “We chose cycle parts for music because we wanted to promote the use of cycles. They are pollution free vehicles and help keep one fit. Frames of cycles, handle bars, pedals and wheels were used,” he said.

With just an hour of practice for four days, Murali and his team brought alive a new composition of junk music.

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