Yesudas and Seven Notes….

Golden Jubilee of the Golden Voice.

A Glorious Career...

Yesudas started on this pilgrimage of music from Cochin Harbour Terminus at Willingdon Island. It was in the year 1961, now 50 years passed; the Golden Jubilee year of the Golden Voice. He was on his way to Madras (present day Chennai) by train, to try his destiny. He was 21 years old, deprived and sick. A benevolent taxi driver named Mathai who dropped him to railway station shared the only money he had; with Yesudas. It was 16 Rupees and the cost of ticket to Madras was 11 Rupees. 

He landed in Madras in the early hours of next day. His stomach was empty but his heart was full of music. The perilous and penniless journey made him sick, he was suffering with typhoid. He was laid up and due to that he lost the only chance for which he came to Madras. Five months passed without any chance. The trials and tribulations he was undergoing during the time shaped him for the future. Always his strength was his love for music and that gave him enough energy to go ahead. 

 M.B.Sreenivasan(Music Director)

End of the period of agony appeared as a chance to sing. The song so recorded at Bharani Studio started with “Jaathi bhedam Matha dwesham…” the meaningful lines of a great soul Sree Narayana Guru, who strived for removing the caste complexes and other social malpractices of the society he was born in. The lines hinted at a casteless and religion less land. The film was “Kaalppadukal”, the composer of music was legendary M.B.Sreenivasan, better known as MBS and the year was 1961, the day being the 14th of November. . 

The meaning of the verse is given here…
Devoid of dividing walls of Caste
Or hatred of rival faith,
We all live here
In Brotherhood,
Such, know this place to be!
This Model Foundation!

The song was okayed in the first take itself. The young singer is the biggest contribution by Mr.MBS to the world of music. When MBS sought the opinion of the sound engineer Mr. Koteeswara Rao about the young singer his remark was legendary. He said “Patthu varsham mudinju pakkalaam” means not to worry for the next ten years. Ten years have passed five times since Rao’s prescription or prediction and the century turned 21. Still we see the singer active in the world of singing, listening to his melodies everyday. 

Kattasseri Joseph Yesudas (KJY) was born in Fort Kochi, into a Catholic family, to Augustine Joseph and Alicekutty. His father, who was a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor, was his first guru. Later he joined the R.L.V. Music Academy in Thrippunithura and underwent training. Later he studied in Sree Swati Thirunal music college, Thiruvananthapuram under the training of Late Semmangudy Sreenivasa Ayyer.But he could not complete his studies due to financial constrains. For a brief period, he was with Sri Vechur Hari Hara Subramania Iyer, after which he took advanced training from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar. 

Chembai Bhagavathar

KJY still gratefully remembers the kindness shown by Semmangudi who allowed him to occupy his car shed at Trivandrum near Swati Tirunal Academy so that he could save on expenses for lodging, dispelling the exaggerations of those with vested interests about untouchability. But KJY still had to fill his stomach with the water from the public taps which was fortunately available in plenty in Trivandrum City and the water was potable with no contaminations. KJY recently pitied the present state of affairs when water is found in the numerous potholes on the roads and no potable water in the taps. Chembai launched him into the Classical music world by encouraging KJY to come to the forefront and sing out aloud. Most of the popular classical numbers sung by KJY owe a lot to the training given to him by Chembai.

                                                                       

Mr. Augustine Joseph (Father)>   

                        

The highly religious way he was brought up by his parents has really moulded KJY into a great man. The humbleness and God fearing nature he imbibed helped him to scale heights. His father used to insist that every evening all members of the family have to sit together and pray. KJY was made to read out the Bible aloud during such sessions ensuring that his pronunciation was perfect. These sessions really helped him in acquiring the best control over pronunciations, an essential element of music.

                               

He never allowed his religious rituals to be restricted to any one religion alone. While he visits the churches whenever he gets the opportunity and time he visits important mosques and temples. He visits every year without fail the Holy Temple of Mookambika  near Udippi on his birthdays paying his respect to Goddess Saraswathi , who is believed to have blessed him with celestial musical talent as she does to all the artistes and  scholars. He visits the hill shrine at Sabarimala, duly observing the 41 day “Vratam” (fasting). All these have invited the choicest blessings of the Almighty on him making him “Gana Gandharvan”(Celestial Singer). Harivarasanam, a devotional song composed by Sri Kambakkudi Kulathur Srinivasa Iyer, recited before closing the temple at Sabarimala was sung by Yesudas. Though there have been many different renditions of this song by many different renowned singers, Sabarimala officially uses K. J. Yesudas' voice for Harivarasanam every day.

With his rich vibrant voice and a ringing tone, Yesudas’ music had a direct appeal to his listeners. Special mention must also be made of Yesudas’ total mastery over his voice, achieved from rigorous practice of the techniques of rendition. To Yesudas, the main factors that contributed to the development of a musical personality were the intuition of the musician, his sound knowledge of ragas and swaras and firm control of sruti and laya and the capacity to evolve an individual style of expression suited to one's voice and aptitude and ideas distilled through the variegated experience behind him.

He is the only singer who has been accorded the title Asthana Gayakan (Official singer) of Kerala State. He has been awarded the Padma Shri in 1975 and Padma Bhushan in 2002. In 1970, he was nominated to head the Sangeetha Nataka Academy of Kerala and was being the youngest person ever to occupy that post. In 1971, Yesudas with his musical troupe travelled all over Kerala to raise funds for the Indian Prime Minister's National Defense Fund during the Indo-Pakistani War. He also became Senate member in the International Parliament for Safety and Peace.  On November 14, 1999, Yesudas was presented with an honorary award by UNESCO for "Outstanding Achievements in Music and Peace" at the "Music for Peace" event in Paris, a concert held to mark the dawn of the new millennium and whose attendees included artistes such as Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Montserrat Caballé, and Zubin Mehta.The number of music awards he has won so far remains an unparalleled record. Seven National Awards, 24 Kerala State Government Awards, Awards of Karanataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh State Governments, Sangeeth Natak Academy etc etc are a few among the many. Yesudas has recorded over 50000 songs covering various languages of India and foreign ones like Arabic, English, Malay, Russian except may be Kashmiri, Konkani & Assamese.

After winning the Kerala State Award for Best Playback singer on numerous occasions, he asked that he be ruled out of contention so that to give his peers and newcomers a chance of winning. Despite his request, he was still awarded this award multiple times. He also has helped other singers to come up as play back singers. It happened as playback singer Unni Menon, who was singing track songs for other prominent singers, got a break when Yesudas, after hearing the track songs Unni Menon had sung for the Malayalam film Kadathu, asked the music director Shyam to record and release the songs as they were. Yesudas was of the opinion that the songs did not need to be rendered by him, as Unni Menon had already done it well and there was no need for improvement.

Acting with Adoor Bhasi in the film

Kayamkulam Kochunni

He has also tried his hand at Music direction and acted in a few films. He has sung under the music directions of all the composers and lyricists. Many of them say that when the singer is KJY, they feel like giving their best into their compositions. The branch of “Devotional Music’ covering all religions is said to have grown to the present extent mainly because of KJY. Earlier we had M.S. Subbulakshmi and our P.Leela who had rendered popular devotional albums. KJY made this a wide spread field with his sweet numbers.

In 1980 Yesudas established the Tharangani Studio at Trivandrum. In 1992 the office and studio were moved to Chennai, Tamil Nadu and the company was incorporated in the US in 1998. Tharangni Studio and Tharangni Records became a recording center in Kerala which, for the first time, brought out audio cassettes of Malayalam film songs in stereo. The record company also had a voice mixing studio in Studio27, Chennai. The studio continues to produce and present events of Yesudas both for film and Indian classical music concerts throughout the world.

 With Devarajan Master and Vylar Ramavarma

On this 50 th year of his musical career let us felicitate this septuagenarian for his simplicity, humbleness and contributions to the world of music. He is really a golden Gift of the God to mankind and music lovers. Let us also thankfully remember Koteeswara Rao and M.B. Sreenivasan along with composers like, Baburaj, Salil Chaudhury, Devarajan, Raghavan, Chidambaranath, Dakshinamoorthy,Ravindra Jain, Bappi Lahiri and good lyrics given by-Vayalar, ONV Kurup, Sreekumaran Thampy,P.Bhaskaran etc . When he came in to the film world the scene was dominated by greats like Kamukara Purushothaman, Udayabhanu, AM Raja and PB Sreenivas. We must also thank them for not playing dirty politics to deny him the right chances but whole heartedly encouraged him. With so much of accolades showered upon him, if KJ Yesudas still remains at the top as a popular and respected singer, it is only due to his humble beginning amidst poverty, God fearing upbringing by his blessed parents and hard work. His wife Prabha and sons Vijay, Vinod and Vishal also share his views and outlook on life.

 With his Family

Let us all bow our heads at the greatness and simplicity of this Great man and pray for many more years of golden voice and musical life to him. The younger generation can definitely emulate him in leading a purposeful but humble life. “Koti Koti Pranam” to the Almighty for blessing us with this genius and his seven notes.

Free Media Journal Contributor-

Mr. Vinayachandran is a singer and  music enthusiast. He is a senior official of State Bank of India Contact-vinchand59@gmail.com

Posted in: By S. Vinayachandran