Karnataka’s piano accordion player has a musical story to tell

SHIVAMOGGA: Go back to the 1960s, and people of that era may remember legendary Raj Kapoor carrying a bulky instrument in the Hindi film Sangam and crooning the song ‘Har dil jo pyar karega’. Piano accordions were used in the Indian film music between 1950 and 1970.
In namma Karnataka, you have perhaps Karnataka’s only piano accordion player who has carved a niche for himself. “Electrical musical instruments create sounds, natural instruments create ‘nadas’ or melodious sounds, opines piano accordion player H B Jayaram Achar.

Natural instruments are man-made but do not rely on any electronic additions when played. Such instruments are rarely used in the musical world nowadays and Achar is one of the artistes who is wildly popular. He has been passionate about playing several instruments from his young days, Jayaram trained to play the violin in Carnatic classical style, while also picking up the harmonium, taught to him by his father Bheemachar, a native of Shivamogga. Jayaram eventually moved to Bengaluru.

“I started working in a private company as an accountant and moved up the career ladder and retired as regional manager after around 35 years. But I never gave up any opportunity to be part of the music world. I started playing for some orchestra groups in Bengaluru in the late 1970s and do so even today,” says Jayaram. He plays piano accordion for all the major singers and troupes in Bengaluru.

On his instrument of choice, he says, “The accordion is similar to the harmonium but the way it is carried (on the shoulders), makes for a different feeling of joy. “It was first heard in the composition ‘Gore Gore O Banke Chore’ from Samadhi (1951) and was scored by C Ramachandra.  The melodious sound coupled with the heart-touching lyrics inspired me to play the instrument,” says Jayaram.

Between the 1950s and the 1970s, the instrument was quite popular. “Even in the early 1980s we have some songs like - Anhoni ko honi kar de.. and Sheesha Ho Ya Dil Ho and recently in  Hum Saath Saath Hain, where Alok Nath plays it in the song ‘Yeh toh sach hai ke bhagwan hai..’, he says.

To his credit, Jayaram has performed for Ilayaraja whenever the music maestro plays in Karnataka. He has also worked on several songs in the Kannada film industry as well, playing with Vijayabhaskar, Rajan-Nagendra and others. However, Jayaram also works with upcoming artistes and has accompanied many like Shamita Malnad, Jogi Sunitha, Archana Udupa and even classical vocalists like Sangeeta Katti Kulkarni.

“On many music platforms, I have given solo performances too. Above all, the piano accordion medley is a must wherever I accompany the artistes”, he says with a touch of pride. Jayaram also plans to teach at sometime in the future. “Scheduled programmes hardly give me the time to teach currently,” he says.
Talking about his magic with the piano accordion, noted Hindustani vocalist Sangeeta Katti Kulkarni says, “He is a very composed instrumentalist who has the calibre of playing both piano accordion as well as the keyboard. I prefer him to be in my team whenever we present film songs. I love to see him playing.”