TranSwaras, a band led by Puducherry-based musician P. V. Bose, has won a silver medal at the Global Music Awards 2019 for its Carnatic-jazz fusion composition.
The UK-based jury, featuring Grammy and Emmy award-winning artists, listened to entries across diverse genres and picked TranSwaras’ version of ‘Anyayamu Seyakura’, a Thyagaraja kriti, for being one of those songs with the “ability to transcend, to make the listener experience something that is new and compelling.”
Besides the prize in the world fusion category for their debut album, the band’s frontman P. V. Bose also won the best vocalist award.
The jury for the event featured the likes of Grammy winners Ricky Kej (composer) and Darlene Koldenhoven (soprano) and Emmy awardee Charles Denler (composer).
“Presenting a legacy Carnatic kriti in a modern orchestral ensemble was a challenge. We had to balance out all the instruments and also ensure that there was no dilution of the bhakti-rich vocal core,” said Mr. Bose, Carnatic vocalist, playback singer and a senior faculty member at Bharathiar Palkalaikoodam, a graduate college of performing and fine arts in Puducherry.
Mr. Bose formed TranSwaras in October last year, along with violinist and music programmer Shaju Vaadiyil, who hails from the family of legendary Malayalam music composer M.S. Baburaj, and a bunch of like-minded friends.
On the choice of this particular composition in Kaapi raga, Mr. Bose pointed out that this was one of the relatively rarer gems from the range of kritis composed by Thyagaraja, who, along with Shyama Shastri and Muthuswami Dikshitar are revered as the Trinity of Carnatic music. It was driven by his intent to share the greatness of Carnatic music on a global platform.
‘Great encouragement’
“It is always a great encouragement for independent artists to be appreciated by distinguished peers of the industry and by a renowned body such as Global Music Awards,” Mr. Bose said.
The Global Music Awards does not factor in the size of fan base, popularity or level of record sales. “The market does not inform our musical choices. Global Music Awards is a merit-based competition. We judge and curate based on creativity and quality of musical craft,” the official website noted. As a bonus, select Global Music Award-winning artists are featured in Billboard charts and on Musical America's Artist Showcase.
The production was directed by Ajay Govind, shot by Tanweer Ahmed and edited by Krishnaprasad K. Graphics designer Akshay Madan added translation of the lyrics on-screen to convey the poignant meaning of the song—a cry for help to Lord Rama.
The other members are Rajeesh Rajgopal (keyboards), Abin Sagar (guitars), Sasi Krishna (bass guitar), Aadhi Swaroop (flute), Ramkrishnan Bagadara (tabla and ganjira), Narayan Prakash (mridangam) and Tanuj (drums). Notes of the ektara, musical instrument of the Bauls, and piano are also used in the production.
Dream come true
Forming a band to push boundaries in music was a dream come true for Mr. Bose, who started learning classical music under the tutelage of Kunnamkulam David Bhagavatar from the early age of 12. He has also learnt under T.N. Krishnan, Leela Omcherry and T.R. Subramaniam.