Tribute

   

KARAIKKUDI JAYARAMAN

   

Karaikkudi Jayaraman, son of another great mridangist, Karaikkudi Krishnamurthy, was one of the prominent young mridangists of Carnatic music. He served as a staff artiste of All India Radio for nearly a decade and was also a mridangist in demand. It was indeed very unfortunate that he passed away on February 23rd, 2001 of cancer of the spinal cord at the young age of 37. Carnatica's correspondent spoke to a few of his colleagues and co-musicians about this mridangist, who was always a picture of bright cheer.

   
Mannargudi Easwaran, senior mridangist and a staff artiste of the All India Radio, Chennai:

'He was a very nice chap, friendly, jovial, efficient, had no enemies, and was liked by one and all. Nobody knew that he was suffering from any ailment. His death is really a great loss."

Meera Sivaramakrishnan, violinist and a staff artiste of the All India Radio, Chennai:

'He was a very good friend of mine. He was the one who motivated me and Usha (Rajagopalan) to play Violin duets. He has played for me and my mother Radha very many times. Basically a very nice man who was liked by everyone. He has played mridangam for many great artistes like Maharajapuram Santanam, M L Vasantakumari, Mani Krishanaswamy and others. He went to South Africa to play for Mani Krishnaswamy in 1999. His demise is a great loss for everyone in AIR,  both in terms of a human being and an artiste."

Ramesh, mridangist, disciple of Karaikkudi Mani and a staff artiste of the All India Radio, Chennai:

"He was a very nice person who was highly impressed by Karaikudi Mani's style of playing Mridangam. He desperately wanted to learn from him and started following his style. He came here from Delhi just to become a disciple of Karaikudi Mani in '85 - '86. While in Delhi, he accompanied many great artists. He joined All India Radio, Tiruchi in '90 - '91 and got transfered to Chennai in '92. Till his death he was an A-graded artiste. He had been suffering from cancer for about a year and was on treatment. But he did not want to expose himself as a cancer patient, as he feared it would spoil his career. He was the son of Karaikudi Krishnamurthy who was also his guru initially."

   

Tribute home

   

themehome.jpg (1315 bytes)