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K.j yesudas
K.J Yesudas: The "Gandharva" who came to Earth
By: sivakumar
K.J.Yesudas
(Kadassery Joseph Yesudas) is a living legend in the history of Indian
Classical music. No other musician or no other voice can be compared
with this exceptional singer. He has the rare talent of singing 16
songs fluently and mellifluously in four different languages in a
single day. Through K. J. Yesudas' 50,000 songs, Indian music got
transported to another sublime level for common man's perception.
Born on January
10, 1940 at Fort Kochi as the son of Augustine Joseph and Elizabeth
Joseph, the child Yesudas started to sing as soon as he started
babbling the first words. His father was his first 'guru' in music and
he joined the Music Academy in Thrippunithura and won a gold medal for
music at a local competition in Fort Kochi at age seven. Yesudas'
divine music was trained under Chembai Vaidynatha Bhagavatar till he
became 34 years old.K. J Yesudas also trained in Hindusthani music and
combined Carnatic and Hindusthani style in almost all his songs.
Salil Choudhury
discovered K.J. Yesudas' talent and brought him into playback singing.
K J yesudas got a proper nurture for his talent from Ravindra jain and
sang 40,000 songsfor Malayalm films alone. Apart from Malayalam songs
he sung for Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya,
Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tulu, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English
films through his long career. His concert always attracted large
audience and in his music concerts at Middle East he performs Arabic
songs in Carnatic style.
K.J Yesudas is the only
singer who has the title Asthana Gayaka( Official Singer) of Kerala
State. The greatful nation remembered to award him rightly when the
Presidential awards for 1973 came. He was awarded with Padmashree award
on that year and again awarded with Padma Bhusan award on 2002. The
long list of awards attained by K.J Yesudas cannot be condensed to a
smaal article. However he is the only singer who got 50 awards only for
his playback singing.
K.J.Yesudas and his wife
Prabha have three sons Vinod, Vijay and Vishal. The family resides in
Chennai and Florida. His son Vijay who got married to Darshana is an
upcoming singer in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu. The family
believes in Sri Narayana Guru's principle "One caste, one religion and
one God for all humans". However there is a lifetime lifetime music
concert that still remain unfullfilled in this great legendary singer's
mind. He wants to present his songs in front of Lord Krishna at
Guruvayoor temple that has been denied to him by temple authorities due
to his birth as a Christian. We can wish that earth born Gandharva can
fulfill his greatest his desire through the transcending power of
music.
The Classical Nightingale-Bombay Jayashri
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