SAXOPHONE MAESTRO KADRI GOPALNATH

From Sampath’s Desk:

 

  

SAXOPHONE MAESTRO

 KADRI GOPALNATH

(8 Dec.1949-11 Oct.2019)

 

Very few would have tamed and exploited up to the hilt what were essentially western stringed musical instruments to be used in Indian music, especially the Carnatic and Hindustani classical with marked success. Undoubtedly, the legendary Saxophone maestro Kadri Gopalnath was one among them. 

Kadri Gopalnath was born in Sajeepa Mooda village in the Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada in the year 1949. His first music teacher was his father.

From a very young age, he was interested in music. His passion and ardour made him opt for a Saxophone and played it with a flair of his own. By dint of hard work and practice, he became a renowned musician and recorded with a lot of big labels. He recorded Southern Brothers with jazz flutist James Newton. He had another production called 'East-West'. As the name suggests, the album was a fusion between Western and Indian music. The album took six months to complete which had compositions from music giants like Beethoven and Tyagaraja.

There have been instances where Indian music stalwarts had showcased their skills and given euphonious renditions, making their humble beginning from their native environs (mostly rural) to scale new peaks and horizons of the music sky. KG was a virtuoso and a wizard who forayed into unchartered avenues of music with his stringed instrument and ushered what is fundamentally a western musical concept into India's traditional genres and successfully popularized it much to the amusement and amazement of music lovers.

He is also known for his work in the Tamil film 'Duet'. The film's music was composed by AR Rahman and all the songs had impressive saxophone music in the backdrop which were all composed by Gopalnath.

 

After a decades-long music journey, he passed away on 11.9.2019. The Saxophone that danced to KG’s tunes and produced scintillating, sparkling, and splendid renditions throughout now lies in a corner silently weeping because it would no longer get his nuanced touches, adroit handling, and dexterous maneuvering to generate melodious stringed music that hitherto treated his music lovers to a rare genre of musical extravaganza transporting them to a pinnacle of joy. 

 

If today, Saxophone, primarily a western musical instrument, generally considered unsuitable for Carnatic music, has become part of the Indian music especially as a ‘Mangala Vaadya’ (auspicious music) being played at temple festivals and Indian weddings along with the traditional ‘Nadaswaram’, the full credit goes to him!

  

Awards and accolades just poured in - Padma Shri, Kendriya Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Karnataka Kalashree, an honorary doctorate from Bangalore University, etc. He played at the Jazz Festival in Prague, the Berlin Jazz Festival, the Intervention Cervanino Festival in Mexico, the Music Hall Festival in Paris, the BBC Promenade Concert in 1994 in London, and the concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, to mention some.

His departure sounded a jarring note and dealt a severe blow to the music world leaving the hearts of scores of music lovers heavy and grief-stricken, and their lips silently mourning with ‘Muhari raga’.

 

His was a long, wonderful, illustrious, and inspiring musical journey that began in his boyhood till he breathed his last; obviously, it was an inevitable success story. He is surely an inspiration for all music beginners and novices, more so to upcoming avid and ardent musicians.

 

KG earned accolades for daring to be different by innovatively transfiguring with ease a basically western musical instrument, the Saxophone, into classical Carnatic styles producing mind-pleasing varieties and numbers, for pioneering it (by a musician ever), and also for being an exponent of rare ragas from his stringed instrument. He could extract the best out of his instrument.  Handling the Saxophone, he made the listeners feel differently exuberant and exciting. His astounding performances took his audiences to a mesmerizing plane leaving them breathless at times. He converted the next to impossible into a possibility.

 

A music cognoscenti, he was considered the ‘Pithamaha’ of effective use of the stringed instrument to produce any type of sounds to suit any music discipline.

 

For many musicians and their audiences, music represents a curious, intense, and honest search, which is what is supposed to translate into a kind of palpable equanimity, confronted with the risibility of daily life and its myriad conflicts. Otherwise, deploying music to evoke instant peace merely sounds daffy. That this musical legend could do it with marked ease, comfort and success was a matter of gratification to music lovers throughout the world. 

 

He struck the right chord and gauged the feelings, pulses, and expectations of the audience while playing on his mesmerizing instrument. He however never defied tradition nor made any mockery, even while making innovative initiatives with his singing instrument. He had a sharp artistic acumen, capacity for mellifluous presentation, and a natural flair to sustain aural interest. 

 

His renditions have immortalized him. Although he is no more, his music performances available in soft forms will continue to waft through the air and entertain the music lovers scompensating for lack of his physical presence amidst us. The treasured moments of his stringed instrument performances will always be cherished by music lovers for all the time to come.

R.SAMPATH

12/9/2019