Aavakai

Movie Anand - Kahin door

2009-03-13T14:38:00.001-07:00

List of Janya Raagas

2009-02-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

Amazing list of Janya ragas (based on Melakartha ragas). This serves as a good reference for those who are learning Carnatic music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Janya_Ragas

Mamma Mia! & ABBA

2009-02-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

I have been listening to my Abba Gold collection these days. Felt so nostalgic of their hook-laden pop tunes after watching ‘Mamma Mia’ over the weekend.

The movie is average at best to a bore. Meryl Streep was awesome…I loved her as always. Was pleasantly surprised to see her dance moves.

Movie is theatrical but didn’t succeed in keeping the interest going. I absolutely loved the songs and took a 2 hr vicarious vacation in the picture perfect Greek island (which is highlighted too well with the overused color filters in the camera). And the best part, my 3 yr old didn’t disturb as us she was too engrossed herself in the music & dance.

If you haven’t listened to your Abba hits in a while, I recommend you to dust off the covers & turn up the volume in the car. I am sure you will love it (or re-love it?).

My favorites: Dancing Queen, Money Money Money, Voulez-Vous!

I love the combination of melody & disco in their music.

Audio Blog

2008-09-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

Guys,

I have finally started the audio blog I had been trying to talk the band members into...;). This is the link to my blog:
http://swararaagam.blogspot.com.
Please do pay a visit and leave your valuable feedback. I hope to see others also start their online blogs soon. Vamsi, when are you uploading nuvvena for everyone to hear?..

Sirivennela Seetharama Shastry in Aavakai’s Sirijallu – A LIVE lyrical/musical extravaganza

2008-08-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday, August 9th 2008, Hayward, CA

It was another calm evening with the Sun giving way to the bright white moon waking up from its day’s slumber. It was a familiar sight of people gathering and walking into an auditorium to witness a cultural program in the Silicon Valley. But what set Sirijallu apart was realized by everyone in just a few minutes, soon after the curtains rose at 6:00 PM on Saturday, August 9 2008.

Audience was welcomed to a near perfect rendering of ’Vidhaata Talapuna’ from the movie “Sirivennela”. Before people could settle for the next song, there was a pleasant surprise on the stage. It was not a dream. It was for real. A hero for 70 million Telugu people, his lyrics mesmerize the young and the old alike. A thinker, philosopher and a social reformer, he is more than a mere movie lyricist. He is none other than Sri Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry. He seldom adorns any regular stage or awards functions. But he chose the platform created by “Aavakai” that day.

When “Aavakai”, a live music band formed by young minds in the Silicon Valley, approached Sirivennela for a live show in the USA, it didn’t take long for him to accept wherein he turned down many such invitations in the past from organizations across the globe. It was Aavakai’s seed of thought about doing a show on Sirivennela’s songs and highlighting the message in his lyrics that struck a chord with him. He strongly believed that if one can make the youth think right, it will trigger a positive change in the society.

True to his reputation, Sirivennela set the stage on fire, while “Aavakai” tried to match by bringing out the true message in his songs with near perfect musical delivery. The band selected 15 of his gems based on a variety of moods. Tiny tots Poojitha, Anusha, Eshika and Archit endeared the audience with ‘Adagalani undi oka doubt ni’ from Little Soldiers, which innocently describes the contrasting simplicity and depth in a child’s question. Ovation came as no-surprise when ‘Kansas’Raja and Dr. Swathi rendered the Nandi-award winning song, ‘Andela Ravamidi’, that was accompanied by a classical dance performance conveying the joy of a dancer as she lets her soul soar. While the audience grew nostalgic as they were taken down the memory lane to their college days with Botany paatham, singers Narayana & Vamsi struck a chord with them as they sang youthful, inspirational and energetic songs like ‘Chalo re Chalo’ from Jalsa and ‘Enthavaraku endukoraku’ from Gamyam.

Melodious renditions of Sirivennela’s recent hits like ‘Evaraina choosuntara’ from Anukokunda oka roju and ‘Nuvvostanante nenoddontana’ from Varsham, by singers Bharathi and Padmini wooed the young and the old alike. Rendition of ‘Bhadram be careful’ by singer & founder, Surya, brought a fond chuckle to both the married and yet-to-be-married men. The band performed many other hits of Sirivennela including a medley of his lyrical chartbusters like ‘Tooneega Toonega’, ‘Anaganaga akasam undi’, ‘Kotta ga rekkolochena’, ‘Chandrullo unde kundelu’ amongst other songs. The full-throated rendition of the singers was matched with impeccable orchestration by Surya Vakkalanka, Kishmu, Narayana on the keyboards, Krishna on the bass guitar, Hymanand & Krishna on the tabla,Arun & Mohan on the drums/pads, and Ashwin on the flute.
The band brought out the immaculate synergy between Sirivennela’s passionate speeches and his melodious songs.

Contrary to the expectation of the ordinary audience, Sirivennela didn’t talk about movies or movie songs on that day, rather, he spoke about the larger message behind them – the message that every individual in the society needs to give a serious thought to and embrace with unconditional acceptance. His lyrics are not mere words to tunes; they are sheer magic laced with profound message. That’s why they never slip into oblivion. They are timeless. The audience got to see the thinker behind him, the passion and conviction he has, and the philosophy he conveys.

“Aavakai” beaconed a new ear in presenting music shows with a purpose. Each song delivered by them, touched the core of everyone in the theatre that evening. In Sirivennela’s own words, “Aavakai” band truly represented all the efforts it takes to prepare “Aavakai” pickle for the final taste that everyone yearns for. Aavakai truly served a long-lasting treat for about 800 people that day. Time slipped into oblivion and people wanted more of Sirivennela and Aavakai band. But as all good things have to end, so did the 5 hour long show. It’s just the beginning and many more are yet to come from “Aavakai”.

It sure appeared like the Sun finally rose from the West this time.

Sirijallu event was organized by Susmitha Vakkalanka and Siddhartha Nookala, with support from many other committed volunteers. Dance performances were choreographed by Fusion Beats (Manasa Rao), Gowri Yadlapati, Preeti Kotha and others. For photos and videos of the event, visit www.aavakai.com.

The event was made possible by support from Platinum sponsors - Aditya Construction Company India Pvt. Ltd. (www.adityacc.com) and Athidhi Indian Cuisine (www.athidiusa.com), Gold sponsors - Kumar Talluri (408 888 8959), www.VoiceInvite.com and Dental Solutions (408 531 9501)

- Shantivardhan Ayyagari

Vandemataram from Kaalapani

2008-07-16T00:08:00.001-07:00

Maestro Ilaiyaraja's rendition of Vandemataram from the movie 'Kaalapani'. I played this on Sitar using Pro Tools XPand! tool

You can find the original tune at this link.
Kaalapaani - Vandemataram

Look for the last song "Vandemataram" in the above link

Sirijallu - A musical evening with Sri Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry LIVE in concert with Aavakai Music

2008-07-02T15:58:00.001-07:00

presents

A musical evening with Sri Sirivennela Seetharama Shastry LIVE in concert with Aavakai Music.

After the success of their rocking new year party Sandadi 2008, Aavakai is coming back this summer with a unique musical/lyrical concert this summer. Aditya Constructions and Bay Area's Athidhi Indian Cuisine presents Aavakai's ‘Sirijallu’ - Sri Sirivennela Seetharama Shastry, LIVE in San Jose this summer. Cherish some of the finest all-time melodies and chart-busters from the pens of the multiple Nandi award winning lyricist, writer and philosopher. Be there to witness the creator sing some of his gems in his own voice - live!

Venue: Chabot College Performing Arts Center, Hayward, CA
Date: August 9th 2008, Saturday - 6PM onwards

For more details, visit http://www.aavakai.com/.

For sponsorships/advertising/volunteering opportunities, contact:
Susmitha Vakkalanka: 408 242 9726
Siddhartha Nookala: 408 718 4763
or visit www.aavakai.com

Gold sponsors

About Aavakai
Aavakai was formed in 2007 by Surya Vakkalanka, who has made his mark as a keyboardist/composer in the SF bay area from the last 8 years.

... Mani Sharma's Concert

2008-05-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

We went to the Manisharma concert this weekend. Probably my first live professional telugu concert...(I think). At first I was disappointed that Hemachandra couldn't make it (some visa issue I was told). Mallikarjuna was a pleasant surprise. His rendition of "Jadi vaana jaadalo eevela" in Ghallu Ghallu from Indra was simply superb. As soon as he started singing those lines, I knew he was the original playback singer. At the end of the song, he started dancing like Chiru and he looked totally cool. I really admired him for the ease with which he rendered all the songs of different range. He was the best singer on stage that day. Vijayalakshmi sang "Dole Dole Dil zara zara" from Pokiri and "Chamka chamka" from Chirutha among others. Her voice carries that style of songs well. Malavika was very good in "Morning Raga". Very sweet voice.

The whole ochestration came out very well for a small team of 5 players. The keyboardist was just a one man army on lead instrumentation handling all the lead and bass pieces alone. I think Manisharma's drummers are a big factor in his music - they were simply awesome reproducing both ethnic & western beats live. And were enjoying themselves playing on stage. I admire musicians who feel what they are playing. That tells something abt the artist. The hall mix no doubt sounded flawless - as none other than Mani Sharma's own sound engineer was at the console. Reverse gear Guruswami was very enjoyable in the breaks - especially the songs that he sang in reverse.

I was really glad to learn that Manisharma's favorite music director is Ilayaraja. We had the chance to meet him backstage and when we mentioned about Aavakai , he promptly said - "You should have told me this earlier, we could have made used of your team as well on stage".
And btw, when I said 'Aavakai' he remarked 'bhale khaaramgaa undi andi peru.' Go Aavakai! :) Lets hope we will see Aavakai & Manisharma together next time.

-Surya

..off to Europe for a bit

2008-03-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

Finally the long grey winter is over (my MBA)
And Spring is in the air...the
Melting snow of Swiss Alps,
Warm waters of Venetian lagoons,
Festive lights of Eiffel tower,
Ringing bells of Pisa and even
The Almighty Lord in Vatican
.....all seem to be beckoning me :)

Phew, suddenly the whole world looks new & afresh & I feel like I have to explore the world.
Surya & I are off to Europe for abt 3 weeks and when we come back we will talk about new avenues for Aavakai.

-adieu, ciao, auf wiedersehen!

..latest happenings

2008-03-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

I know we have been quiet for a while but there has been a lot of buzz about Aavakai. I was pleasantly surprised at a recent party when someone mentioned that they heard about our group for the first time when they went to visit Australia॥yeah you read it right. They heard abt us in Australia! :)

What else?...We recently got two invitations to perform out-of-town -> Sacramento and Los Angeles, but unfortunately had to turn down the offers as most of us are not available during the dates they wanted, including Surya & I :( There are some shows in the pipeline for the loooong run, so keep visiting।

... professional recordings from Aavakaiites

2008-02-18T12:31:00.000-08:00

Tabla bits for a TV jingle:
Hymanand recently performed Tabla parts for an Ad. He went to New York for the recording. The ad is currently being aired on Zee TV. Ain't it cool? Check it out when you are on Zee next time.

Song recording for Brahmotsavam in Dallas:
Our dear friend Anand Kuchibhotla entrusted Surya with orchestrating, recording & mixing a song for the Brahmotsavam function in Dallas. The tune was originally composed by Koti (Raj-Koti fame). Sriphani being Sriphani, of course couldnt turn down when Surya asked for help.. he played the handsonic and was heavily involved with the song recording & mixing.
Yamini and Srilakshmi Kolavennu garu rendered the vocals beautifully. Srilakshmi garu's son, Venu, accompanied on Veena. The song turned out great over 3 late-night composing, recording & mixing sessions at Vasuna studio.

... our mini show

2008-02-15T17:01:00.000-08:00

Aavakai has been called for a good cause again. Our friend Mr. Ravi Koneru from Los Angeles has invited us to perform at a fund-raising event for SFRS. SFRS is an organization devoted tp provide education for underprivileged yet talented kids in rural India.

Aavakai will be there to support them and Aavakaites - Narayana, Vamsi & Surya will be singing at the event tomm morning. See below for details. Hope to see you there.

*************************************************
Introducing SOCIETY FOR RURAL SCHOLARS (SFRS)
www.SocietyforRural Scholars. org
To BAY AREA on February 16, 2008, 10:00 am at
CA Cinema, 37411 Fremont Blvd. , Fremont , CA 94536
10:00 – 10:30 AM: Introductions and Networking
10:30 – 11:00 AM: Overview of Society for Rural Scholars (SFRS)
11:00 – 11:30 AM: Panel Discussion “Creative Capitalism”
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Fundraiser Telugu Movie Songs
Bay Area Musical Sensation:
Vamsi Nadella & Narayana Raju
http://www.aavakai.com/
************************************************

..what we have been upto

2008-01-30T23:48:00.000-08:00

Ladies first...
Yamini has recently taught and performed the theme song for Silicon Andhra Mana Badi anniversary. The song was composed by Surya and written by our friend & upcoming lyricist - Vamsi Prakhya. Dr. Swati has been really busy with setting up her Dental practice & torturing patients with tools & hammers, just kidding :) If I havent mentioned earlier, Swathi is a dentist and has her own practice - Dental Solutions (number: 408 531 9501).

Our out-of-towners are back.. we really missed you!
While we were all pushing ourselves to get to work after the holidays..Praveen went on a short trip to India and is back now. Srinivas is back from his hectic business trips as well & is actively working on potential future shows for Aavakai. Hymanand performed at a recording in New York and is back now.

Now about all those of less fortunate who stayed back in the bay area.. Gatorade Arun aka Thalaivar aka Kamal Hassan.. has been entertaining Bay Area with his multiple talents. He recently did a mimicry show at a Tamil program and it was such a super hit that he is now incharge of doing mimicry and a music show for Tamil Manram in April. Srikanth has been really busy shopping for his new house.. let me tell u a secret Srikanth.. shopping for a new house never really ends..before you realise the house gets old but the to-dos are never completed :) Krishna aka bassix finally got excused from Aavakai temporarily to spend time with his family.. he has been busy at work, taking his parents out, enjoying latest IR songs and is going to perform with Arun at the Tamil Manram show in April..dont miss it. Red Bull/Powerade Vamsi has been been busy preparing for the upcoming dad-hood. Of course that didnt deter him from enjoying music activities.. he sound-engineered for the recent Silicon Andhra Mana Badi show. Narayana is busy with his carnatic vocal training..and is participating at a Classical Vocal competition soon. Aavakai wishes you good luck. And oh, a new Rahman is in the making..as Narayana bought a Korg keyboard.. and is religiously learning be able to perform at our next show. Surya .. (I often complain at home) hasnt taken a break after Sandadi.. he has been involved in a prooject with Srilakshmi Kolavennu garu to compose devotional songs on Lord Shiva for Livermore temple..I guess they are half-way through now. Meanwhile, he composed Mana Badi theme song for Silion Andhra.

As for me.. well, the rest of the blog is about what I have been doing.. so go ahead take a bio break, drink water and come back :) Ha,ha. I guess there's too much of strategy concepts involved in what I have been doing, so I'll just simplify and say that I have been extremely busy with my MBA ..this has been & still is the craziest & busiest quarter I ever had so far (God..the Capstone quarter)...counting down the last 6 weeks and hanging in there. So after 6 weeks when I have ample time on hand..u'll see more & more posts :)

..wish you a happy new year!

2008-01-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

Aavakai wishes you a very Happy New Year!!!

(am still recovering from Sandadi...more later.)

..naming the name

2007-12-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

We 'the team' sang, chatted and jammed. And decided to launch the band with a big bang at the dawn of the New Year. All of us agreed that we should come out with a live dance show on Dec 31st. And now what should we call ourselves? Again we had tons of ideas - some pretty serious, some hilarious and some boring. We agreed and disagreed. One thing we all consistently agreed was that we should not be yet another name. We want to be different and our name should reflect that. With all due respect to the 'ragas' ,'swaras' and other musical band names, we didnt want to be yet another musical name. Nope, am not going to share the list of names we discussed (saving them for future ventures, assuming success begets success) but our most popular ones came down to - Drumstix and Aavakai (see footnote for meaning). We had several arguments for and against each of them.

Thanks to our dear friend Siddharth, then came an offer to perform for a fund raising show for Sankara Eye Foundation in November itself. We got excited. Suddenly we couldnt wait till December. This is a perfect opportunity to perform as a team and that too for a good cause. It was time to put 'a' name on the flyers. Since this show is for a mixed group of audience and we will be performing mostly in hindi, we went with the neutral 'drumstix' name. The show was awesome (see my previous post) and people actually said they liked the name drumstix.

But a voice in the heart kept saying 'Go for Aavakai, Go for Aavakai' and we listened. We are Aavakai - we are traditional, we are contemporary, we are a rich blend of tastes just as music has so many elements. We mean telugudanam, we mean indianness, we mean tasteful music. We are Aavakai. Go Aavakai!

And here's our promise:
===============================
Aavakai is zesty...so is our music!
Aavakai is seasoned...so are our artists!
Aavakai is divine...so will be your experience!
================================

p.s: For the benefit of those that dont know what Aavakai (also spelt as Aavakaya) means. Here is a snippet from wiki (http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Aavakaaya).
Aavakaaya (Telugu: ఆవకాయ) is a variety of Indian pickle popular in southern India with its origin in Andhra Pradesh. The main ingredients are raw, fully mature, fibrous, very sour mangos and Aavalu (mustard seeds in powder form) and a combination of other spices used for pickling.

...our Dream Debut

2007-11-20T17:17:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 17th 2007. San Mateo Center for Performing Arts was filled with around 500 people, eager to watch "Colors of India" put together by the San Mateo High School Indian Association.

The time was around 7:50pm and as soon as Drumstix (aka 'Aavakai') was introduced by Sindhu Gollamudi, curtains opened and the band went live with the thumping song "Fanaa" from Yuva, followed by the mellifluous "Zaraa zaraa" from Rehna hai tere dil mein by Swathi. Sriphani with relentless energy on the handsonic played the beats much alike the original score.

After a short 10 minute break, the band came back alive with a crowd puller, "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from Dil Se. People came on to the stage to start dancing to this foot-tapping number by Surya and Yamini. Krishna (Bass guitar, with a contagious smile) and Praveen (Lead guitar) danced on the stage spreading the energy across the stage.

Srikanth, Narayana and Yamini stole the hearts of many there with their jugalbandi style performance of "Kajra re" from Bunty Aur Babli.

Srinivas (Tabla) and Hymanand (Tavil/Dolu) played the mysterious beats of Kajra re with such ease and enthusiasm. The show ended with the high energy crowd puller "Sankar Dada MBBS" from the Munna Bhai of AP, dubbed as Sankar Dada. Narayana kept the energy high throughout the song and his rendition of "Em manda..." was no short of Chiru himself.

Overall, it was a fantastic dream debut show. Many from the audience came and congratulated the team after the show. Encouraging comments like, 'we will definitely be there for your next show' charged us for our next show!!! Thank you to all those that attended and cheered us at our Debut concert.

As part of this show, the San Mateo High School association was able to raise $11,000 for Sankara Eye Foundation. Aavakai team wishes Sankara Eye best wishes.

..how we came to be

2007-11-10T15:25:00.000-08:00

A group of enthusiastic music lovers, musing mostly over Ilayaraja's melodies over late night coffee, scrunging for time to finish our open music projects...One night at 2:30 in the night (or in the morning technically speaking) when Surya was finishing mixing for a telugu song he composed, he said 'let's do it'. Let's start a music band, jam to our heart's content and perform to the listener's joy (or otherwise). I was in the middle of finishing up a long boring paper due for my marketing class the next day. Sitting in these marketing, entrepreneurship and finance classes from the last few quarters (or years should I say), I was in the mood of entreneurship or managing or whatever it is. I said 'sure, lets do it, if not at 30 (oops! Surya's age), we can't do it any better when we are 40'. And I nominated myself as the team co-ordinator or manager or be-it-all other than the music part. We got talking with our talented music lovers and everyone was more than excited and started pouring in tons of creative ideas.. so the team formed and the rest is what you see on this web-site.