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K. J. Yesudas

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K. J. Yesudas

Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (Malayalam: കാട്ടശ്ശേരി ജോസഫ് യേശുദാസ്; born 10 January 1940) is an Indian classical musician and a playback singer. He has won the National Award for the best male playback singer seven times, the most by any Indian singer, and the State Award for the best playback singer more than 30 times by the Government of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. Yesudas sings Indian classical music, devotional and popular songs. He has recorded more than 55,000 songs in many languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tulu, Malay, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English during a career spanning five decades. He has performed in most Indian languages except Assamese, Konkani and Kashmiri.[2][3] He also composed a number of Malayalam film songs in the 1970s and 1980s.[1] He is fondly called Gana Gandharvan (English: The Celestial Singer).

Early life and background

K. J. Yesudas was born in Fort Kochi, Kingdom of Cochin, into a Latin Rite Catholic family, to Augustine Joseph and Alicekutty. His father, who was a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor, was his first guru. Later he joined the R.L.V. Music Academy in Thrippunithura and underwent training. For a brief period, he was with Sri Vechur Hari Hara Subramania Iyer, after which he took advanced training from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar. Although he is a Carnatic music expert,[4] he has also mastered Hindustani music[citation needed]. He has taken the words of Sree Narayana Guru, "One caste, one religion and one God for all humanity",[5] to heart.

Career

Yesudas began his career in playback singing in the Malayalam movie Kaalpadukal[6] and Kollywood movies in the early 1960s. He sang for Bommai first (music: S. Balachander), but the first released movie was Konjum Kumari (music: Veda). By the 1970s he entered Bollywood. His first Hindi song was for the movie Jai Jawan Jai Kissan (1971), but the first released movie was Chhoti Si Baat. He has sung Hindi songs for many leading actors in Hindi cinema including Amitabh Bachchan, Amol Palekar and Jeetendra. He has sung many evergreen Hindi film songs for popular music directors including Ravindra Jain, Bappi Lahiri, Khayyam, Rajkamal and Salil Chowdhury. Almost all of the Hindi movie songs that he sang are popular even today. He has received seven National Film Awards for the best singer, which is a record no Indian singer has equalled. In 2006, he sang 16 film songs in four South Indian languages on the same day at AVM Studio, Chennai.[7]

Yesudas has performed in many major cities around the world. In 1965, he was invited by the Soviet Union government to perform at music concerts in various cities in the USSR and also sang a Russian song on Radio Kazakhstan. In 2001 he sang for album Ahimsa in Sanskrit, Latin and English and in a mix of styles including New Age and Carnatic.[8] In his music concerts in the Middle East he sings Arabic songs in the Carnatic style.[9] He frequently serves as a cultural ambassador for India through his performances abroad, promoting Indian music.

In 1970, he was nominated to head the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy and was the youngest person ever to occupy the post. In 1971, during the Indo-Pakistani War, Yesudas traveled all around Kerala with his musical troupe to raise funds for the Indian Prime Minister's National Defense Fund. He also became Senate member of International Parliament for Safety and Peace.[10] On 14 November 1999, UNESCO presented Yesudas with an honorary award for "Outstanding Achievements in Music and Peace"[11] at the "Music for Peace" event in Paris, a concert held to mark the dawn of the new millennium and whose attendees included artistes such as Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Montserrat Caballé, and Zubin Mehta. In 2009 Yesudas began a cross-country musical campaign against terrorism in Thiruvananthapuram, with the motto 'Music For Peace'. Kavita Karkare, wife of Hemant Karkare, handed over the torch to Yesudas to mark the launch of the 'Shanthi Sangeetha Yatra'.[12]

Because of his immense talent and popularity he is often preferred by music directors/producers to render the songs which require the power factor and extreme variations in ragas, mainly in the big-budget movies. The song "Aadiyusha Sandhya" from the movie Pazhassi Raja is an example of his voice clarity even at the age of 69. Thiruvarur Bakthavathsalam, a mridangam musician, has accompanied him in many concerts.

Scholarship

  • Completed the Ganabooshanam course at R.L.V. Music Academy, Thripunithura, Cochin
  • Graduated from the Sree Swathithirunal Music Academy, Trivandrum
  • Trained under K. R. Kumaraswamy (former principal of the Music College, Kochi), Kunjuvelan Aasan (a disciple of Nadaswara Vidwan Rajaratnam Pillai), Augustine Joseph, Ramakutti Bagavathar, Sivaraman Nayar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar

Role models

Sree Narayana Guru’s great message, "One caste, One religion and One God for all humanity", influenced young Yesudas in his dealings with his fellow men. He had his own heroes among the musicians too. Mohammed Rafi, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and Balamurali Krishna are the ones he admires the most.[13]

Personal life

Yesudas is married to Prabha for more than 30 years. They have three sons, Vinod, Vijay and Vishal. The second son Vijay Yesudas is a budding musician who won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer in 2007. The family is currently settled in Chennai and Trivandrum. He also owns estates in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA and Flower Mound, TX, USA for personal and business reasons.

Notable facts

  • After winning the Kerala State Award for Best Playback singer on numerous occasions, he asked that he be ruled out of contention so that to give his peers and newcomers a chance of winning. Despite his request, he was still awarded this award multiple times in the following years.
  • Playback singer Unni Menon, who was singing track songs for other prominent singers, got a break when Yesudas, after hearing the track songs Unni Menon had sung for the Malayalam film Kadathu, asked the music director Shyam to record and release the songs as they were. Yesudas was of the opinion that the songs did not need to be rendered by him, as Unni Menon had already done it well and there was no need for improvement.
  • Harivarasanam, a devotional song composed by Sri Kambakkudi Kulathur Srinivasa Iyer, recited before closing the temple at Sabarimala was sung by Yesudas. Though there have been many different renditions of this song by many different renowned singers, Sabarimala officially uses K. J. Yesudas' voice for Harivarasanam every day.[14]

Awards and honours

Main article: List of titles, honours and major awards received by Yesudas

Yesudas has recorded over 40,000 songs and has won scores of accolades including the coveted Padma Shri (1975), Padma Bhushan (2002)[15] and seven National Awards for Best Playback Singer. He is the only singer who has been accorded the title Asthana Gayakan (official singer) of Kerala State.

In films

Year Film Stars Director Role
1965 Kavyamela Prem Nazir M. Krishnan Nair as himself
1966 Kayamkulam Kochunni Sathyan P. A. Thomas as a Suruma Seller
2002 Nandanam Prithviraj Ranjith as himself
2005 Boyy Friennd Manikuttan Vinayan as himself

Music festival

For the past 30 years Yesudas has been visiting Kollur Mookambika temple, Udupi, Karnataka on his birthday to sing keerthans of Saraswati devi, the Goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. The music festival started on his 60th birthday. The nine-day music festival begins every January at Kollur Mookambika Temple. On January 10, 2010, he celebrated his 70th birthday (Sapthathi) at Kollur Sri Mookambika Temple with ‘Sangeetharchana’ (classical devotional songs), along with 70 singers before goddess Mookambika on Sunday. The Sangeetharchana included "Pancharatna Gayana" of Thyagaraja’s poems. He also took part in the Vidyarambha function. All India Radio broadcasted the special Sangeetharchana all over Kerala.[16] [17] [18] [19]

Music award

Swaralaya Yesudas award is a prestigious award for music artists in recognition of their outstanding performance. The award is instituted jointly by Swaralaya, an organization that promotes music and Kairali Channel, based in Trivandrum, Kerala. Awards have been given annually since 2000. Yesudas presents the awards at a Gandharva Sandhya every January.[20][21][22]

Music company

In 1980 Yesudas established the Tharangni Studio at Trivandrum. In 1992 the office and studio were moved to Chennai, Tamil Nadu and the company was incorporated in the US in 1998. Tharangni Studio and Tharangni Records became a recording center in Kerala which, for the first time, brought out audio cassettes of Malayalam film songs in stereo. The record company also had a voice mixing studio in Studio27, Chennai. The studio continues to produce and present events of Yesudas both for film and Indian classical music concerts throughout the world.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Malayalam Songs Composer - KJ Yesudas". Malayalasangeetham.info. 2010-04-24. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  2. ^ "Those magical moments..." The Hindu. 2002-09-03. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  3. ^ "Life devoted to music". The Hindu. 2001-02-01. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
  4. ^ Yesudas.com
  5. ^ Yesudas.com
  6. ^ "'I don't sing trendy music'". Rediff. Retrieved 2009-09-06.
  7. ^ "One for the records". The Hindu. 2006-12-01. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  8. ^ Ahimsa Album
  9. ^ Vineet Pillai (2003-11-15). "Exclusive - Interview with Yesudas on 15th November 2003". Indien-netzwerk.de. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  10. ^ webindia123-Indian personalities-Musicians- singer- Dr. K.J. YESUDAS
  11. ^ Unesco award for musician K.J. Yesudas
  12. ^ "Tributes paid to Hemant Karkare". The Hindu. 2009-01-12. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  13. ^ "'I do not sing trendy music': Yesudas". Rediff.com. 2001-05-07. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  14. ^ "Music legend Yesudas turns 70". The Hindu. 10 January 2010. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
  15. ^ "Padma Awards". Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Retrieved 2009-06-20.
  16. ^ "Gandharva of songs : K.J Yesudas celebrates 70th birthday". Non Resident Kerala Associations. Retrieved 2010-05-01. [dead link]
  17. ^ "Yesudas celebrated Birthday at Kollur". Oneindia Entertainment. 2009-01-19. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  18. ^ PTI (2010-01-10). "Music legend Yesudas turns 70". The Hindu. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  19. ^ "Yesudas celebrates 70th birthday in Kollur". Expressbuzz.com. 2010-01-11. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  20. ^ "Swaralaya awards presented". The Hindu. 20 January 2003. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
  21. ^ "Swaralaya award for Shankar Mahadevan". The Hindu. 16 December 2007. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
  22. ^ "Tributes paid to Hemant Karkare". The Hindu. 12 January 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
  23. ^ "Dr. K. J. Yesudas". keralatourism.org. Retrieved 18 March 2010.


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