Just Joe

Pradip Somasundaran needs no introduction for people from Kerala and for those who have heard/seen the first of its kind musical program Meri Aawaaz Suno in Dooradarshan some years back. He won Lata Mangeshkar award for the best Male singer. And the best female singer was Sunidhi Chauhan. Now he sings for the movies and albums. A great singer and a cool and humble person. I had a chance to do an interview with him today in the morning for M-Pod, the Malayalam podcasting show. The program will be on net by the weekend. So wait for that in the weekend.

Checkout his website:
http://www.pradipsomasundaran.com

Checkout Pradip’s demo music file here:
http://www.sandeepchowta.com/zone/Pradeepsomasundaram.mp3

He sings in several languages in this MP3 file. Malayalam, Hindi and even Japanese! Yeah!!

While talking to Mr. Pradip, I’ve come to know that the famous music director Sandeep Chowta promotes new talents through his website! There is a talent drop box where you can submit your demo music file and he will listen to it and would point out the pluses and minuses of your song. Isn’t it amazing guys? A busy musician such as him takes time to listen to each and every singer and comment on the song! I think it’s really great.

Also see what Sandeep Chowta commented on Pradip’s song:
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Pradeep Somasundar
By far the best singer to be discovered on this site.Extremely versatile.
Do read all the comments that were posted earlier and how Pradip kept his hopes alive throughout.

I will definitely be working with this amazing talent.
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I was checking the site meter statistics today and then I found some interesting search keywords which lead some visitors to my blog. Check it out! )

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Christmas in the childhood days had more enthusiasm and happiness. I remember how my brothers used to make the cribs with the limited resources they had. Lighting candles in the crib, because there was no electricity in our house. And everyone would gather together and would look outside at the other houses where they had fully illuminated cribs. And the children in the family would go out to see the cribs in the other houses. Those were the times we had the right spirit and joy of Christmas. Singing in the midnight mass, the carol songs and the cakes… How sweet were those good ol’ days…

Merry Christmas to all of you guys… May the piece and joy of the Christmas be with us always…

Today’s song is a Christmas song, written by Udhaya and orchestration done by Ajit. I have composed and sung this song.

Lyrics: Udhaya
Music & sung by: Jo
Orchestration: Ajit Gopalakrishnan

The Christmas Song
green and red and gold in splendor
the lights adorn the homes and hills
making up the nativity scene
Santa Clause and candy canes
reindeer and sleigh to ride
blinking bulbs and neon signs
bringing signs of revelry
children keen on the merry guy
coming down their chimney
the nights aglow of cheer and carols
every home a wonderland

eggnog and spice, cakes and pies
some naughty snowflakes would be nice
it’s a time to truly notice others
to brush aside their worries and pain
to act like we’re all sisters and brothers
and heed our warm and noble side
faith and hope light up our lives
fill our memories full of smiles
spirits arise to give and care
Christmas elevates us everywhere

Today’s song is from the movie Kal Ho Na Ho. This song brought Sonu Nigam a national award for the best singer. Amazing song it is and so wonderfully sung by Sonu.

Movie: Kal Ho Na Ho
Music: Shankar – Ehsaan – Loy
Originally sung by: Sonu Nigam
Sung by: Jo

Okay, I wont make you guys wait till January for the ’surprise’. No, it’s not my marriage as some of you guys thought. ) All of the musical talents that I met/found in the blogosphere are going to join hands for an online music album. The album is yet to be named and Ganesh once mentioned the name “Blogswara” which I like very much. And if you guys have any other suggestions, please email them to me.

The idea struck me when Senthil asked me, “why dont you co-ordinate all of these guys and do something together?”. Thanks to him for sparkling the concept. And I believe this would be the first of its kind in the blogosphere and perhaps in the whole cyber world. People from around the world — USA, UK and India — who haven’t seen each other yet are making an album together! And in 3 different languages. Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi.

Following people will be part of this:

Composers:

Narayanan Venkitu [http://mentalcentral.blogspot.com]
D. Ganesh [http://dganesh.blogspot.com]
Murali Venkataraman [http://swara.blogspot.com]
Harish Sivaramakrishnan [http://insaneinstincts.blogspot.com]
and myself

Lyricists:

Narayanan Venkitu [http://mentalcentral.blogspot.com] — Tamil
Udhaya [http://brushfire.blogspot.com] — Tamil
Ajay Chandran [http://kaunquest.blogspot.com] — Hindi
Narendran [A Malayalam poet] — Malayalam
Sameera [Columnist, writer, poetess and lyricist - She wrote the Malayalam lyrics for the Tamil movie Autograph] — Malayalam

Female Singers:

Radhika Krishnan [Panithirai fame]
Magic Lens [http://magiclens.blogspot.com]
Nyneishia [http://nyneishia.blogspot.com]
Anamika

Male singers:

Murali Venkataraman [http://swara.blogspot.com]
D. Ganesh [http://dganesh.blogspot.com]
Harish Sivaramakrishnan [http://insaneinstincts.blogspot.com]
Kiran [http://kiranzzz.blogspot.com]
Anand Prabhu [http://anandps.blogspot.com]
BaraNi [http://baranisweblog.blogspot.com]
and myself.

Guitars:

Anup [http://tailgunner1977.blogspot.com]

Orchestration:

Harish Sivaramakrishnan [http://insaneinstincts.blogspot.com]
Ajit Gopalakrishnan [http://fugueandfusion.blogspot.com]

Mixing:

Nandu [http://www.gumbalsband.com]

The songs are in the making and the album will be launched by January 2nd week. I will keep updating you guys through this space.

Please email me if any of you guys know any wonderful musical talents in the blogosphere so that we can add them to the next venture. Yeah, things like this should keep going on, right?

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The CAN Conquer CANcer Blog Your Thots Contest has been extended till 10th Jan 2006.

DIGIT magazine is doing a feature on the entire concept of using Blogs and Online contests to raise awareness for the cause of Cancer or other such initiatives in Jan issue and will be referring to the CCC initiative. With a readership base of 6 Lakhs among the Tech/IT circles. We realized that several readers would be visiting the Contest pages in the 1st week of Jan, only to find that the contest is over. Just becomes a routine read and probably no further action in spreading the awareness. This is one of the reasons why the contest is extended.

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My friend and the hosting guy Dinkar is getting married. His friends put up a fun website for his wedding and its very beautifully done. The quotes from the bride and groom in the frontpage itself is a good laugh! Check it out here. Its very interesting.

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First of all, meet Harish – a wonderful singer and composer. Checkout his songs. He is amazing guys. Superb singing and wonderful orchestration.

Song: patthu veLuppinu
Movie: Venkalam
Music: Raveendran
Originally sung by: Biju Narayanan
Sung by: Jo

Song: vaal kaNNezhuthiya
Movie: Paithrukam
Originally sung by: K. J. Yesudas
Sung by: Jo

Here is the second work with Ajit. I should say he has done an amazing orchestration for this beautiful song of Mr. Narayanan Venkitu. I have added a humming in the last portion as it came.

Song: Unai paarthadhaal
Music & Lyrics: Narayanan Venkitu
Orchestration: Ajit Gopalakrishnan
Sung by: Jo

Silk Route is one band that stole my heart in the early years with their soothing voice and music. Dooba Dooba is one of my fav songs of Silk Route. It is sad that those guys don’t do anything these days. Anyway, A.R. Rahman used Mohit Chauhan’s (the lead singer of the band) voice in his latest work “Rang De Basanti”. It is an amazing song beautifully rendered by this guy. And man, ARR still rock!!!

Anup played guitar for this song and special thanks to Nyneishia for sending me the lyrics.

Song: Dooba dooba
Album: Boondein
Band: Silk Route

Guitars: Anup
Sung by: Jo

Hi folks, you would have already heard about Nandu from Murali’s blog. Nandu composed a tune for Narayanan Venkitu’s song “Unai paarthadhal” (Kadhal song). He sent the karaoke track of the song for me to sing. He himself is an awesome singer and his tunes are also amazing.

Click here to listen to this song in his voice.

His band name is Gumbals. Gumbals is a band started by 4, now predominantly 2. Ramesh writes all the lyrics and sings and Nandu do all the sequencing and recording. There are some originals, remasters and instrumentals posted on www.gumbalsband.com