Metro Plus
Chennai
Hyderabad
Touching lives through music
|
"Nostalgia" took the audience back to the hits of the Sixties and Seventies. It was good music for a great cause
|
COUNTRY, BEBOP and pop all the way... that kind of sums up "Nostalgia", the musical show that the Friends of Leprosy Mission, Chennai, and The Madras Musical Association put up on Sunday. The concert was in aid of the Leprosy Mission Trust, India, an organisation that has been working towards eradication of the disease for over 100 years.
In fact, Dr. C.S. Walter, in his attempt to sensitise the public, said that though the WHO felt the disease had almost been eradicated, there are 100,000 new patients in India every year. A lot of support is needed for these patients, he added.
Now, for the show... the repertoire was a combination of oh-so-popular songs of the 1960s and 1970s from the world of pop, jazz, soul and rock. The evening began in the gospel mode with a prayer song "His eye is on the sparrow". Then the MMA Youth Choir crooned "Yesterday", but somehow they were more successful with the rhythmic Gene Vincent 1950s hit, "Be-bop-a-lula".
The mood changed dramatically when Roxygen rocked to the Cliff Richard penned "Devil Woman". It was back to gospel this time with a contemporary beat for the Ravi Santosam-Kalyan-James Davids version of "Walking in Jerusalem," definitely one of the highlights of the evening.
While the Beatles' "Lady Madonna" didn't quite work, Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are", sung by Kalyan, evoked a good response. "Windmills Of Your Mind", the theme song for the 1960s version of the film, "The Thomas Crown Affair", provided James Davids a vehicle to showcase his tenor chords.
Post-interval, it was the turn of the Senior Choir of the MMA, conducted by Dr. Samuel Grubb, in a performance of the Elton John number, "Can you feel the love tonight". Dr. Grubb himself took the mike for Louis `Satchmo' Armstrong's "Wonderful World", which he rendered in his inimitable basso profundo voice.
Roxygen's `funkified' version of The Beatles' "Come Together" left one asking for more. Peggy Lee's "Fever" was passed on to the listeners by Andrea Jeremiah, who stood out among the female singers.
The Madras-born Englebert Humperdinck was remembered through his country and Western tinged "Spanish Eyes" by Revi Thomas, who even sported a stetson. The hat was then passed on to Dr. Ravi Santosam who regaled the audience with John Denver's "Grandma's Feather Bed". This, he followed with a medley including "Bachelor Boy" and "I Saw Her Standing There" and Elvis' "Hound Dog".
All the while, Roxygen — Jim Satya, Sudhin Prabhakar, Timothy Madhukar (energy-packed vocals), Christy Samuel, Vasanth David and Keith Peters - provided the tight backing for what proved to be an entertaining evening.
SAVITHA GAUTAM
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Chennai
Hyderabad
|
