TH Vinayakram

Vikku Vinayakram 2014

TH “Vikku” Vinayakram ( Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram ; Tamil தேத்தாக்குடி ஹரிஹர விநாயக்ராம் ; born August 11, 1942 in Chennai , Tamil Nadu ) is an Indian percussionist ( Ghatam , Mridangam ) who has emerged in the field of Carnatic music and ethno-jazz .

Life

Vinayakram was trained at an early age by his father Kalaimaamani TR Harihara Sarma, a famous teacher of classical South Indian music. At the age of thirteen he already took part in concerts. He has accompanied soloists such as M. Balamuralikrishna , GN Balasubramaniam , Madurai Mani Iyer , Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer , MS Subbulakshmi or Maharajapuram Santhanam . In 1974 he taught at the Center for World Music in California . He became known to an international public from 1976 as a member of Shakti , where he appeared with John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain in North America and Europe and recorded several albums. In 1980 he founded the Indian jazz group JG Laya with Joel A. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he was in the studio and on stage several times with L. Shankar . In 2008 he was involved in the Bob Belden- produced tribute album A Celebration of the Music of Miles Davis: Miles from India .

Since the mid-1980s, Vikku Vinayakram has headed the Jaya Ganesh Tala Vadya Vidyalaya Percussion Academy in Chennai, which his father founded in 1958 . His sons Selva Ganesh and Uma Shankar are also percussionists.

Prizes and awards

Vinayakram received the Hafiz Ali Khan Award in 2000 . Mickey Hart's album Planet Drum , on which he participated, received a Grammy in 1991 ; the album Raga Aberi of L. Shankar was nominated for a World Music Grammy (1996). The Indian government awarded him the Padma Shri in 2002 . He is also allowed to carry the honorary titles Nadasudarnava and Kalaimamani (which are reminiscent of legendary musicians from his culture).

Discographic notes

• Mickey Hart Planet Drum (1991)
• Swara Laya Mela (1994)
• Vinayakram / Selva Ganesh / Uma Shankar Together (Magnasound 1996, with Rikhi Ray)
• Hariprasad Chaurasia Music without Boundaries (Navras 2000, with Larry Coryell , George Brooks , Swapan Chaudhuri, John Wubbenhorst)

Lexical entry

• Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X .

Web links

• Short portrait with selection discography (Indian music and jazz)
• TH Vinayakram at Allmusic (English)