Her silky voice and gentle demeanour have struck a chord with music lovers of all ages across the globe. Despite being born in Kolkata, well-known Carnatic vocalist Bombay Jayashri had the opportunity to spend a lot of her time in Mumbai, listening to an array of classical music, folk music, bhav geet and Telugu songs.
Jayashri’s mother, Seetha would tune in to various radio channels playing music of all sorts — Tamil, Malayalam, Assamese, Punjabi, Kannada and Pakistani ghazals. All this coloured the young Jayashri’s musical experiences, giving it a new dimension and thought process. Says Jayashri, “There is beauty in all kinds of music. My learning was intense and I used to travel between central and south Mumbai and have my lunch literally at 4 pm. There are many changes that have happened in my nearly 35 years of performance journey.”
The vocalist strongly feels that today there are many attractions in the field of entertainment due to the advent of technology. There is a big splash opportunities on social media as well as other technologically-advanced platforms. Over the years, there has also been an increase in the number of students trying to learn music but they are using completely different modes to gain knowledge. She explains, “There was a time when we used to internalise music by listening to our guru. Then came the situation where the student was allowed to take down a few notes. Today, the student wants to record all the lessons for further practice. This is not at all a great way of learning.”
The Academy Award-nominee, who has sung many hit numbers for films in different languages, further says, “I always found music directors like M.S. Viswanathan, Ilaiyaraaja and M.M. Keeravani having the sensitivity to include a classical touch in their songs. The Indian system of education needs to have more content to prepare the young mind to understand Indian philosophy. I feel that every child in this country is privileged and must get an opportunity to learn or appreciate classical music.”
Jayashri, who was in the city for a special concert, concludes by saying, “Hyderabad has been a great audience. I have fond memories of performing at Hyderabad in jugalbandi concerts with flautist Ronu Mazumdar and vocalist Shubha Mudgal.”
