Brother to pay musical tribute to Mandolin maestro Srinivas

CHENNAI: Mandolin U Rajesh, the younger brother of mandolin maestro U Shrinivas, who died of liver failure on September 18, will be making his first public appearance on stage after his brother’s death at a fusion concert at Music Academy here on Friday evening.
He will be playing alongside Anil Srinivasan on the piano, S Muralikrishnan on the drums, BS Purushotham on the kanjira, and Aalaap Raju on the bass guitar.
“The concert was planned in July and scheduled for September 26. But now, since this is Rajesh’s first concert after his brother’s death, he will definitely play some of the Shrinivas’s favourite pieces,” says Muralikrishnan.
“In the first segment of the concert, Rajesh and I will be playing some of the late Shrinivas’s favourite tunes as well as his own compositions,” says Srinivasan.
Although Rajesh was unavailable for comment, in a recent interview to the media, the artiste, who is nine years younger than his brother, had mentioned that “life was not easy being mandolin wizard U Shrinivas’s brother”, always having to “rise up to expectations”.
Rajesh was in fact taught the art of the mandolin by his brother and used to accompany him on stage at several kutcheris, while also helping his brother in teaching the mandolin free of cost to interested youngsters.
But apart from playing together on stage, Rajesh has tried to break out of the shadow of his elder brother’s genius. He has over the years teamed up with Ranjit Barot and Louis Banks, Sivamani and Stephen Devassy, most of whom also collaborated with his brother.
More recently, Rajesh released his own album – ‘Following My Heart’ – the title of which he says, was inspired by his brother.
During the release of the album, world-famous classical guitarist John McLaughlin, also a close associate and collaborator with the late Shrinivas in concerts across the world, had stated that “for many years Rajesh had been eclipsed by the brilliance of his elder brother”, but the album marked the “dawning of a young man who shines entirely with his own light”.
McLaughlin even says that Rajesh had created “another original style on the mandolin”. Rajesh was part of McLaughlin’s Grammy-nominated album ‘Floating Point’.