G Venugopal recalls hilarious incident between Yesudas and KG Jayan at Chembai festival

Noted playback singer G Venugopal shared some beautiful memories with legendary musician and Carnatic singer KG Jayan who had passed away this morning. He recalled a hilarious incident that happened between KJ Yesudas and KG Jayan when they met at the iconic Chembai music festival.

“Jayan Master is no more with us. He too has bid adieu, leaving behind lots of amazing songs and some beautiful memories. More than his physical shape, what strikes you the most is his marvellous voice. In the olden days, the singers, orchestra and music composer worked from different soundproof glass cabins during recording. The corrections would be mentioned by pressing the ‘talk’ button in the sound engineer’s console. But, Jayan Master didn’t need to press the button. His majestic voice would break all the soundproofing technology and reach our ears. Moreover, we got to hear many of his jokes too like this,” recalls Venugopal.

The singer recalled how Jayan Master had performed scintillatingly at a concert organised in honour of him for his seventieth birthday at the Thirunakkara ground. Venugopal observed that Jayan Master curates his concerts by adding Takil and Nadaswaram in the orchestra which is against the laws of frequency of sound. Moreover, Jayan Master’s voice would be heard above these two instruments. Venugopal also noted that Jayan Master always resorted to humour when it came to facing difficulties in life. The singer recalls him as a legend whose body, mind and voice never got tired.

It was a few years ago, at the Chembai music festival that Venugopal had met Jayan Master for the last time. “Yesudas’ concert that was supposed to end in one and half hours continued. Dasettan was sharing many stories and memories too with the audience, in between the songs. Meanwhile, Jayan Master was sitting inside Chembai Swamy’s residence, waiting impatiently for his turn. Finally, when Yesudas came back after his performance, Jayan Master asked ‘Oh! Yesu’s musical story – telling session is over.’ I remember both of them laughing at this joke.

Master’s songs were extremely melodious. Jayan Master's death is indeed a great loss for the Malayalam music industry,” said Venugopal.