{"id":30093,"date":"2014-05-28T13:20:33","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T17:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=30093"},"modified":"2014-05-28T13:20:56","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T17:20:56","slug":"carnatic-vocalist-and-playback-singer-jayalakshmi-of-radha-ayalakshmi-duo-passes-away-in-chennai-at-82-years-of-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=30093","title":{"rendered":"Carnatic Vocalist and Playback Singer Jayalakshmi of Famous Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo Passes Away at Hospital in Chennai."},"content":{"rendered":"


\nWell known Carnatic vocalist Jayalakshmi, one half of the famous Radha-Jayalakshmi duo, passed away in the early hours of Monday May 26th. Ailing for quite a while, she had been hospitalised in Chennai for about a month when the end came. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"RJ052814\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jayalakshmi of the Radha-Jayalakshmi duo, known for her timbre and \u2018briga\u2019-laden voice stood out in the worlds of Carnatic and film music, died on Monday. She was 89.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Radha and Jayalakshmi, popularly known as Radha Jayalakshmi (Tamil: \u0bb0\u0bbe\u0ba4\u0bbe \u0b9c\u0bc6\u0baf\u0bb2\u0b9f\u0bcd\u0b9a\u0bc1\u0bae\u0bbf), were Indian Carnatic music vocalist duo as well as playback singers in films in 1940s and 1950s, before they became music teachers. <\/p>\n

The person who did the playback singing was Jayalakshmi but she was named as Radha Jayalakshmi in the cine field. Actually, Radha was her cousin sister and singing partner on the stage performances. They were early singers in the trend of duo singing in Carnatic music, which started in the 1950s, with performers like Soolamangalam Sisters, and later continued by Bombay Sisters, Ranjani-Gayatri and Priya Sisters.<\/p>\n

Like the Alathur Brothers, Radha and Jayalakshmi were cousins. Jayalakshmi had her roots in Srirangam while Radha\u2019s family hails from Chengalpattu. But they were born in Chennai and both of them grew up together in the city. They started giving performances from the age of 14.<\/p>\n

\"RJR052814\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Radha-Jayalakshmi duo came from the G.N. Balasubramaniam (G.N.B.) school of music and were trendsetters in the Carnatic music world after Brinda-Mukta of the Veena Dhanammal school of music.<\/p>\n

The duo was awarded the 1981 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in Carnatic Music – Vocal, given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India’s National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama<\/p>\n

Radha and Jayalakshmi were from G. N. Balasubramaniam school, where they learned classical vocal music from the noted vocalist and teacher himself.T.R. Balasubramaniam, one of the primary disciples of G.N.B., was their teacher.\u201cBut they would often visit G.N.B. and get their lessons corrected by him,\u201d said Jayalakshmi\u2019s sister Champakalakshmi.<\/p>\n

After listening to them singing for All India Radio (AIR), recording companies made a beeline to release their songs rendered in a unique style, but immersed deeply in the classical tradition.<\/p>\n

A listener of Carnatic music of the bygone era could clearly notice the perceptible difference in the singing style of the duo, in all popular songs.<\/p>\n

Jayalakshmi rendered a lot of semi-classical songs in films, enthralling lovers of semi-classical songs.She had rendered her ‘ringing’ trained, cultured sweet voice in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada movies from the late 1940s till the end of 1950s. In the 50s, many music directors gave her memorable songs, including K. V. Mahadevan, S. M. Subbaiah Naidu, G. Govindarajulu Naidu, T. G. Lingappa, G. Ramanathan, Vedha, C. N. Pandurangan, S. Balachander, S. V. Venkatraman, Chittor V. Nagaiah, H. R. Pathmanaba Sastiri, Viswanathan Ramamoorthy. On rare occasion she had movies in her credit in the 1960s.<\/p>\n