Song Craft in South Indian Cinema
The South Asian Sound Interventions Series presents
“Songcraft in South Indian Cinema”
Guided by professional performers renowned for their originality, these events explore
intersections of pedagogy and creative innovation in musical practices situated outside the
canonic traditions of the Indian subcontinent.
SOUND INTERVENTIONS SERIES
Aimed at including a balanced regional representation of classical, popular, and vernacular musical traditions, this performing arts series provides opportunities for more sustained engagement with South Asian art worlds in our community. This project not only seeks to explore the connection between musical skill and pedagogy, but also to highlight the vast traditions of South Asian performance that are situated outside the spaces of canonic music practices in the Indian subcontinent and their accompanying scholarship.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13 • 4:30 PM
Part One: Cinematic Song Crafting Workshop
Jassie Gift, film music director and playback singer; Vijay Jacob, keyboardist
Fulton Recital Hall, FREE
Learn about the creative process involved in creating a song for picturization on screen.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14 • 1:30 PM
Part Two: Cinematic Song Crafting Workshop
Jassie Gift, film music director and playback singer; Vijay Jacob, keyboardist
Fulton Recital Hall, FREE
Collaborate with Jassie Gift and Vijay Jacob on crafting a film song in response to a dramatic situation, and perform the song as a prelude to Jassie Gift’s concert on Friday evening, February 17.
Pre-register now, and join us for an interactive introduction to the art of composing, arranging, recording, and performing songs for commercial cinema in South India.
Only a limited number of participants can be accommodated, due to the collaborative nature of the workshops. Students and other members of the University community who are interested in pre-registering should contact Rehanna Kheshgi (rehanna@uchicago.edu).
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15 • 7:00 PM
Screening of Malayalam film 4 the People, directed by Jayaraj (2004)
Discussion with Film Music Director, Jassie Gift
Franke Institute for the Humanities, FREE
Film screening events are often attended by directors, but rare are occasions when audiences have a chance to ask sound specialists about the roles they perform behind the screen. As part of the week-long series of events organized for the campus visit of South Indian film music director Jassie Gift, the Franke Center for the Humanities will host a screening of his film, Pokkiri Raja (2010), followed by a Q and A session that will also include Vijay Jacob, a studio musician and arranger who worked for Jassie on the project.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16 • 9:00 AM – 2:30 PM
Audible Intimacies: A Symposium on Song in South Indian Cinema
Keynote Address by Rolf Groesbeck
Classics Building Room 110, FREE
Song and dance scenes perform several functions in South Indian film. They advance narratives, amplify characters and relationships, evoke wider cultural frames of reference, and create moments and spaces of intimacy on and beyond the screen. Despite the tremendous historical and contemporary relevance of film music in the daily lives of listeners, work on South Asian expressive cultures has only recently begun to explore the public and private intimacies film songs engender. With the intention of facilitating new research synergies in South Asian film studies, this symposium brings together a diverse group of scholars who share a common interest in considering the agents and affects of intimacies in songs that span the devotional, the nostalgic, the ordinary, the utopian, and the transgressive in South Indian cinema.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 • 7:00 PM
A Garland of South Indian Film Songs
Jassie Gift, vocals; Vijay Jacob, keyboard
Fulton Recital Hall, FREE
Film music director and playback singer Jassie Gift took Malayalam commercial cinema by storm in 2004 with the songs he composed and sang for the blockbuster film, 4 the People, which was later dubbed in three other South Indian languages. In contrast with dominant classical film song aesthetics favoring raga-inspired songs with light textures that emphasize the voice, he developed a rhythmically driven sound that combined South Indian vernacular and Black Atlantic stylistic features. Drawing from sources as varied as Christian hymns, folk traditions, and more recent encounters with reggae, hip-hop, and rock idioms, he has evolved a highly eclectic musical style along the same vein as world renowned innovator A. R. Rahman, the Oscar-winning composer for the 2008 film, Slumdog Millionaire. Gift has since expanded his musical reach by composing and performing on soundtracks in the Telegu, Kannada, and Tamil film industries.
Keyboardist Vijay Jacob also started his career as a Church musician before becoming a regular freelance performer at stage shows, a recording artist, and a professional arranger for television and cinema. Whereas Jassie focuses on composing songs and soundtrack themes, Vijay specializes in arranging the composer’s ideas for electronic and acoustic recordings. Vijay also works across the four South Indian industries based in Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad.
All events are FREE and open to the public
Events are co-sponsored in part by the Department of Music, University of Chicago Arts Council, and the Committee on Southern Asian Studies (COSAS).
