~Soothing, Soul Stirring, Superb~ KK, the singer. Review on Kay Kay (Singer)

What makes a good singer?

A layman's answer would be - Some one who is having a good voice, who is expressive --

Someone trained in music would go for more details - singing in tune, have got octave range etc.

We are blessed with many great singers. Let me define the scope of this review - It is all about male play back singers. We had legendary Mohammed Rafi, Kishoreda, Mukesh, Talat Mehmood, Sehgal ---- We have Yesudas, S P Balasubramaniam, Mannadey and many new talents. 1980s onwards, I have observed majority of the popular singers imitating the singing style of stalwarts! Still we recognise influence of Kishoreda in Kumar Sanu, Abhijit, Shan and many others. Mohammed Rafi's memories are alive through Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam (he did work hard and got freedom oflate), Vipin Sachdeva, Shabbir Komar, Mohammed Aziz -----. Ofcourse, I am not forgetting Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, Hariharan, Sankar Mahadevan and many others who were succesful in finding their own identity --- But here I want to pen a bit more about my favourite contemporary singer - Krishna Kumar (Kunnath) Menon. I was listening to him for many years now and would like him to gain the status of a legendary singer in the coming days - even if he is quite poor in public show, politics ---

A bit more about the person -

Born at Thrissur (Kerala) and migrated to Delhi - music was always his passion. He was a struggler with great passion of music and started working for lots of jingles, formed a rock band etc. His sweetheart, Jyothi didnot have a second opinion about the person even if he was not having a decent job and they got married. KK migrated to mumbai and got the patronage of Leslie Lewis. There onwards, he was lucky enough to get his talents noticed by Gulzar (who gave him a break in Machis). He worked with almost all the succesful composers like Ismail Darbar, A R Rahman, Anu Malik, Vishal Bharadwaj, Pritam ----.

Why KK -

Unique Voice Quality - Initially I had some confusion to recognise KK and Shaan as KK's low pitch did have certain "nasal" tone. But - his voice is unique. I wont call it as hard masculine or soft feminine - but KK's voice is swinging between both. He is one of the perfect choice for any songs with high pitch - Tadap Tadap Kefrom Hum Dil De Chuke Sanamis one good example I can quote.

Also, his voice brings in lots of life to the emotions of the song. Listen to the song "Alvida"from Life in Metro.The song start with a low pitch and suddenly raise to the highest pitch - here KK brings in lots of colours with his voice quality

Staying in tune -Well, this is the foremost quality that every playback singer should have. Now a days, many liberties are allowed by listeners and hence we have Atif Aslam(one singer who always stays out of tune - sorry to hurt sentiments of hardcore fans but I cant help being true) being admired as a great singer. Like any instruments, the voice of the singer also need to be tuned up. Classical songs are being trained by playing harmonium or piano and the singer is asked to sing along with the same till their sound is in tune with the instrument. KK being some one who is not trained in music --- always remains in tune in almost all the songs I heard sofar. Also, he sung many difficult songs with variety of complex instruments ---- but he got the divine blessing it seems, staying in tune is something spontaneous to KK

Yekscent (I mean Accent - Courtesy Rohitshiva) -Might be he spent major part of his life in Delhi but being a south indian who always speak in vernacular at home - he got a good command over Hindi and his pronounciation is perfect

Choice of Songs -If we can believe KK, he do choose the songs to sing. According to him, he want to spend quality time with family and want to give full life to the songs he sung. No other singer in the recent time got the credit of singing block buster / popular songs with the frequency of KK. I mean, 8 out of 10 songs sung by KK would be quite popular. He is quite conscious to deliver a quality job

Attitude -No one prefer to work with a jerk - Yeah, we had exceptions like another KK (Kishore Kumar) who was an eccentric but no one can ignore his talents. K K is a down to earth person away from all politics. He is shy to the nth degree and avoid public functions to the maximum. Someone who is homely, having a right attitude towards life ---- no wonder, he deliver a good job

Style of singing -One of the rarest succesful singer who got an indiviudual singing style. As written above, the low pitch did have a nasal influence that can bring the memory of Kishoreda --- but in high pitch and othertones, he did have his own style. Also, he got a great capacity of improvisation which add more value to his work.

I am not listing the songs sung by KK as it is known to all of you. Also, it can be searched through google / wikipedia. Music is divine and their is no language to that. He might sing "Sa ri ga ma pa dha ni sa"and in western world it is "do re mi fa so la ti do"- The more you listen to music, the more you experience common factors. And, it is the lead singer who give life to the music. Rarely do we come across great singers. Here is one who never publicise himself and dont want to come to limelight! Does it mean, we dont recognise him? Request all of you to share your thoughts.

PS -

a) This review is not meant to defame many succesful playback singers. My observations are purely mine and I do take the responsibility of the same!

b) Any one who is trained in music are most welcome to add your thoughts! (ofcourse all are welcome even if I invite some experts also here)