He studied both medicine and music. And by the time he received his master's degree in western classical music in California, he had made up his mind. He gave up the scalpel and took up the bow, the kind that glides on strings, and dedicated his life to healing the soul.
Equally at ease with malkauns and jazz, Dr L. Subramaniam was in Calcutta recently to spread the magic of his violin along with son, Ambi, at one of the city's marquee classical dos.
The duo started early at 3.00am, when it was still dark, and played till dawn broke at Nazrul Manch, once upon a time an open air theatre, or OAT, where rock concerts and theatre thrived side by side.
"Calcutta is always special. It is a place of culture. I have played at Dover Lane (music conference) before. People sit all night to listen to classical music, which is something beautiful. It is so satisfying. I wish other places were like this," the maestro says, hours before he takes the stage.
What will he be playing this time? "I haven't thought about it," he says, at which Ambi breaks into a smile.
"It's all about the moment," says the 26-year-old disciple, also a piano player. "Sometimes, he even announces a piece and then proceeds to play something entirely different. It is hard to keep up."
But then, that is exactly what Dr LS is all about. Spontaneity and improvisation. Dr LS and son ended up playing Kambhoj Varnam, Ragam Tanam Pallavi in Chandrapriya and an extended encore of Raag Bhairavi - "an inner voice guides you... and then the music becomes a part of you."
I first met Dr LS in Bangalore in the January of 2003, when he was touring with a host of top-draw musicians of international stature for the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival held annually in memory of his father, who is credited with a series of stellar innovations that revolutionised violin playing in India.
That is the other side of "Mani", the affectionate title bestowed on him by friends and all-time collaborators, the list of which reads like an encyclopaedia of musicians and genres spanning rock, jazz and contemporary to classical. From Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Stephane Grappelli, Larry Coryell, George Duke, Stanley Clarke and Herbie Hancock to Allahrakha, Ali Akbar Khan, V.G. Jog, Pandit Jasraj and Palghat Mani Iyer to name a few, we only need to flip through his album catalogue to capture the range of his creativity. Check out the frenetic Flight of the Humble Bee in Indian Express, where Dr LS debuted the violin synthesiser, the melancholic Beyond The Flames in From The Ashes with Coryell, and Fantasy On Vedic Chants with the Kirov Symphony Orchestra.
It all started circa 1973-74 when George Harrisson was putting together an ensemble of Indian musicians to hold a series of concerts across Europe, ultimately culminating in the seminal album, Ravi Shankar and Friends. "He (George) was fascinated by the Indian violin. So, we did the tour, travelled and came to Los Angeles to record the album. Then, it was followed by another album with a similar group. I was featured as a South Indian soloist... the rest of it was ensemble playing," recalls Dr LS about the experience that included the likes of Hariprasad Chaurasia and Allahrakha.
At that garden city concert, he was joined by the iconic Jean Luc Ponty, the Frenchman credited with positioning the violin as the standout instrument in jazz-rock, and the legendary drummer, Billy Cobham.
Among the many pieces they played together was Conversations, the title track of Dr LS's seminal album with Stephane Grappelli. Ponty and Mani soared that night, performing an extended sawal-jawab that brought the house down.
"You know, I composed the piece the night before we recorded. Grappelli said, 'No, Mani, you write something and we will do something together'. So, I had to. I did not even have a title," recalls Dr LS, going on to reveal how towards the end of the session they realised they still had "five to seven minutes" left to complete the album.
"Then Grappelli started to play the piano - and I didn't know till then that he did - and I asked him if I could borrow the tune. He said yes and called it Tribute to Mani."
At 70, Dr LS keeps himself busy. He was in Dhaka a few weeks ago, playing with a symphony orchestra to an audience of 35,000 people.
Yet, there is a concern that gnaws away at the back of his mind.
"There have been musicians all along. But there are few people who have turned up, say, once in a century, who have made a big difference like, say, Palghat Mani Iyer, M.S. Subbulakshmi, Bismillah Khan and several others. Now there is a big vacuum," he says, explaining that in the South, the violin seems to be losing its place as an independent torchbearer of classical traditions.
The violin was being pitted against our vocal traditions, when in reality both should "co-exist, not at the cost of each other but be encouraged to thrive together". Ironically, the tendency of relegating the violin purely as an accompanying instrument is what Dr LS's father, Prof. Lakshminarayana, strived against all his life.
After 1958, by when the family had returned to India, having been forced to flee the anti-Tamil pogrom of Sri Lanka, Prof. Lakshminarayana thought of a way out. He formed the Violin Trio comprising three of his sons, L. Vaidyanathan, L. Subramaniam and L. Shankar (the double violinist of Shakti, remember?). Under his tutelage, the brothers excelled themselves. They demolished conventions and broke all rules with impunity. The result was a dramatic transformation in the way the violin was heard in south India.
I turn to Ambi, who had a solo session at Dover Lane this time, to ask what he feels about those concerns and how intimidating it is to have a Dr LS as a guru.
"What I have always tried to do is bring in some individuality like Appa has done. My hope is that when somebody listens to my playing within the first 5-10 seconds, they would be able to identify that this is Ambi playing. If I am able to do that, then I think everything else is irrelevant in a way," he says with the articulation of a seasoned veteran.
Ambi's rendition of Maha Ganapathim - Nattai and Siddhi Vinayakam - Raag Shanmukhapriya was testimony to the way today's musicians were confronting the challenges of the past.
Play on.
