Musical Routes India, the Tireless Well Centre Casa Asia-Madrid - Media Library Palacio de Miraflores Carrera de San Jer贸nimo, 15 28014 Madrid Tel.: 91 429 68 00 mediateca.madrid@casaasia.es www.casaasia.es Casa Asia Consortium:
India, the Tireless Well
The anecdote is well known by many people, but it is worth remembering. In August 1971, the masters Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan took part in the festival Concert for Bangladesh, organised due to the delicate situation of the Asian country that struggled for independence and had suffered exceptional monsoons. As the classical practice shows, the two musicians tuned in their instruments (zitar and sarod, respectively) on the stage. When the preparation was over, shy and spontaneous claps could be heard from the audience, and ended up becoming a closed ovation by the whole of the public. Surprised and with certain irony, Shankar pointed out: “If you have enjoyed our tuning in so much, I hope you enjoy the concert even more�. The story has been told many times, but it hides a great truth: To approach Indian music involves changing registers we are used to in the West and to be prepared, from humbleness of those who do not know a lot, to enter a universe that is going to surprise us continuously. I doesn’t matter if we talk about the classical tradition, from the north or south of the subcontinent (clearly differentiated), about popular songs, about religious prayers or greatest hits of current pop. The multiplicity of musical forms that a region with so much history offers, with so many cultures, with so much dynamism, can overwhelm, obviously. But what is most logical is to be seduced by its exquisite melodic formulas, before the delicate sensitivity of its percussions, before these manifestations of spirituality, before the surprising coexistence of the most ancestral culture with the new proposals... In a moment where India lives the accelerated change of an atavistic order, we invite you to discover the tireless well of its music.
Musical Routes
index
India, Classical Music India, Carnatic Music India, Bollywood music Pakistรกn, qawwali
India, Encounters between the East and the West
India, the Tireless Well
Musical Routes
India, Classical Music
India, the Tireless Well
In an instrumental or vocal format, the classical music of north India is one of the most sublime artistic expressions that have ever existed in the world. Its melodic and rhythmic structures (ragas and talas, respectively) as the concept that hides behind every composition are greatly complex, as a result without a doubt of the long period of time during which it was a reserved art for social elites. Luckily enough, this class border was broken and the music that once decorated the exclusive halls of Mogol courts (Mahometan dynasty of India) has conquered hearts and minds of all over the world, thanks to the emotions that it is able to express and generate. This capacity lies within the intention of the performer able to reach the four situations of all human people: Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. From these premises, in a concert of classical music of north India the exchange of feelings that is produced among musicians and the audience is more important than the exhibition of virtuous abilities (never ignored, of course). This millennial concept slowly changed in the 20th Century: The appearance of the radio All India Radio as a great means to spread music after the independence of the country and the progressive introduction of a discographic reproduction conditioned the capacity of musicians to manage its improvisation, essential element to achieve the maximum and main purpose. Luckily enough, the talent of great artists linked to this tradition has allowed a millennial heritage to be adapted to the reality of our time and that the classical music of north India is more popular and close as ever, in its purist forms and in interesting projections of the future, in high level recordings as in concerts that recover the original of music created to impress from calmness.
Musical Routes
India, Classical Music
India, the Tireless Well
To talk about Robindra “Ravi” Shankar (Varanasi, India, 1920) is to talk about a visioneer, a pioneer, an experimenter and a catalyzer. It is to talk about a musicial who knew how to risk in a suitable moment and place to take the Indian music one step further. It is to talk about who is deserved to be considered the master of the music of the world. Born in the bosom of a humble family as the youngest of four brothers, in 1938 Shankar decided to become a disciple of the great ustad (“master”) Allauddin Khan, who is considered the creator of the Indian classical modern music and with whom he spent sever years in the locality of Maihar, learning the secrets of zitar according to the precepts of study, discipline and reclusion. Since then, Ravi Shankar, vital and lucid like few, has known how to build an excellent career and reputation, thanks to the creative talent, to his interpretive excellence and his personal coherence. Each one of his albums and conserts offer a small surprise to spectators in form of melodies that come out of his appreciated instrument and end becoming a gift for our souls. Even though it will hardly allow to discover a small part of an artistic career without comparisons (for those who are dary we recommend four albums of In Celebration, Emi Classics, 1994), the album that we present brings together nine songs in the best Indian tradition (Ravi Shankar often insists in defining himself as a simple interpreter of classical music) that allow to discover some of the most relevant aspects of his career: His rich period with Ali Akbar Khan, another of the great Indian musicians (Bilashkani Todi, 1964), his works for cinema (“Transmigration”, 1973) or theatre (“Kathakali Katthak”, 1992), his spectacular ragas («Dhun Man Pasand», 1986; «Mishra Piloo», 1991). The album “Pandit Ravi Shankar - Inde du Nord” (Ocora - Radio France, 1986) is also available at the Media Library, album that includes two ragas and a dhun where the master displays generously his power of rhythm and melody.
Ravi Shankar The Rough Guide to… World Music Network, 2004
India, Classical Music
India, the Tireless Well
It seems obvious, but it is convenient to remember it: Even though he is the most successful and famous artist, Ravi Shankar was not the only star of the small revolution that Indian music caused in the decade of the sixties of the 20th Century in the West. Among other relevant projects, we find this “Call of the valley”, turned into a hite in India and in the West soon after being edited. In 1967, year of its recording, Shivkumar Sharma (Jammu, India, 1938), Brijbushan Kabra (Jodhpur, India, 1937) and Hariprasad Chaurasia (Allahabad, India, 1938) were around thirty years old and tried to consolidate their own careers in the circle of the classical music of their country. Supported by the respected figure of Govindrao N. Joshi, the three young people decided to join their forces in a new project for the India of the time: To develop a conceptual history from an instrumental format, similar to what we know as suite in Western classical music. The five songs narrate a day in the live of a shepherd in the valley of Kashmir, from a traditional atmosphere (the interpretations begin with ragas associated to the different moments of the day to advance in the narration) but applying new concepts in the use of santoor, string instrument (Sharma), the slide guitar (Kabra) and the Bansuri flute (Chaurasia). Seen with perspective, the idea is simple and it obviously works. But those who got involves in the project (Manikrao Popatkar, table, must also be mentioned) were not sure about everything that evening in the studio of Bombay where they met. Luckily, they struggled for what they believed in, they placed all their talent at the service of music and “Call of the Valley” became a classical work of the scene of the music of the world (George Harrison, Bob Dylan or David Crosby, among others, have quoted it as a reference). To completely understand the project (its meaning, its creation, its repercussion…) it seems very interesting to read the texts of master Govindrao N. Joshi and of Ken Hunt who accompany this edition in a compact format.
Shivkumar Sharma, Brijbushan Kabra and Hariprasad Chaurasia Call of theValley Emi Records, 1995
India, Classical Music
India, the Tireless Well
Before the most classical forms, whose representation par excellence is the dhrupad (really considered an act of meditation that entertainment), there are also other musical expressions where what’s sacred and what’s prophan are closely linked. It is the case of the khyal singing (also spelt as khyel or khayaal), a vocal style that, from austerity, is shown with more elaborate and romantic characterstics than the religious dhrupad. The experts place its origins among the musicians that worked in the Mogol courts of the end of the 15th Century, and quote Niamat Khan (18th Century) as one of the most important authors of the genre, together with all those (Abdul Karim Khan, Faiyaz Khan, Amir Khan…) that at the end of the 19th Century and beginning of the 20th Century turned the khyal into the most popular vocal style of Indian classical music. Collecting all this heritage and thanks to his talent, Bhimsen Joshi (Gadag, India, 1922) has become an exceptional interpreter of the kyyal (probably the most important of the 20th Century) and therefore one of the most loved Indian vocalist. Even though he has received inspiration from different sources, his is directly linked to the renown musical school Kirana, founded by the aforementioned Abdul Karim Khan and of whom Sawai Gandharva was student, master of Bhimsen Joshi. All Joshi’s artistic career has been defined by the warmness of his voice and for his capacity for improvisation, details that in this live recording (Conventry, United Kingdom, 1993) achieved sublime moments. Published three years later, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the master, Bhimsen Joshi interprets the wrapping and extense ragas «Maru Bihag» and «Abhogi», two compositions that allow listeners to discover all the capacities of this magistral singer.
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi In Celebration Navras Records, 1996
India, Classical Music
India, the Tireless Well
Even if nobody argues that the zitar is the best known string Indian instrument, nobody argues that the sarangi, the surbahar or the santoor are able to generate the same musical empathy when they are in hands of a good artisan of ragas either. The sarod, the musical tool with which Ali Akbar Khan (Comilla, Bangladesh, 1922 - San Anselmo, USA, 2009) expressed himself belongs to the category of brilliant soloist stars of the Indian classical music. Related to the Afghan rabel and smaller that the zitar, the sarod is normally built with one wooden teca piece that is added to goats (to cover the resonance box) and eight or ten main strings (half of them for the melody and the other half to highlight the rhythm), added to a dozen nice strings that have the definite character to the instrument. If the zitar has Ravi Shankar as its champion, the sarod found in Ali Akbar Khan the figure that it needed to place itself as an outstanding star of the planetary musical constellation. Son of Allaudin Khan, multi instrumentalist who stared the first great period of the modern Indian classical music, Ali Akbar Khan is a master of melody, who recreates with delicacy and extreme expressivity the most diverse ragas of the Indostanic repertoire, turns pieces of Indian folklore into works of classical appearance or approaches the Western harmonies. We find a small portion of all this characteristics in “Garden of Dreams”, a work that gathers nine relatively short pieces (except three) that come from original ragas («Power of joy» comes from the raga «Kaushi Kanra»; «Blessings of the heart» is originated in «Iman Kalyan») as in songs from Rajasthan («Two lovers», «Water lady»), turning to the West now and then («India blue»).
Ali Akbar Khan Garden of Dreams Triloka Records, 1999
India, Classical Music
India, the Tireless Well
The title of this album could not be more explicit. All in all, Vilayat Khan (Gauripur, Bangladesh, 1928 - Bombay, India, 2004) shows in this recording his power of Indostanic music interpreting with the instrument that has made him famous and accompanied by the tabla of Akram Khan, the raga Shree. It lasts 75 minutes, divided in two parts (alap, slow and meditative; drut gal in tintal, slow and expressive) that for neophits could result exagerated, but that to any curious ear will allow them to discover why the experts place this ustad (analogue term to pandit and with which the best musicians are paid tribute to) in the same privileged position that Ravi Shankar has. Like many other Indian great artists, Vilayat Khan was born in the bosom of a musical family (in his case, one of the highest class of the country, already present in the Mogol courts) and began his relationship with music as a child (it is said that he took part in his first recording when he was only 8 years old). Educated in the style of the musical school Imdadkhani, Vilayat Khan went a step further and, in the mid-50’s he developed a zitar with which he achieved a sound of greater resonance and less buzzing. He also bet to carry out his interpretation without the company of the tambura, using the chikari strings of the zitar to replace the tonal effect of the aforementioned instrument. This was how he ended up creating a new style for zitar known as gayaki or vocal style. It is not strange that the master carried out this search, because Vilayat Khan doubted in his childhood between singing and the zitar. To end, we will say that chosen notes in the book are a forced reading: As well as introducing us two artists, they introduce us in the modal and tonal characteristics of the zitar, in the structures of Indian classical music, in the specific interpretation Vilayat Khan makes on this occasion.
Ustad Vilayat Khan Sitar India Archive Music, 1999
India, Classical Music
Recommendations
> Hariprasad Chaurasia / Zakir Hussain, Venu, Rykodisc, 1989 Duet of the Bansuri flute and tabla to develop the raga «Ahir Bhairav», which with its mixture of romanticism and devotion is thought for the first moments of the morning.
> Lakshmi Shankar, Live in London,Vol. 1, Navras Records, 1992 Recorded during a concert offered in London, the classical repertoire that this album includes (two ragas and a bhajan, prayer song) discovers us the talent of this respected singer and the expressive and emotive richness of the thumri (romantic or prayer song dedicated to Krishna), a lighter vocal form than the dhrupad (spiritual song organized in 4 verses with a rhyme) and the khyal. > Ram Narayan, Inde du Nord: l’art du sarangi, Ocora - Radio France, 1998 Reedition in compact of an album published for the first time in 1971 and that involved, at the same time, the presentation in the West of an amazing musician and of an instrument that holds an extraordinary melodic eloquence. > Shivkumar Sharma, Sampradaya, Real World Records, 1988 Deepening into his work with the santoor (he took it from popular songs to classical music) and into his powerful musical vision, Sharma carries out a sublime exercise together with his song Raul (also santoor) from the raga «Janasammohini». > Ustad Allarakha Khan, The Ultimate in Taal-Vidya, Magnasound/India, 1989 “Everything in life is rhythm” the master used to say, first interpreter of tabla in offering solos at concerts, tireless explorer of new rhythmical possibilities, faithful disciple of Ravi Shankar for centuries, proliphic composer for the Indian cinematographic industry.
Musical Routes
India, Carnatic Music
India, the Tireless Well
We often identify the classical music of north India as the Indian music par excellence (even as the only one). It is a logical mistake to an extent if it is contemplated from a recent and western historical perspective (the definite entrance of Indian music in our lives was produced by Ravi Shankar, Hariprasad Chaurasia or Ali Akbar Khan, all of which were educated in this tradition), but it is a mistake we should avoid. Among other reasons because classical musica that represents the Hindu tradition prior to the Mogol invasions of the 15th Century that has been preserved in south India, tradition known as carnatic music. If both share fundamental idea (raga), in the south these performances should be more specific (while the musicians of the north are broadened searching for the notes of raga, in the south they directly dive in to it) and of a greater rhythmical intensity. Instruments also change: Here we find the vina (considered the ancestor of the zitar), the nagaswaram (an oboe used in ceremonies, processions and weddings) or the mridagam (a drum with two sides that can be oposed to the tabla), together with others such as the violine or the mandoline that, on some occasions, have been changed to be adapted to the needs of carnatic scales and to continue maintaining the flame of a legate alive that recovered all its glory thanks to a trio of exceptional composers.Worshiped as if they were saints, Shyama Shastra (1762-1827),Thyagaraja (1767-1847) and Muttusvami Dikshithar (1775-1835) are known as the holy trinity of carnatic music and their numerous creations (only Thyagaraja is attributed 600 kritis or devotional songs) served for music carnatic to recover its place, lost after being present for centuries in the whole subcontinent to the rhythm of Hinduism and the mythology developed around it.
Musical Routes
India, Carnatic Music
India, the Tireless Well
Acclaimed as a poet and a composer, respected by his knowledge of carnatic music, Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna (Sankaraguptam, India, 1930) is one of the most important figures of the Indian vocal music of the 20th Century. Prodigue child born in the bosom of a musical family (his father played the flute, the violin and the vina; his mother, also the vina), is author of more than 400 compositions in different languages (Telugu, Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Pujabi and Tamil, among others). Precisely that creative spirit was considered a sacrilege by many orthodoxes, who considered that nobody could write new ragas. However, if something has characterised our star in his artistic life it has been the search for the limit: As well as singing, he plays the percussion, the viola and the violin; and the age of 15 he already mastered the fundamental ragas of carnatic music (the 72 melakharta ragas) and was one of the first in taking part in the called jugalbandhi (concerts shared by two famous soloists). And all this without forgetting, of course, the value of his tradition.This is how his innovative work has ended establishing the new bases in carnatic music, for the contribution of new ragas and for its rhythmical innovations. With this album we discover his melodic, versatile and charming voice, which dominates with extreme ease the Indian scales and that impacts from the beginning (in ÂŤSangeetamanyÂť, song that opens the album, 13 minutes before the percussion decides to sound together with the master). Accompanied by T.H. Vinayakram (ghatam, percussion instrument), Bikram Ghosh (tabla), B.V. Raghavendra Rao (violin) and Selva Ganesh (kanjira, small tambourine), interprets five songs (three of which are his own) of quite and relaxed environment, ideal for the religious devotion the title of the album highlights.
Dr. Balamurali Krishna Mukundarasam, songs on Lord Krishna Chhanda Dhara, 1995
India, Carnatic Music
India, the Tireless Well
All the cultures have pioneers, people who open paths without knowing where they are going. In Indian music, this adventurers, far from being hated as strange characters contrary to tradition are normally well received (even though there is always an unavoidable group of intransigents who break the rule) and end turning their bet into the winning one. This is the case of Upalappu Srinivas (Palakol, India, 1969), who one day as a child was deeply attracted by an electric mandoline (the same that US musicians of bluegrass use). As it is an instrument far from the Indian tradition, Srinivas didn’t have rules or teachers to learn carnatic ragas with to then transport them to this peculiar instrument. But he managed to, without a doubt, thanks to his talent and effort until in 1981 he could present this new style he was developing to the audience. At the prestigious festival Madras Music Season, and since then U. Srinivas has advanced many steps in his career, in India and on an international scale. After publishing many recordings in his country, he carried out a series a projects for the English label Real World Records, being “Rama Sreerama� the most highlighted one, six pieces with a strong delotional character (devoted to figures of the Hindi pantheon such as Ganesha, Rama, Sreerama or Murugan), written by Srinivas himself or by Master Thyagraja (1767-1847, one of the great carnatic composers) and that, interpreted together with Sikkil R. Bhasakaran (violin), Thiruvarur Bhakthavathsalam (mridangam, percussion instrument) and E.M. Subramaniam (ghatam), serve as a perfect introduction to the music of our star, who is also known as Mandolin Srinivas. I suppose it is not necessary to explain why.
U. Srinivas Rama Sreerama Real World Records, 1994
India, Carnatic Music
India, the Tireless Well
Ethno-musicians consider that it was in India where the first instruments with rubbed strings with arc appeared. Not in vain, the vedic texts show the existence of many of them, such as the pimga, vana or the dhanur yantra. And Ravana, mythological anthagonist of the heroes of the epopeya “Ramayana” is normally drawn with an instrument of the mentioned family, the ravanastra, in his hands. If in India, therefore, what we consider the ancestors of the violin were born, it is not strange to see and hear Laksminarayana Subramaniam (Jaffna, Sri Lanka, 1947) interpreting extense ragas with this European instrument, which probably reached the Indian courts five centuries ago as a gift of Portuguese traders. If we also add that he is the son of V. Laksminarayana, also violinist and deep expert in the theory and practice of the carnatic music, we will understand that his and his brothers destination (L. Shankar and L. Vaidyanathan) was unavoidably linked to four strings. Kind, dynamic and spiritual, Subramaniam has been compared to great Western musicians such as Paganini, Heifetz or Menuhin. His fingers and arc are able to draw melodies with very different characteristics (fulgurant, melancholic, frivolous, majestic…), but that always maintain a transparent sensitivity that joins the rythmical and melodic complexity of south India. With scarce superfluous gestures, but tremendously generous in talent, L. Subramaniam is able to extract all the colours of his violin the play our mood states. It is simple to check what we have mentioned listening to the two ragas («Raga Mohanam» and «Raga Kirvani») of this extraordinary album, 60 minutes that cast a spell like few.
L. Subramaniam Le violon de l’Inde du Sud Ocora - Radio France, 1988
India, Carnatic Music
India, the Tireless Well
The gottuvadyam, also known as the chitravina is one of the oldest and most complex instruments of carnatic music. It presents 21 strings: Six main ones to develop the melody and another three main ones to create the tone and under these nine, the twelve of resonance. To carry out its performance, the interpreter sits down placing the body of the instrument on its right, while the masts lays on its legs. With the fingers of their right hand the create the melody, thanks to the three plectrums he pinches the strings with, while the left hand searches for tonality, helped by a cylindro that puts pressure on the strings (similar method to the one used by certain guitarists of blues and rock). Currently, and for around three decades, the most highlighted interpreter of the gottuvadyam is Vidwan N. Ravikiran (Mysore, India, 1967). As the title of the album we present we are before another child prodigy: They account that he recognised the rhythms (talas) and the melodies (ragas) when he was only 2 years old, that he debuted as a vocalist when he was 5 and that he gave his first concert of gottuvadyam when he was 10. In his hands the instrument brilliantly exhibits his characteristic voices, those hetereous sounds that in the West we associate to electronic instruments, such as the theremin, but are typical of Indian melodies and that result ideal for intimate environments. Accompanied by the percussionists Trichur R. Mohan (mridangam) and T.H. Subashchandran (ghatam), Ravikran’s interpretation is, in this album, captivating. Special attention must be paid to the twenty minutes of the popular raga Shankara Bharanam, written by Shyama Shastra (1762-1827), who together with Muttusvami Dikshithar (1775-1835) and Thyagaraja (1767-1847) make up the trinity of carnatic music.
N. Ravikiran Young Star of Gottuvadyam Chhanda Dhara, 1987
India, Carnatic Music
India, the Tireless Well
In the West we are used to identifying Indian classical music to instrumental music, we do not know about the great voices of the subcontinent, those devoted to popular songs like those that devotional singing hold. If we add that discographic labels and festivals of this side of the planet have paid special attention on veteran and consolidated artists, the subsequent generations to Ravi Shankar or Ali Akbar Khan have found a double wall that has made it difficult for them to show their art to the rest of the world. And it shouldn’t be this way in the case of Sudha Ragunathan (Madras, India), because on few occasions a musician is able, thanks to her presence and simplicity, of taking listeners to that special place called happiness. From his debut three decades ago, and after having learned next to the renown singer Madras Lalitangi Vasanthakumari, Ragunathan has shown the reasons that have made her be considered one of the most exquisite female voices of carnatic music: Strength, spirituality, devotion. This album, devoted to the female power that the main energy involves, we are offered a mature and vibrant artist, expert in the resources and nuances, that interprets seven devotional songs that are found among the most popular of carnatic music. The versions that have been made last six and seven minutes, with the purpose declared by Ragunathan herself of attracting direct attention of western ears. The exception is «Visalakhsim Vishveshim», the spectacular impovisation that closes the album. 30 anthological minues that go from a hymn honouring Devi, written by Muttusvami Dikshithar (1775-1835) two centuries ago, where Ragunathan offers all her talent showing her capacity to create beauty on every moment.
Sudha Ragunathan Shakti, Chant sacré de l’Inde du Sud Accords Croisés, 2004
India, Carnatic Music
Recommendations
> Aruna Sairam, Inde du Sud: Padam, le chant de Tanjore, Ocora - Radio France, 2000 Slowly a paused voice conquers your mind and body, without being able to aboid it, as classical poems are recited accompanied by a simple instrumentation that can hardly be heard.
> Chitravina Ganesh, Inde du Sud: musique carnatique, Buda Records, 2000 Related to Vidwan N. Ravikiran, this elegant recording shows us an artist who, from the respect for tradition, flows by intuition. The reading of the texts in English and French is recommended about the characteristics and history of carnatic music. > Dr. N. Ramani, New Dimensions On The Flute, Magnasound/India, 1993 As the musical instrument of Krishna, the flute holds a special position in Indian music that can be discovered in this delicious work of one of its legendary masters. The book includes in English an interesting glossary of Indian musical terms. > Ramnad Krishnan, Vidwan, Elektra/Nonesuch, 1988 Published for the first time in 1968, this work involved the international presentation of one of the masters of carnatic singing, know for his capacity for improvisation and at the same time his artistic will because he died five years later. > Ranganayaki Rajagopalam, Karaikudi vani, Makar, 1997 Educated in the tradition of the school Karaikudi since she was chosen by the great master Shri Sambasiva Iyer when he was 7 years old, Rajagopalam is the inheritor of one of the subtlest traditions of Indian music.
Musical Routes
India,
Bollywood music
India, the Tireless Well
In India, cinema is not understood without the music that makes its main characters dance or the songs that try to explain its stories.
The formula is simple: A plot that –without effects- mixes action, comedy, drama and romance (there is time for everything in three and a half hours that an Indian film normally lasts) with colourful choreographies and instantaneous melodies. It is the effective recipe for cooking masala, the filmsshows that are successful in India (also in China, the Magreb, certain parts of South America) and that have truned the cinematographic industry of Bombay into the most productive of the world (around 800 films a year). Every masala must include at least six songs (called filmi sangeet) that, as well as their quality, must play an important role in the development of the film. This relevant role comes from the nautanki tradition, theatre shows that used musich to tell stories, something common in all the cultures of the world for centuries before the scarce or non existent litteracy of the people. Nowadays, films are the only evations (because they are cheap) at the reach of the poorest, a public that during a film clap, sing, whistle, encourages or dance with no embarassment. Curiously, the actors and actresses of masala only give face and body to songs. The voices behind the songs are by good singers, such as legendary Mohammed Rafi (who, 30 yeras after his death, is still one of the most appreciated singers by the public) or the sisters Lata Mangeskhar and Asha Bhosle (in active since the independence of the country and who are attributed the recordings of around 15000 songs in their career). Among the young ones Kumar Sanu stands out, who seems to have recorded thirty songs in one day. And in case there was any doubt, the importance of cinema for the Indian-Pakistani community is shown when we discover that Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, singer linked to Sufi mysticism, recorded Hindi pop songs for several films.
Musical Routes
India,
Bollywood music
India, the Tireless Well
It is not exaggerated to affirm that the recent interest of the western audience for Bollywood cinema begins with the success of this film. Even though it is necessary to say that the long film, directed by Mira Nair and awarded with a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival of 2001, does not follow the usual steps of the eternal and colourist masala that make the loveliness of the Indian audience. For this second collaboration with Nair (“Kama Sutra” in 1997 was the first one), Mychael Danna decided to explore a broad variety of emotions, searching to express the different situations and feelings that are generated around a transcendental moment for the life of many people such as a wedding. Another strong point of the cinematographic work is the constant debate between tradition and modernity, between the India of the past and of the future. Adding both paths, Danna takes us from the party that «Baraat» plays to the paused piano interpreted by «Hold me, I’m falling» or to the electronic land of «Delhi.com». Together with all these original songs, the soundtrack mixes Indostanic classics (the languid «Aaj mausam bada beimann hai» sung by the legendary Mohammed Rafi; the mystic «Allah hoo» in the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) with proposals contributed by the Diaposra («Fabric / Aaja savariya» by MIDIval PunditZ; «Aaja nachle» by Bally Sagoo). But probably the remembered songs by the audience is «Aaj mera jee karda», sung by Sukhwinder Singh to the rhythm of bhangra-rock, and the Bollywood style «Chunari chunari», with the usual duets between the masculine and female stars of the film. And a last curiosity: Mychael Danna made this work while his fiancé was in charge of all the plans for the wedding… Indian, of course.
Mychael Danna MonsoonWedding Mirabai Films, 2001
India,
Bollywood music
India, the Tireless Well
As it is logical to imagine, the stars of the Bollywood industry have changed with time. But there are always some names that are highlighted above the rest and that remain in the collective memory. It is the case of Mohammed Rafi (Kotla Sultan Singh, Pakistan, 1924), who thirty years alter his death is still one of the most loved singers by a public that placed him and maintains him on top of the Indian musical pantheon, together with Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar y Lata Mangeshkar. His voice that still influences and inspires the new values of the genre, in films of essential composers such as R.D. Burman, S.D. Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Madan Mohan, Naushad Ali o Ravi and Shankar Jaikishan can be heard. Unique and inimitable, Rafisahib (how he was known) accompanied the fantasies with which millions of people evaded a tough reality. He was born in the bosom of an accommodated Punjabi family, the beginning of the fabulous artistic career of Rafi coincided with the golden period of Indian cinema, a moment that collected the spirit and hope that flooded the country after its independence of 1947. Even though it would not be until 1952 with the film “Baiju Bawra” that he achieved his first success. From here on, his figure achieved such a mythical and undestructible stature that being Muslim he sang Hindu religious classical hymns to make a fool of the religious disputes promoted by the politicians of the time. This album –which is opened with the surprising «Chand mera dil» (1977), includes the popular «Pardesiyon se na ankhiyan milana» (1965) and collects several duets that Rafisahib stared with the Lata Mangeshkar sisters («Woh hain zara khafa khafa», 1967) y Asha Bhosle («Hum kisise kum naheen», 1977)- is, at the same time, tribute to his figure and opportunity to get to know him.
Mohammed Rafi The Rough Guide To Bollywood Legends World Music Network, 2004
India,
Bollywood music
India, the Tireless Well
Since he recorded his first song when he was only 10 years old for the production “Majha Bal”, the voice of Asha Bhosle (Sangli, India, 1933) has been heard in Indian films that nobody has managed to count. And who cares? His name and art accompany generations of Indian people for several decades, to the point where the pop group Cornershop gave him the song «Brimful of Asha». This recognition has arrived despite the fact that his beginnings were modest because the star roles were always given to other singers. In 1954 he achieved his first great success when he shared the song «Nanhe munne bachche» for the film “Boot Polish” with Mohammed Rafi. And he never stepped off that first step, especially remembering his stage together with the director Rahul Dev Burman in the sixties and seventies of the 20th Century. In 1981 he made a turn in his career and recorded the album “Umrao Jaan”, with which he approached ghazal (the Central Asian rooted poetic tradition) and showed all his versatility as an interpreter. This double album that we have chosen gathers two of the most important sides of Bhosle. On the one hand, the quoted approach to the ghazal by the master Pandit Somesh Mathur, who tries to connect the most classical tradition (Bhosle sings very popular songs, such as «Sarakti jaye hai», «Aawargi» or «Chupke chupke») to contemporary styles. On the other hand, the duets that Asha Bhosle has carried out during her long artistic career. The eight pieces that we have been shown, under the title of “Romantic duets” have been chosen with the help of Bhosle herself and allow to listen to her together with other great legends of Filmi Music, such as Rahul Dev Burman, Mohammed Rafi or Lata Mangeshkar.
Asha Bhosle Love Supreme Saregama India, 2006
India,
Bollywood music
India, the Tireless Well
The queen of melody… The nightingale of India… The golden voice… A living legend… The immortal… Are some of the names with which Lata Mangeshkar (Indore, India, 1929) is known. Figure that goes beyond any description that is tried to be made of her, because it is difficult to understand and visualize everything it means for Indian music, who from the end of the 40’s of the 20th Century has given voice to the songs interpreted by the main stars of the masala (it is convenient to remember that the actors and actresses of Bollywood only give face and body to songs) and has worked with the most important composers of the industry, from Khemchand Prakash to A.R. Rahman. Not in vain she is the model the singers of all subsequent generations have, despite the fact that she still works and shows the young girls up. Nobody can sing like her, with the same emotion and quality, genres as difficult as a bhajan (a Hindu devotional hymn) and a light romantic song, following the example of her father, Dinanath Mangeshkar, a respected actor of nautanki who also mastered classical singing, because the aforementioned theatre tradition uses music to tell stories. To discover Lata Mangeshkar, there are few opportunities better than this compilation of her best songs, an anthology with which we can travel around her career, beginning with the film “Barsaat” (1949), which involved her first success and ending with “Lekin” (1991), film produced by herself. As well as enjoying the extraordinary talent of Lata Mangeshkar and the gift her voice is, this temporary path will allow us to visualize the evolution of a part of Filmi Music, closest to the classical sound.
Lata Mangeshkar The Greatest Film Songs Nascente, 2001
India,
Bollywood music
India, the Tireless Well
Born in Madras in 1966, A.R. Rahman (really, A.S. Dileep Kumar) is the most important composer of current Bollywood and one of the first to break the racism of the industry towards Indian people from the south of the subcontinent. Rahman began his musical career in the world of advertising melodies (jingle), until the legendary cinematographic director Mani Ratman offered him the opportunity to enter into cinema when he offered him the composition of the soundtrack of “Red”. This happened in 1992. Since then, nothing has been the same in the modern music of the Asian country. If until then the songs in films were like a break in the development of the film –a break in the very long Indian productions- since “Red” music is an instrinsic part of the story that is told, like dialogues or lighting. The collaboration between A.R. Rahman and Mani Ratean has been maintained throughout the years through films such as “Bombay” (1994), “Alai Payuthey” (2000) or “Kannatil” (2002). The enormous success achieved with these works, as well as his talent and work capacity, has attracted the attention of other directors, such as Rajiv Mennon (Kandukondain Kandukondain, 2000), K. Balachander (Parthale Paravasam, 2001) or Andrew Lloyd Webber (he applied for the services of Rahman for the musical “Bombay Dreams”, premiered in London in 2002). In this context of continued production, “Introducing” by A.R. Rahman is a necessary compilation to initiate in the work of the Indian composer for two reasons: The correct choice of songs (a total of 24, among which successes such as «Maargazhi», «Minsara Kanna», «Idhu Manmatha Maadham» or «Nthiyae Nathiyae» can be found) and the text of the book, with interesting declarations of A.R. Rahman himself.
A. R. Rahman Introducing Saregama, 2006
India,
Bollywood music
Recommendations
> Bollywood Brass Band, Rahmania, Emergency Exit Arts, 2003 Reinterpreted from London by a numerous and powerful group of metals, A.R. Rahman’s songs sound with new jazz, reggae, funk or samba arrangements in this modern tribute to the master. > Various, Best of Bollywood, BMG/Telstar, 2001 Under this daring title two and a half hours of songs extracted from the greatest blockbusters of Indian cinema are brought together, songs that sound in the great voices of the genre. It includes names of the respective interpreters and composers. > Various, Rafi: Melodies of The Baadshah, Times Music India, 2003 Curious work that brings together 14 classical pieces of Mohammed Rafi, but in an instrumental version. Regretfully, there is a total absence of information about the people in charge of carrying out these new interpretations. > Various, The Rough Guide to Bollywood, World Music Network, 2002 15 songs to get to know the legendary figures of Bollywood (Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi) and the most outstanding voices of current productions (Chitra, Lucky Ali, Alka Yagnik). > Various, The World of Bollywood, Zyx Music, 2006 Another double album with more than 20 songs. Modest for the scarce information it offers listeners, its interest eradicates in the musical selection that believes in unusual names for this kind of productions.
Musical Routes
Pakistán, Qawwali
India, the Tireless Well
From qaul arab (“the word of the prophet”) qawwal (“those who repeat or sing qaul”) and qawwali (“the art of qawwal” derive. This is how the musical expression of the suffis of southeast Pakistan and north India is called, who like the Turkish dervishes or Moroccan gnawas, use the rhythm, melody and singing to reach wajad, a state of trance that allows the individual and direct communication with Allah. Historians consider that qawwali, as we know it nowadays, appeared 700 years ago, even though their first roots can be found in ancient Persia, from where certain ceremonial forms appeared and were adapted to local traditions where they were found.The definite development of the comunion between both musical manifestations (Persian and Indian) and religious manifestations (Islamic and Hindu) are normally attributed to Amir Khusro (1253-1325), who is also pointed out as the introducer of Persian and Arab elements in Indostanic classical music. A group of musicians of qawwali, called party or humnawa, normally gather eight or nine men sitting down in two rows: In the first row, the main vocalist and one or two secondary singers that also play the harmony; in the second row, two percussionists (normally the tabla and the dholak) and a choir of four or five voices that reinforce the ceremony reppeating the most important verses and marking the rhythm with clapping. For centuries, qawwali could only be heard in suffi sanctuaries (dargahs) built around a grave of some important religious personality. The ceremonies followed a strict code with which all the figures of Islam were remembered (Allah, Mahoma, Hussain...) and in a certain way the process of extasis of attendants was put into order. However, the appearance of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan represented a before and an after for qawwali, a tradition linked to a specific religious philosophy and that, suddenly, awakened the interest of people all over the world.
Musical Routes
Pakistán, Qawwali
India, the Tireless Well
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Faisalabad, Pakistan, 1948 – London, United Kingdom, 1997) is, without a doubt, the modern voice of the qawwali and a figure that few in these turbulent times has gone beyond the limits of Islam to connect to people of other religions, even agnostic. Main star of the change this hundred year old form of art experienced in the last third of the 20th Century, he managed to foresee the new times and to adapt to the different situations he found throughout his long and proliphic career without forgetting his roots (it is said that the bond of the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan family with the qawwali goes back six centuries). Among the many recordings that allow to know the most traditional side of the master this brilliant “The Last Prophet” can be found, made for Peter Gabriel’s label and that presents four long songs (between 13 and 22 minutes) in the best Sufi tradition. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s talent is shown here with all its splendour: It is the honest voice that touches the heart (going beyond any linguistic or religious border), he is the leader that at the same time behaves as another musician (taking part in the usual game of call and answer between soloists and the choir), he is the artist that disappears from the world to deepen into his deep interpretation (it does not seem difficult to imagine him in the studio with his eyes closed and his hands reaching out for the sky…). Greatest of the greatest, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s work, known as Shahen-Shah (“the shining star” in Urdu), is a heritage of humanity.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party The Last Prophet Real World, 1994
PakistĂĄn, Qawwali
India, the Tireless Well
With her brilliant and expressive voice, of dry and wrapping registers, Abida Parveen (Larkana, Pakistan, 1954) has become one of the most solid values of Indostanic Sufi music, beyond being one of the few women that practice it as a professional activity. After a period of learning together with her father Ghulam Haider and another with the great master Salamat Ali Khan, she began her career in 1973, surprising everyone for her capacity to connect to the audience during her concerts with kalam, the word of the the Sufi saints. She has continued like that since then, becoming a cult artist that perfectly adapts to the different Sufi styles of the region. In fact, in this work, Abida Parveen is closer to melodic ghazal than to rhythmical qawwali, interpreting six texts written by other mystical and musical poets from two generic forms (vai, a short lyrical poem from Sind and kafi, similar to out romances for structure of verses and chorus). Sung in Sindhi, Punjabi or Urdu, they use the figure of the beloved one (and the feelings its prolongued absence generate, the definite separation or a next visit) as a metaphor to talk about the relationship between human being and divinity, main purpose of Sufi mystic. Regarding the musical part it is highlighted that in some of her songs the bansuri flute of Henri Tournier can be heard, accompanying with delicacy and elegance the melodies designed by harmony and the rhythm marked by percussions (tabla and dholak) to make Abida Parveen stand out.
Abida Parveen Visal Accords CroisĂŠs, 2002
Pakistán, Qawwali
India, the Tireless Well
Recorded live in July 2001 during the third edition of the Festival de Músiques Religioses of Girona, this album served to introduce Faiz Ali Faiz (Sharaqpur, Pakistan, 1962) in the West, until then a stranger and who is now considered the most interesting qawwal of his generation. His exceptional vocal, powerful, brilliant, versatile registers are the reasons, comparable in spirit and in technique to those of his mentor Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Another feature that defines Faiz Ali Faiz is his predisposition to jump the order of the ritual of qawwali if it achieves to turn the audience on and to impose his personality as a singer. And this is how, on numerous occasions, he turns to the most rhythical and strong parts of the songs, forgetting the traditional introductions that serve musicians and the publice as a recession between piece and piece. In this recording the example of his version of the traditional kafi «Mera piya ghar aya» is an example, which has become from the first verse a unstoppable exchange of improvisations and answers between the main singer and the choir that is extended for 20 minutos. The influence of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is longer, more explicit, because Faiz Ali Faiz often sings pieces made popular by the great master (the album includes the classice hamd «Allah Hu» by the genius of Faisalabad, with Faiz Ali Faiz respecting, hierarchally, the initial introduction) and he even devoted him his following album (“L’amour de toi me fait danser”, Accords Croisés, 2004). The edition, as it happens with this French label includes a book with texts in English and French, short and precise, that help to understand the generic meaning of the lyrics of the mystic poems that serve as a base for qawwali, as well as reproducing different photographs.
Faiz Ali Faiz La nouvelle voix du Qawwali Accords Croisés, 2002
PakistĂĄn, Qawwali
India, the Tireless Well
Those initiated in qawwali have great respect for the legendary Sabri brothers, inheritors of a qawwal dynasty of long tradition. Even though Haji Ghulam Farid Sabri (Kalyana, Punjab, 1930 – Karachi, Pakistan, 1994) is warmly remembered, whose deep voice had generous love and passion, the duet that he shared with his brother Haji Maqbool Ahmad Sabri (Kalyana, Punjab, 1941) is still present in the memory of many Pakistanis, for his musical quality (since his discographic debut in 1958), for his sensitivity to reveal the poetry of the Sufi saints (the khwajagaan) and for being the first qawwals that travelled to the West. After two decades of great popularity, the two brothers and singers decided to separate their paths and the group was disolved in the mid-eighties. In fact, Maqnool Ahmad does not appear in this album, recorded in 1991, edited five years later and that, without being totally planned, has become a double tribute. The initial purpose of recovering the figure of Jami, Persian poet of the 15th Century registered in the best Sufi tradition, is added to the memory the talent of Haji Ghulam Farid Sabri means (the four songs are sung in Farsi, with some sentences in Urdu and Arab), who died without seeing the album despite the fact that singing in Jami was his idea. The texts of the Persian writer that also approach love towards the prophet Mahommah as a way to feel closer to Hallah, are completed with a musical wrapping that can seem more simple that what Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan developed, but that archieved the hypnotic progessions that characterize qawwali and of which the Sabri brothers were always excellent experts and transmitters.
Sabri Brothers Jami Piranha Music, 1996
PakistĂĄn, Qawwali
India, the Tireless Well
The death of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in the summer of 1997 made the throne of the qawwali orphan, especially among the western fans who hardly knew other figures of the genre (such as the Sabri brothers or Abida Parveen). Among the young people who aimed at becoming inheritors of the master, the first who are highlighted are the Rizwan brothers and Muazzam Ali Khan, a high class couple given the fact that they were nephews of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Still being very young and afther having successfully attended the Womad Festival of Reading of 1998, they recorded this album of classical qawwali with the same label that had hit his uncle’s international career. It is not exagerated to say that the spirit of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is very present in this recording, because the two brothers are faithful to the style that defined the master, this style he searched for without forgetting its religious message and that it caused the greatest impact in its audience. And this work definitely achieves this purpose. The recording brings together four traditional songs that go through other styles different to the qawwali (hamd, manqabat, naat and ghazal) and that are full of energy, reflection of the passion with which every qawwal holds its task of transmission between divinity and the mortals. The way we are used to our love or religious songs to be calm, intimate and even melancholic it is surprising to listen to these rhythmical and cyclic spiritual songs that seem to be endless and that generate a lovely feeling of wellbeing.
Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali Sacrifice to Love Real World, 1999
Pakistán, Qawwali
Recommendations
> Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Party, Back to Qawwali / Nusrat Forever, Long distance, 2000 This double compilation allowed the most daring to completely deepen into the exciting magic that the great voice of the qawwali shared. It includes two very interesting texts that help the listener to place itself in the situation. > Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, En Concert À Paris,Vol. 1, Ocora-Radio France, 1997 Recorded in 1985, the ustad (“master”) in pure state. Accompanied by his inseparable brother Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan, musical director and second voice of the party are five songs for 70 amazing minutes. > Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook, Night Song, Real World, 1996 The Pakistani singer and the Canadian guitarist with this work consolidated the project of musical exchange began with Mustt Mustt (Real World, 1990) and with which they introduced new textures in the kingdom of the qawwali. > The Sindhi Music Ensemble, Sufi Music from Sindh, Wergo, 1995 With its repertoire of popular songs, this album allows to discover the mystical and social roots from where the qawwali appeared. The rich instrumentation that it presents and the voices of Husna Naz and Sorba Fakir stand out. > Varios, The Kings & Queens of Qawwali, Shanachie Records, 1997 This compilation, subtitled Love & Devotion, collects four of the great names of the modern qawwali: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, The Sabri Brothers, Aziz Main and Abida Parveen (the only one who presented two songs).
Musical Routes
India, Encounters between the East and the West
India, the Tireless Well
Despite the fact that geographical refferences are always relative, from a eurocentric perspective the East begins in Istambul and ends in Japan.
Hardly anything! For centuries, the vision regarding this vast land has been moved between a romantic fascination expressed through multiple paintings and stories, economic and political interests that came from commercial disputes (even wars) and a certain feeling of superior society that generated painful processes of colonization and de-colonization. In this context, cultural exchanges never worked in such a fluid way: Nobody thought about the fact that the millennial Asian music, courtesan or religious (lets not think about popular manifestations) could reach the works of European composers.We had to wait until the 20th Century begun to turn on the light and see that the encounter between musicians of such different traditions was possible and attractive. There were some prior approaches from classical music, stared by Gustav Holst, Oliver Messaien or John Cage and from jazz with John Coltrane. But, without a doubt, the key figures to understand all these encounters that have taken place subsequently are Ravi Shankar and the beatle George Harrison, who enjoyed a relationship that went beyond musical limits. That friendship, together with which the classical violinist Yehudi Menuhim allowed Shankar to introduce himself before the public that had never before listened to the zitar and to attract the attention of many creators that discovered many possibilities in Indian music. Since then, the combination of elements and musical voices a priori distant stopped being something strange and became usual projects and, in most cases, vibrant. Among possible examples we highlight Ry Cooder and VM Bhatt, Mickey Hart and Alla Rakha, Dissidenten and Karnataka College of Percussion, Don Ellis and Harihar Rao, Jan Garbarek and Hariprasad Chaurasia, etc.y Karnataka College of Percussion, Don Ellis y Harihar Rao, Jan Garbarek y Hariprasad Chaurasia, etc.
Musical Routes
India, Encounters between the East and the West
India, the Tireless Well
In June 1967 the first edition of the Monterrey Festival was held, considered the precursor of the great musical events that nowadays are so usual. Around 200 thousand people approached the stages placed in California to enjoy the music of the best pop rock bands of the time: From Jimi Hendrix to Otis Reding, from Janis Joplin to The Mamas & The Papas. Curiously, for the lovers of music of the world the date in Monterey has a special meaning because the programme included an exciting performance of Ravi Shankar, the Indian master of the zitar. Shankar was not a stranger, because the Beatle George Harrison had visited him a year before, at the beginning of his Indian period, with the purpose to become his student (Shankar still smiles when he remembers that Harrison said that he only had one week to learn the technique of the instrument) and, in addition, he has already carried out one of his extraordinary musical exchanges with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin. But the jump that involved the performance in Monterey for the career of the master in the West is unquestionable because it placed him before a new audience that lived a mystical experience. Moreover, Indian musician was not shy and in the fifty minutes the concert lasted he performed, together with the table of Alla Rakha and the tambura of Kamala Chakravarti, with no artificial preservatives, a raga (the popular ÂŤBhimpalasiÂť), a tabla solo and a dhun, instrumental version of a song. The master has always considered that concert as a highly gratifying experience and remembers with special love the orchids that the audience threw at him once the performance was over. Forty years later, the performance of Ravi Shankar and his two colleagues still sounds vibrating, emotional and contemporary, ingredients that make the performance be remembered as an exceptional moment in the most recent history of music.
Ravi Shankar Live at the Monterey International Pop Festival Angel Records, 1998
India, Encounters between the East and the West
India, the Tireless Well
It is very possible that Indian classical music would have arrived with delay to the West without the audacity of Yehudi Menuhin (New York, 1916 - Berlin, 1999). And, for sure, it would have arrived with worse spreading conditions. But thanks to the interest of the magisterial violinist to get to know Ravi Shankar, to the deep friendship the arouse between them and the works they carried out together, the encounter between two traditional classical music took place, which until then, had lived apart. The best moments of this fruitful musical relationship are collected in this album that gathers three songs recorded in 1966 («Prabhati», «Puriya Kalyan» and «Swara-Kakali») and two in 1968 («Piloo» and «Ananda Bhairava»); five pieces that represent the exquisite dialogue between the violin and the zitar, between two minds that added new colours and new voices to the centenarian Indostanic ragas. While Menuhin extracted the deepest emotions from his violin, Shankar responded with wisdom and mysticism, creating a spontaneous electricity that especially shines during the 15 minutes of «Piloo», with both masters challenging each other in time to the tabla of Alla Rakha and the tambura of Kamala Chakravarti. The prejudices took many people to undervalue this work because it did not fit into their scales of musical values, Western or Indian. But it could not be judged this way, because Menuhin and Shankar were building something new that has encouraged all the projects of cultural exchange that now seem usual but that, at the end of the 60’s, in the Cold War, not many people had thought about. Also available at the Media Library, you can find a reprint of West Meets East (Bgo Records, 1999) which, after three songs recorded in 1966, adds an interpretation by Yehudi Menuhin –violin- and his sister Hephzibah Menuhin —piano— of a sonata of the Rumanian composer George Enescu.
Yehudi Menuhin & Ravi Shankar Menuhin Meets Shankar Emi Records, 1988
India, Encounters between the East and the West
India, the Tireless Well
The English guitarist John McLaughlin (Doncaster, United Kingdom, 1942) has been, from the beginning of his career, a daring practicer of musical clashes: Among other projects, he introduced Miles Davis in Indian classical music (the trumpet player added zitar and tambura to one of the songs of the album «Bitches Brew», 1968, as McLaughlin suggested) and he joined the flamenco Paco de Lucía and jazz guitarist Al di Meola for the project The Guitar Trio in 1979. At the beginning of the seventies he started up his own band, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and managed to connect his jazz temper and his interest in Indian culture. This proposal turned into Shakti, acoustic quartet that gathered, together with McLaughlin, the Indian musicians L. Shankar (violin), Zakir Hussain (tabla) and TH “Vikku” Vinayakram (ghatam, mridangam). Between 1974 and 1977, Shakti had an intense life, with dozens of concerts and three albums, until Columbia, the publishing company, removed the support to a project that, as well as the encounter between the east and the west, served to project a bridge between the music of north and south India (Hussain had been educated in the most classical Indostanic school, whereas Shankar and Vinayakram came from the carnatic tradition). If a word was needed to define the work by Shakti it is “energy”. In the studio and on the stage, his music gave fire, frenzy, intensity…It is enough to listen to «La danse du bonheur» or «Kriti», two of the songs included in the album we are presenting, to confirm this asseveration. Thirty years after the project it still sounds fresh and interesting, thanks to the sensational ability of the four musicians to place their individual virtuosity at the service of spectacular sessions during which, constantly, different modes and textures are contrasted without losing their beauty.
Shakti with John McLaughlin A Handful of Beauty Columbia, 1977
India, Encounters between the East and the West
India, the Tireless Well
One of the best charms of the musical art in general is its capacity to awaken interest in people that for different reasons do not have any relation or knowledge of a particular manifestation. Steve Gorn is a good example of it. He was born in New York and initiated the paths of jazz to subsequently focus his attention on Indian music, after discovering the approaches made by John Coltrane and Charles Lloyd. In 1969 he travelled to Varanasi for the first time where he came across Gopal Misra’s music, one of the greatest masters of sarangi. In the city of the state of Uttar Pradesh he stayed to study the technique of shanai (Indian oboe) until he was invited to meet Sri Gour Goswani, living legend of the bansuri flute and who later became the guru of Gorn. In 1971, Goswani gave him the alternative and Gorn was able to perform a short raga before the audience of the prestigious Mahajati Sedan of Calcutta. 25 years later, having become an interpreter of bansuri well known in the United States and in India, Gorn returned to Calcutta to take part in a concert where he played the nocturne raga «Lalit», raga that occupied most of this recording (devoted, as its subtitle says, to the memory of the aforementioned Sri Gour Goswani, who died in 1975). Opposed to the exhibitionist speed and the excessive virtuosity that other artists show, Gorn aims his music at old values: Simplicity, inspiration, spirituality, subtlety… Searching for that expressiveness that goes beyond time and space, that configuration where every raga evokes its own landscape, Gorn manages to create the ideal environment to move to the hall of the Mogol court. To the generous interpretation of «Lalit» the most specific ragas «Basant Mukhari» and «Jogia» are added, always with the company of Samir Chatterjee, tabla, and Annalisa Adami, tambura.
Steve Gorn Parampara! Wergo, 1998
India, Encounters between the East and the West
India, the Tireless Well
In an interview published some time ago, the master Enrique Morente said that he found it difficult not to think about the deepest flamenco when he listened to the qawwali of the Pakistani Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. There weren’t anyone’s words. Specifically Morente has taken part in 1989 in an experience, promoted by the Cultural Olympics of Barcelona, which tried to establish new links between flamenco and other music, encounter the Sabri brothers, also qawwals such as Ali Khan were invited. Even though it did not manage to make an artistic project fructiferous, we can say that the meeting planted a seed that, a decade and a half later, germinated thanks to the art and talent of the four artists that stared this Qawwali Flamenco. Two years of hard work were necessary until the new project acquired shape as it can be enjoyed in this recording, carried out at the Festival de Fès des musiques sacrées du monde in 2005. On the stage, two artistic forms that have their maximum exponent in the power of those voices that take the audience to catharsis and that transmit the word as the main truth. In this sense, the coexistence of the prayers of Faiz Ali Faiz and the poems sung by Duquende and Miguel Poveda, searching through Chicuelo’s guitar the encounter between the monodic conception of qawwali and the harmonic accompaniment of flamenco, leaves truly brilliant moments, such as the classic «Allah hu», splashed with flamenco verses or the melancholic «Tango to the sea», that is mixed with the improvisation of the party of Faiz Ali Faiz from a sargam (word formed by Sa-Re-Ga-Me, the first notes of the Indian musical scale). The edition includes a DVD with the complete concert and a small piece with interviews to the four musicians, as well as a book with photographs and a deep and interesting conversation between the ethno-musician Martina A. Catella and the journalist Mingus B. Formentor, two of the ideologists of the project, that helps to understand the dimension of the approach and result.
Faiz Ali Faiz, Duquende, Miguel Poveda, Chicuelo Qawwali Flamenco Accords Croisés, 2006
India, Encounters between the East and the West
Recommendations
> Ananda Shankar, Ananda Shankar, Reprise Records, 1998 The legendary album published in 1970 by the nephew of Ravi Shankar and that connected the psychodelia with Indian classical music. It includes, of course, his particular instrumental versions of «Jumpin’ Jack Flash» (The Rolling Stones) and «Light my fire» (The Doors). > Dj Cheb I Sabbah, Shri Durga, Six Degrees Records, 1999 This Algerian producer, resident in San Francisco, carried out this innovating work, exciting and subtle and the same time, from Indostanic ragas to reach a new musical universe where nice electronics is not incompatible with spirituality. > Temple Of Sound & Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali, People’s Colony No 1, Real World, 2001 An album that could be subtitled “From sanctuaries to dance floors”. Two of the components of Transglobal Underground placed all their dance artillery to the service of the powerful vocal harmonies of Pakistani qawwal. > Trilok Gurtu, African Fantasy, Efa Medien, 1999 With this work that joins African, Indian, American and Asian elements, the son of the great singer Sobha Gurtu confirmed that he would stop being a spectacular magician of percussion to become an innovating global jazz composer. > Zakir Hussain & The Rhythm Experience, Zakir Hussain & The Rhythm Experience, Aspen Records, 1987 Tabla, darbuka, congas, marimbas, gongs, guiro… An army of instruments for a passionate and innovating experiment that from the bases of Indian percussion reaches jazz, traditions of other cultures of the world and even pop.
Musical Routes