Podcast appearances and mentions of Ali Akbar Khan

She's an economist, an institution-builder, an ecosystem-nurturer and one of our finest thinkers. Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma in episode 410 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life & times -- and her remarkable work. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shruti Rajagopalan on Twitter, Substack, Instagram, her podcast, Ideas of India and her own website. 2. Emergent Ventures India. 3. The 1991 Project. 4. Life Lessons That Are Priceless -- Episodes 400 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Shruti Rajagopalan, in reverse chronological order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. 6. The Day Ryan Started Masturbating -- Amit Varma's newsletter post explaining Shruti Rajagopalan's swimming pool analogy for social science research. 7. A Deep Dive Into Education -- Episode 54 of Everything is Everything. 8. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 9. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 10. Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset -- Episode 20 of Everything is Everything. 11. Where Has All the Education Gone? -- Lant Pritchett. 12. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Theory of Moral Sentiments — Adam Smith. 14. The Wealth of Nations — Adam Smith. 15. Commanding Heights -- Daniel Yergin. 16. Capitalism and Freedom -- Milton Friedman. 17. Free to Choose -- Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman. 18. Economics in One Lesson -- Henry Hazlitt. 19. The Road to Serfdom -- Friedrich Hayek. 20. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 21. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 22. Individualism and Economic Order -- Friedrich Hayek. 23. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything.  24. Richard E Wagner at Mercatus and Amazon. 25. Larry White and the First Principles of Money -- Episode 397 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 27. Marginal Revolution. 28. Paul Graham's essays. 29. Commands and controls: Planning for indian industrial development, 1951–1990 -- Rakesh Mohan and Vandana Aggarwal. 30. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 31. India: Planning for Industrialization -- Jagdish Bhagwati and Padma Desai. 32. Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration -- Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith. 33. Cows on India Uncut. 34. Abdul Karim Khan on Spotify and YouTube. 35. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 36. Objects From Our Past -- Episode 77 of Everything is Everything. 37. Sriya Iyer on the Economics of Religion -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 38. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 39. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Pratap Bhanu Mehta: 1, 2. 40. Rohit Lamba Reimagines India's Economic Policy Emphasis -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 41. Rohit Lamba Will Never Be Bezubaan — Episode 378 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. The Constitutional Law and Philosophy blog. 43. Cost and Choice -- James Buchanan. 44. Philip Wicksteed. 45. Pratap Bhanu Mehta on The Theory of Moral Sentiments -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 46. Conversation and Society — Episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Russ Roberts). 47. The Common Sense of Political Economy -- Philip Wicksteed. 48. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy — Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. Manmohan Singh: India's Finest Talent Scout -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 51. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 52. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 54. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 55. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Breaking Through — Isher Judge Ahluwalia. 57. Breaking Out — Padma Desai. 58. Perestroika in Perspective -- Padma Desai. 59. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible — Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 60. Pics from the Seen-Unseen party. 61. Pramod Varma on India's Digital Empowerment -- Episode 50 of Brave New World. 59. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha Is the Impartial Spectator — Episode 388 of The Seen and the Unseen. 60. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 61. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 62. The Overton Window. 63. When Ideas Have Sex -- Matt Ridley. 64. The Three Languages of Politics — Arnold Kling. 65. Arnold Kling and the Four Languages of Politics -- Episode 394 of The Seen and the Unseen. 66. The Double ‘Thank You' Moment — John Stossel. 67. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 68. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz). 69. What Does It Mean to Be Libertarian? — Episode 64 of The Seen and the Unseen. 70. The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom -- David Boaz. 71. Publish and Perish — Agnes Callard. 72. Classical Liberal Institute. 73. Shruti Rajagopalan's YouTube talk on constitutional amendments. 74. What I, as a development economist, have been actively “for” -- Lant Pritchett. 75. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? — Vijayendra Rao. 76. Premature Imitation and India's Flailing State — Shruti Rajagopalan & Alexander Tabarrok. 77. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 78. Invisible Infrastructure -- Episode 82 of Everything is Everything. 79. The Sundara Kanda. 80. Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us -- Episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen. 81. Y Combinator. 82. Space Fields. 83. Apoorwa Masuk, Onkar Singh Batra, Naman Pushp, Angad Daryani, Deepak VS and Srijon Sarkar. 84. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 85. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away -- The Beatles. 86. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 87. Data For India -- Rukmini S's startup. 88. Whole Numbers And Half Truths — Rukmini S. 89. The Moving Curve — Rukmini S's Covid podcast, also on all podcast apps. 90. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 91. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 92. Prosperiti. 93. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 94. The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal -- Gurcharan Das. 95. Zakir: 1951-2024 -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 96. Dazzling Blue -- Paul Simon, featuring Karaikudi R Mani. 97. John Coltrane, Shakti, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan, Pannalal Ghosh, Nikhil Banerjee, Vilayat Khan, Bismillah Khan, Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Esperanza Spalding, MS Subbulakshmi, Lalgudi Jayaraman, TN Krishnan, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Ranjani-Gayatri and TM Krishna on Spotify. 98. James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, Israel Kirzner, Mario Rizzo, Vernon Smith, Thomas Schelling and Ronald Coase. 99. The Calculus of Consent -- James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock. 100. Tim Harford and Martin Wolf. 101. The Shawshank Redemption -- Frank Darabont. 102. The Marriage of Figaro in The Shawshank Redemption. 103. An Equal Music -- Vikram Seth. 104. Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 - Zubin Mehta and the Belgrade Philharmonic. 105. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's violin concertos. 106. Animal Farm -- George Orwell. 107. Down and Out in Paris and London -- George Orwell. 108. Gulliver's Travels -- Jonathan Swift. 109. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass -- Lewis Carroll. 110. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 111. The Gulag Archipelago -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 112. Khosla Ka Ghosla -- Dibakar Banerjee. 113. Mr India -- Shekhar Kapur. 114. Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi -- Satyen Bose. 114. Finding Nemo -- Andrew Stanton. 115. Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny. 116. Michael Madana Kama Rajan -- Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. 117. The Music Box, with Laurel and Hardy. 118. The Disciple -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 119. Court -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 120. Dwarkesh Patel on YouTube. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Learn' by Simahina.

Break out your glass, steel, or beer bottle: This time on Shred With Shifty, we're sliding into glory with southern-rock great Derek Trucks, leader of the Derek Trucks Band, co-leader (along with wife Susan Tedeschi) of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, and, from 1999 to 2014, member of the Allman Brothers Band. Reared in Jacksonville, Florida, Trucks was born into rock 'n' roll: His uncle, Butch Trucks, was a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, and from the time he was nine years old, Derek was playing and touring with blues and rock royalty, from Buddy Guy to Bob Dylan. Early on, he established himself as a prodigy on slide guitar, and in this interview from backstage in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Trucks explains why he's always stuck with his trusty Gibson SGs, and how he sets them up for both slide and regular playing. (He also details his custom string gauges.) Trucks analyzes and demonstrates his subtle but scorching solo on “Midnight in Harlem,” off of Tedeschi Trucks Band's acclaimed 2011 record, Revelator. In it, he highlights the influence of Indian classical music, and particularly sarod player Ali Akbar Khan, on his own playing. The lead is “melodic but with Indian-classical inflections,” flourishes that Trucks says are integral to his playing: It's a jazz and jam-band mentality of “dangling your feet over the edge of the cliff,” says Trucks, and going outside whatever mode you're playing in. Throughout the episode, Trucks details his live and studio set ups (“As direct as I can get it”), shares advice for learning slide and why he never uses a pick, and ponders what the future holds for collaborations with Warren Haynes.   Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty   Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/ Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shred-with-shifty/PC:1001071314   Follow Chris Shiflett: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71 Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag   Producer: Jason Shadrick Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion Video Editor: Addison Sauvan Graphic Design: Megan Pralle   Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.    

Episode SummaryThe storied and kind-hearted Jai Uttal drops into the show for an extended conversation about music, monkey gods, gurus, India, sobriety, family, and ultimately the spiritual path of healing through love. We begin with an exploration of Jai's current practice of hyper-local kindness in a world where that resource is becoming increasingly scarce. From there we dive into Jai's latest musical offering, Hanuman Chalisa for World Peace. Not only does Jai share with us the intimate practice he's had with this widely venerated chant for over five decades, but he walks us through the creative context in which his first published recording of the Chalisa came to life. In his telling we gather the rich array of inspirations that bring about his creative gifts.Gradually, Jai invites us into the richness of his life, as he retells how the winding threads that have made up the fabric of his life came to be. We come to understand the overlapping events and energies of kirtan, India, gurus, dreams, drugs, anxieties, singing, but mostly love and family, have been ripples of his life. Along the way we hear about his intersections with Steve Jobs, Ali Akbar Khan, Neem Karoli Baba, Ram Das, and others. We hear about his initiation into kirtan, Indian classical music, and his profound relationships that unfolded with musical and spiritual masters. We also hear about the struggles with finding his voice, performing, and managing the pains of life with drugs and alcohol before he found his true loves in his wife Nubia and in becoming a father to his son, Ezra. In the beginning, middle, and end, the beloved monkey god, Hanuman, walks with us, serving as a back-drop of Jai's own spiritual journey as he realizes the profound and ordinary teachings love and devotion have in his, just like every other human life. A beautiful conversation that bares the heart in a way that we can't help but be moved by. About: Jai Uttal is a husband, father, neighbor, and friend. He's more widely know for being a Grammy nominated sacred music composer, recording artist, multi-instrumentalist, and ecstatic vocalist. Jai combines influences from India with influences from American rock and jazz, creating a stimulating and exotic multi-cultural fusion that is truly world spirit music.Jai has been leading, teaching and performing kirtan around the world for close to 50 years, creating a safe environment for people to open their hearts and voices.

He's an economist who cares more about people than numbers -- and he thinks his field needs more sociology and anthropology in it. Vijayendra (Biju) Rao joins Amit Varma in episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about what makes him angry and what brings him peace. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Vijayendra (Biju) Rao on Twitter, Google Scholar, The World Bank and his own website. 2. Biju Rao's blog at the World Bank. 3. Localizing Development: Does Participation Work? -- Ghazala Mansuri and Vijayendra Rao. 4. Oral Democracy: Deliberation in Indian Village Assemblies -- Paromita Sanyal and Vijayendra Rao. 5. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? -- Vijayendra Rao. 6. Vamsha Vriksha -- Girish Karnad. 7. ‘I want absolute commitment to our gharana': A tribute to Rajshekhar Mansur and his music -- Vijayendra Rao. 8. The Life and Work of Ashwini Deshpande — Episode 298 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Two Hundred and Fifty-Thousand Democracies: A Review of Village Government in India -- Siddharth George, Vijaendra Rao and MR Sharan. 10. Last Among Equals : Power Caste And Politics In Bihar's Villages -- MR Sharan. 11. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. National Development Delivers: And How! And How? — Lant Pritchett. 13. The Perils of Partial Attribution: Let's All Play for Team Development — Lant Pritchett. 14. The Rising Price of Husbands: A Hedonic Analysis of Dowry Increases in Rural India -- Vijayendra Rao. 15. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible -- Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Jiddu Krishnamurti on Wikipedia, Britannica and Amazon. 18. Biju Rao listens to Jiddu Krishnamurthy. 19. Ben Hur -- William Wyler. 20. Trade, Institutions and Ethnic Tolerance: Evidence from South Asia -- Saumitra Jha. 21. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 22. Remnants of a Separation — Aanchal Malhotra. 23. Deliberative Democracy -- Jon Elster. 24. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 25. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 27. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 28. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 29. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 30. Accelerating India's Development — Karthik Muralidharan. 31. The Added Value of Local Democracy -- Abhishek Arora, Siddharth George, Vijayendra Rao and MR Sharan. 32. Some memories of VKRV Rao -- Vijayendra Rao. 33. The Foundation Series — Isaac Asimov. 34. Lawrence of Arabia -- David Lean. 35. Gandhi -- Richard Attenborough. 36. The Story of My Experiments with Truth -- Mohandas Gandhi. 37. Bhagavad Gita on Wikipedia and Amazon. 38. KT Achaya on Amazon. 39. The Emergency: A Personal History — Coomi Kapoor. 40. My Varied Life in Management: A Short Memoir -- SL Rao. 41. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. Ram Guha Writes a Letter to a Friend -- Episode 371 of The Seen and the Unseen. 43. Terror as a Bargaining Instrument : A Case Study of Dowry Violence in Rural India -- Francis Bloch and Vijayendra Rao. 44. Domestic Violence and Intra-Household Resource Allocation in Rural India: An Exercise in Participatory Econometrics -- Vijayendra Rao. 45. Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative. 46. Narrative Economics -- Robert J Shiller. 47. Culture and Public Action -- Edited by Vijayendra Rao and Michael Walton. 48. The Capacity to Aspire -- Arjun Appadurai. 49. Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming -- Agnes Callard. 50. Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind -- Tom Holland. 51. PV Sukhatme in EPW. 52. India Needs Decentralization -- Episode 47 of Everything if Everything. 53. Deliberative Inequality:  A Text-As-Data Study of India's Village Assemblies -- Ramya Parthasarathy, Vijayendra Rao and Nethra Palaniswamy. 54. A Method to Scale Up Interpretive Qualitative Analysis with An Application to Aspirations among Refugees and Hosts in Bangladesh -- Julian Ashwin, Vijayendra Rao, Monica Biradavolu, Aditya Chhabra, Afsana Khan, Arshia Haque and Nandini Krishnan. 55. Using Large-Language Models for Qualitative Analysis Can Introduce Serious Bias -- Julian Ashwin, Aditya Chhabra and Vijayendra Rao. 56. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 57. Audacious Hope: An Archive of How Democracy is Being Saved in India -- Indrajit Roy. 58. Poverty and the Quest for Life -- Bhrigupati Singh. 59. Recasting Culture to Undo Gender: A Sociological Analysis of Jeevika in Rural Bihar, India -- Paromita Sanyal, Vijayendra Rao and Shruti Majumdar. 60. We Are Poor but So Many -- Ela Bhatt. 61. Premature Imitation and India's Flailing State — Shruti Rajagopalan & Alexander Tabarrok. 62. James Wolfensohn in Wikipedia and The World Bank. 63. Arati Kumar-Rao Took a One-Way Ticket -- Episode 383 of The Seen and the Unseen. 64. Marginlands: Indian Landscapes on the Brink — Arati Kumar-Rao. 65. Amitav Ghosh on Amazon. 66. Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life -- Nicholas Phillipson. 67. Elinor Ostrom on Amazon, Britannica, Wikipedia and EconLib. 68. Jane Mansbridge on Amazon, Wikipedia, and Google Scholar. 69. Albert O Hirschman on Amazon and Wikipedia. 70. Mughal-e-Azam -- K Asif. 71. Samskara -- Pattabhirama Reddy. 72. The Wire -- David Simon. 73. Deadwood -- David Milch. 74. Biju Rao on Democracy, Deliberation, and Development -- the Ideas of India podcast with Shruti Rajagopalan. Biju Rao's Specially curated music recommendations: 1. The Senior Dagar Brothers (Moinuddin & Aminuddin Dagar) performing (Komal Rishab) Asavari and Kamboji. 2. Raghunath Panigrahi performing Ashtapadi from the Geeta Govinda and Lalita Lavanga. 3. Amir Khan performing Lalit and Jog. 4. Vilayat Khan performing Sanjh Saravali and Hameer. 5. Ravi Shankar performing Jaijaiwanti and Tilak Shyam (full concert) and Durga. 6. Faiyaz Khan performing Raga Darbari and Raga Des. 7. N Rajam performing a full concert with Gorakh Kalyan, Sawani Barwa, Hamir, Malkauns. 8. Kumar Gandharva performing Tulsidas – Ek Darshan and Surdas – Ek Darshan. 9. Bhimsen Joshi performing Ragas Chhaya and Chhaya Malhar & Jo Bhaje Hari Ko Sada – Bhajan in Raga Bhairavi (original recording from 1960). The Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana: 1. Mallikarjun Mansur in a guided Listening Session by Irfan Zuberi, and performing Basanti Kedar and Tilak Kamod. 2. Kesarbai Kerkar performing Lalit and Bhairavi. 3. Moghubai Kurdikar performing Kedar and Suddha Nat. 4. Kishori Amonkar performing Bhimpalas and Bhoop(ali). 5. Some performances by Rajshekhar Mansur are linked in Biju Rao's piece on him. Karnatic Music: 1. TM Krishna performing Krishna Nee Begane Baaro, Yamuna Kalyani (Yaman Kalyan) and Nalinakanthi (closest Hindustani equivalent is Tilak Kamod). 2. MD Ramanathan performing Bhavayami – Raga Malika and Samaja Vara Gamana – Ragam Hindolam (Malkauns). 3. Aruna Sairam performing a full concert. 4. Madurai Mani Iyer performing Taaye Yoshade. 5. MS Subbulakshmi performing a full Concert from 1966 and Bhaja Govindam (Ragamalika). 6. TR Mahalingam performing Swara Raga Sudha – Shankarabharanam. Jugalbandis: 1. Ali Akbar Khan and Vilayat Khan performing Marwa. 2. Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar performing Jaijaiwanti. 3. N Rajam with her brother TN Krishnan performing Raga Hamsadhwani. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘The Iconoclast' by Simahina.

It's been almost seventy years since the arrival of Indian classical music in Europe and the United States. Starting in 1956, English violinist YEHUDI MENUHIN's interest in Indian music led to collaborations and concert tours with two of the then hottest young musicians in India—sitar master RAVI SHANKAR and sarod master ALI AKBAR KHAN. It was the beginning of a period of cross-fertilization of Indian and Western classical music. And in the 1960's, the famous adoption of the Indian sitar by GEORGE HARRISON of THE BEATLES brought awareness of Indian music to the mainstream. Today, recordings, films, videos, and digital networks have led to a broadening of cultural communication, where influence and interaction occur across many genres simultaneously. Western musicians study Indian microtonal scales, play Indian instruments, and create new hybrid styles—while Indian musicians study western tempered scales, harmony, and orchestration, play electronic instruments, and extend the traditions of Indian music to an international audience. On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, contemporary, traditional, and sacred sounds of India, on a program called INDIA NAVIGATION 2. Music is by sitarists JASDEEP SINGH DEGUN, ANOUSHKA SHANKAR, and NILADRI KUMAR, bansuri flutists MARK SEELIG and VIRGINIA NICOLI, sarod and santur by CHINMAYA DUNSTER, and producer CRAIG PRUESS and the great devotional singer ANURADHA PAUDWAL. [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

He's a poet, art critic, curator, translator, cultural theorist -- and someone who helps make sense of our world. Ranjit Hoskote joins Amit Varma in episode 363 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his times and his work. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ranjit Hoskote on Twitter, Instagram and Amazon. 2. Jonahwhale -- Ranjit Hoskote. 3. Hunchprose -- Ranjit Hoskote. 4. I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd -- Translated by Ranjit Hoskote. 5. Poet's nightmare -- Ranjit Hoskote. 6. State of enrichment -- Ranjit Hoskote. 7. Nissim Ezekiel, AK Ramanujan, Arun Kolatkar, Keki Daruwalla, Dom Moraes, Dilip Chitre, Gieve Patel, Vilas Sarang, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Agha Shahid Ali, Mani Rao, Mustansir Dalvi, Jerry Pinto, Sampurna Chattarji, Vivek Narayanan and Arundhathi Subramaniam. 8. Ted Hughes, Geoffrey Hill, Seamus Heaney, Sharon Olds, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham and Rita Dove. 9. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. कुँवर नारायण, केदारनाथ सिंह, अशोक वाजपेयी and नागार्जुन. 12. Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Bismillah Khan, Igor Straviksky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Steve Reich and Terry Riley. 13. Palgrave's Golden Treasury: From Shakespeare to the Present. 14. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 15. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Art of Translation — Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 17. Arun Khopkar, Mani Kaul and Clement Greenberg. 18. Stalker -- Andrei Tarkovsky. 19. The Sacrifice -- Andrei Tarkovsky. 20. Ivan's Childhood -- Andrei Tarkovsky. 21. The Color of Pomegranates -- Sergei Parajanov. 22. Ranjit Hoskote's tribute on Instagram to Gieve Patel. 23. Father Returning Home -- Dilip Chitre. 24. Jejuri -- Arun Kolatkar. 25. Modern Poetry in Translation -- Magazine and publisher founded by Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort. 26. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges. 27. How Music Works — David Byrne. 28. CBGB. 29. New York -- Lou Reed. 30. How This Nobel Has Redefined Literature — Amit Varma on Dylan winning the Nobel Prize. 31. The Fire and the Rain -- Girish Karnad. 32. Vanraj Bhatia on Wikipedia and IMDb. 33. Amit Varma's tweet thread on Jonahwhale. 34. Magic Fruit: A Poetic Trip -- Vaishnav Vyas. 35. Glenn Gould on Spotify. 36. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture -- Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. Steven Fowler. 38. Serious Noticing -- James Wood. 39. How Fiction Works -- James Wood. 40. The Spirit of Indian Painting -- BN Goswamy. 41. Conversations -- BN Goswamy. 42. BN Goswamy on Wikipedia and Amazon. 43. BN Goswamy (1933-2023): Sage and Sensitivity -- Ranjit Hoskote. 44. Joseph Fasano's thread on his writing exercises. 45. Narayan Surve on Wikipedia and Amazon. 46. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 47. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 48. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 49. Future Shock -- Alvin Toffler. 50. The Third Wave -- Alvin Toffler. 51. The Long Tail -- Chris Anderson. 52. Ranjit Hoskote's resignation letter from the panel of Documenta. 53. Liquid Modernity -- Zygmunt Bauman. 54. Rahul Matthan Seeks the Protocol -- Episode 360 of The Seen and the Unseen. 55. Panopticon. 56. Tron -- Steven Lisberger. 57. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 58. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 59. Ramchandra Gandhi on Wikipedia and Amazon. 60. Majma-ul-Bahrain (also known as Samudra Sangam Grantha) -- Dara Shikoh. 61. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 62. Tony Joseph's episode on The Seen and the Unseen. 63. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 64. पुराण स्थल. 65. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 66. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 67. The Speaking Tree: A Study of Indian Culture and Society -- Richard Lannoy. 68. Clifford Geertz, John Berger and Arthur C Danto. 69. The Ascent of Man (book) (series) -- Jacob Bronowski. 70. Civilization (book) (series) -- Kenneth Clark. 71. Cosmos (book) (series) -- Carl Sagan. 72. Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Stephen Jay Gould and Oliver Sacks. 73. Raag Darbari (Hindi) (English) — Shrilal Shukla.. 74. Raag Darbari on Storytel. 75. Krishnamurti's Notebook -- J Krishnamurty. 76. Shame -- Salman Rushdie. 77. Marcovaldo -- Italo Calvino. 78. Metropolis -- Fritz Lang. 79. Mahanagar -- Satyajit Ray. 80. A Momentary Lapse of Reason -- Pink Floyd. 81. Learning to Fly -- Pink Floyd, 82. Collected poems -- Mark Strand. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ‘Dancing in Chains' by Simahina.

After building an empire as one of the most successful country artists of all time, Dolly Parton has released her first-ever album of rock songs. She talks to Tom about the inspiration behind her new album “Rockstar,” earning a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and why she's never scared to try something new. Plus, Alam Khan talks about following in the footsteps of his father — the great sarod player Ali Akbar Khan — and blending Indian Ragas with Western classical traditions on his new record, “The Resonance Between.”

Host Hari Scott Whitmore interviews his tabla teacher and Indian classical legend Daniel Paul. Daniel is a captivating storyteller, and he shares about his time with masters such as Ali Akbar Khan and Zakir Hussain, the origins and history of Indian Classical music, and the inherent sacredness of tabla rhythm. Whether a lover of classical music or new to the form, everyone can benefit from this episode and gain a deeper appreciation for this ancient and sacred art form.   Daniel Paul is an India Fulbright award-winning tabla drummer and graduate of the Ali Akbar College of Music, who for three decades has been accompanying many of today's top kirtan singers on the international chanting circuit.  From his long association accompanying Grammy nominee Jai Uttal and the exotic global vocalist Gina Salá, Daniel has also toured South America backing the soft prayers of Snatam Kaur and throughout North America contributing to the rocking chants of Dave Stringer and the Guru Ganesha Band.     Daniel has maintained a varied eclectic career from music director for the Off-Broadway play "Ghashiram Kotwal" to decades of informal kirtan in the jungles and beaches of Maui. From Carnegie Hall to the Waikiki Bandshell, in a cave under old Jerusalem, to the temples and all night music festivals of India, whether through kirtan, classical sitar and sarod, Kathak dance and bansuri flute recitals, or his "Rhythms of the Heart" workshops, Daniel continues to introduce new audiences to the magic of the tabla. Learn more at: https://www.tabladaniel.com/   Hari Scott Whitmore began leading kirtan over ten years ago in Ram Dass's living room, where he served as a personal caregiver. Over the years he has had the honor of accompanying many incredible kirtan wallahs including Krishna Das, Nina Rao, Devadas, and his bandmates in Kripa. During his time as the Director of Outreach for the Call and Response Foundation, he helped organize kirtans in prisons and recovery centers throughout the United States. This work is now carried out by the Sacred Community Project, of which Hari is a founding member. You can find more information at sacredcommunityproject.org and explore his musical offerings on https://kripa.guru   The Sacred Community Podcast is an inter-spiritual hub of the universal teachings, “Love, Service, Remembrance, and Truth.” Home to Sacred Community Project interviews, live workshop recordings, dharma talks, and meditations, each episode is carefully curated to ensure its alignment with SCP values. SCP works to lower the barriers of access to contemplative and devotional practices through free, donation-based, and affordable offerings, spiritual support, and prison outreach. Learn more and make a tax-deductible donation at: https://sacredcommunityproject.org SCP Logo: Beverly Hsu Music: Carl Golembeski  

It's been almost seventy years since the arrival of Indian classical music in Europe and the United States. Starting in 1956, English violinist YEHUDI MENUHIN's interest in Indian music led to collaborations and concert tours with two of the then hottest young musicians in India—sitar master RAVI SHANKAR and sarod master ALI AKBAR KHAN. It was the beginning of a period of cross-fertilization of Indian and Western classical music. And in the 1960's, the famous adoption of the Indian sitar by GEORGE HARRISON of THE BEATLES brought awareness of Indian music to the mainstream. Today, recordings, films, videos, and digital networks have led to a broadening of cultural communication, where influence and interaction occur across many genres simultaneously. Western musicians study Indian microtonal scales, play Indian instruments, and create new hybrid styles—while Indian musicians study western tempered scales, harmony, and orchestration, play electronic instruments, and extend the traditions of Indian music to an international audience. On this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, contemporary, traditional, and sacred sounds of India, on a program called INDIA NAVIGATION 2. Music is by sitarists JASDEEP SINGH DEGUN, ANOUSHKA SHANKAR, and NILADRI KUMAR, bansuri flutists MARK SEELIG and VIRGINIA NICOLI, sarod and santur by CHINMAYA DUNSTER, and producer CRAIG PRUESS and the great devotional singer ANURADHA PAUDWAL. [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

My guest today is Jai Uttal! Jai Uttal is a grammy nominee, kirtan artist, multi-instrumentalist, and ecstatic vocalist. He is considered a pioneer in the world music community with his combined influences from India and American rock and jazz. Jai has been leading, teaching, and performing World Music and kirtan—the ancient yoga of chanting or singing to God—around the world for close to 50 years, creating a safe environment for people to open their hearts and voices. He grew up in New York City and lived in a home filled with music. Jai began studying classical piano at the age of seven, and later learned to play old-time banjo, harmonica, and guitar. At age 17, he heard Indian music for the first time, and two years later moved to California and studied under the famous sarod player, Ali Akbar Khan. Jai later began taking regular pilgrimages to India, living among the wandering street musicians of Bengal, and singing with the kirtan wallahs in the temple of his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. Jai has emerged as a leading influence in the Bhakti tradition. He considers bhakti to be the core of his musical and spiritual life. MORE INFO (and events!): https://jaiuttal.com/ ----------- ABOUT YOUR HOST: Porter Singer is music-maker, podcaster and emotional guide.  More info: https://portersinger.com/ ------------- MUSIC CREDITS:   INTRO: "Don't Worry, Be Happy (Instrumental)" by Porter Singer and Songs of Eden; OUTRO: "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out (Instrumental) by Porter Singer and Songs of Eden   ------------ COMPANIES WE LOVE   EARTH BREEZE LAUNDRY SHEETS ~ These Earth-friendly dehydrated laundry sheets will leave your clothes super clean, without the waste of bulky plastic containers. The referral money we get from YOU clicking on that link and ordering will help sustain this podcast AND help care for our beautiful Earth. Thank you in advance! Click to purchase: https://www.earthbreeze.com/?rfsn=6157640.8b8358   SAGE MOON:  I highly recommend their "Inner Child and Beyond" Deck! If you've been wanting to heal your relationship, with, well, everything and everyone, I cannot speak highly enough of this deck, with its beautiful imagery and wise soothing prompts.  https://sagemoon.com/?rfsn=1754610.9fe2b6   BANDZOOGLE WEBSITES ~ We have been using this website provider since the early 2000s. It is so easy to use and customize, and super efficient for selling your music and/or services. Best of all, it's super affordable! More info on Bandzoogle: https://bandzoogle.com/?memref=rd890    If you'd like to leave us a tip--wow, really?!--you can do so by visiting the following sites/apps.   @portersinger on Venmo @SirgunKaurK on PayPal    

durée : 01:26:00 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - En 1989, la collection Ocora Radio France édite la BO du film "Le Salon de Musique" de Satyajit Ray. L'occasion pour le producteur Jacques Dupont de consacrer un numéro d'"Opus" à ce chef d'oeuvre du cinéma (1958), et plus largement à la place de la musique dans l'oeuvre du cinéaste bengali. Au cours de cette émission "Opus" enregistrée en 1989, à laquelle participe le critique de cinéma Gilles Gourdon, les auditeurs ont pu entendre les propos de Satyajit Ray, interviewé quelques mois plus tôt chez lui, à Calcutta. Il évoque les circonstances qui l'ont amené à tourner Le Salon de musique : "Alors que j'étais alité avec la jambe dans le plâtre, j'ai lu une courte nouvelle d'une dizaine de pages intitulée " Jalsaghar", "Le Salon de musique". Après un petit accident à Bénarès où je suis tombé au bord du Gange , raconte le réalisateur*, je suis resté alité deux mois et demi.* Il poursuivait : A l'époque, après l'échec de mon film "Aparajito" ("L"invaincu", 1956), je réfléchissais à une histoire potentielle avec de la musique, et j'ai lu une courte nouvelle d'une dizaine de pages, « Jalsaghar », (du romancier bengali Tarasankar Banerjee) . A travers l'histoire d'un aristocrate, patron de la musique, des arts et de la danse, l'écriture du scénario s'est révélée comme une étude sur la décadence du féodalisme. J'ai souhaité alors que toute la musique du film soit de la musique classique indienne , absolument classique". "C'est un film qui a eu un succès raisonnable en Inde", considère Satyajit Ray trente ans après le tournage, "nous n'avons pas perdu d'argent, nous en avons même gagné un peu. Mais aujourd'hui encore, je ne comprends toujours pas les raisons de son succès en France et en Occident ! Lorsque j'ai fait ce film, personne n'avait jamais entendu parler du sitariste Ravi Shankar, il est devenu célèbre bien plus tard, tout comme le sitariste Vilayat Khan ou le joueur de sarod (luth) Ali Akbar Khan." Satyajit Ray évoque également ses méthodes de travail avec les virtuoses de la musique classique indienne, qui n'étaient pas des compositeurs de musiques de films : "Je leur décrivais des climats différents dans la salle de montage, ils choisissaient alors des ragas et ils enregistraient des pièces de trois minutes". Selon le critique Gilles Gourdon : "La musique de Satyajit Ray n'est pas dans la partition, elle est dans la structure et la composition des images". Satyajit Ray dévoile enfin les raisons pour lesquelles, à partir de son long-métrage Trois Filles, (1961), il a décidé de composer lui-même la musique de ses films. Des musiques qui, en fonction des sujets, pouvaient s'inscrire dans la pure tradition de la musique indienne ou se situer au contraire au confluent des musiques occidentales et indiennes. Par Jacques Dupont Avec Gilles Gourdon (critique de cinéma) et Satyajit Ray Lecture d'extraits du texte du "Salon de Musique" par Philippe Baury Réalisation Colette Chemama Rédaction web : Sylvain Alzial, Documentation Sonore de Radio France Opus - "Le Salon de Musique" de Satyajit Ray (1ère diffusion : 16/12/1989) Archive Ina-Radio France Retrouver l'ensemble des archives de la Nuit : Satyajit Ray, cinéaste du Bengale et du monde

The featured artists in this episode of the Freio Music Podcast are Eli Nathan Nachowitz and Alam Khan of Grand Tapestry. Rap has gone global but there are still very few instances where the realms of rap and traditional music meet. Merging hip-hop with classical Indian music, Grand Tapestry bridges that gap by featuring Eligh, an independent hip-hop artist known for genre experimentation, Alam Khan on the 25-stringed fretless instrument called the Sarode, and their diverse collection of collaborators. Alam is the son of the late legendary Maestro Ali Akbar Khan. Ali Akbar Khan was known as the greatest Sarode player of modern times and is responsible for bringing Indian music to the west. These two artists and collective came together to create a grand tapestry of sound.~ Stay Tuned! About the PodcastFreio Music Podcast Features Producers and Musicians from Across the world. We demystify the magic behind electronic music production by interviewing the best artists in the music industry. The artists share the insights, Tips, Tricks and stories only Musicians can tell. Our podcast aims to bring people closer to each other through the power of art. We intend to make the world more friendly, connected, and creative! Stay Tuned for some of the best insights from multi-instrumentalists and genre-bending creators. Favorite Software ATM:Live Stream Recording: https://freio.link/a/squadcast Who Am I?I am passionate about music and have always appreciated the people behind the sounds. The techniques, strategies, and creativity underlying art have been a curiosity of mine since I was a child. Music has the power to transcend borders, cultures, languages, races, political lines, and times. I am a technology nerd who enjoys programming, designing and creating applications and websites. Lets Connect:Spotify: Freio.link/SpotifyFacebook: Freio.link/FacebookTwitter: Freio.link/twitterInstagram: Freio.link/instagramEmail: Hello@FreioMusic.com

"I Like the Power of the Simple Expression of a Musical Idea."Our guest for this episode of MFM Speaks Out is Jeff Slatnick. Jeff has been an employee and later the owner of Music Inn for over 54 years. Music Inn is one of the oldest music stores in New York City (second in longevity only to Sam Ash). It is a landmark music store in the West Village of NYC specializing in imported world and western instruments, rare and exotic music items, and records. Music Inn has been described as “a museum, rich with music history from around the world.” Music Inn is also the headquarters of Limulus, a company that designs and manufactures unique solid body string instruments.  Slatnick started at Music Inn in 1967 when it was a record and musical instrument store run by Jerry Halpern, the original owner (who'd opened the store in 1958). The Music Inn was frequented by the likes of Bob Dylan when he lived just a few doors down at 161 West 4th Street (and wrote the song “Positively 4th Street” about the time he lived there), as well as John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, John Sebastian, Paul Simon, Ritchie Havens, and many others. In 1968, he left Music Inn to attend the Ali Akbar Khan School of Music in California. He studied under many of today's acknowledged masters of Indian music, including Ali Akbar Khan, Nikhil Banergee, and Ravi Shankar. He returned to New York City in 1976 as an accomplished performer. In 1993, Halpren retired and Slatnick became the owner, in 1998.  They do musical instrument repairs, specializing in repairing instruments few others do.In addition to maintaining Music Inn as an importer and distributor of musical instruments, he and Andy Dowty founded Limulus Musical Instruments. Limulus manufactures unique solid body sitars, sarods, ouds, tamburas, guitars, bass guitars, and custom built hybrid instruments.Music Inn also hosts live performances and open mics.Slatnick is also an accomplished music teacher, specializing in Indian raga.   Topics discussed:Greenwich Village as a historical hub of musical creativity and why so much music and art came from that small geographic location, his beginnings working at Music Inn, mastering repairs on instruments from all over the world, interacting with musicians who frequented Music Inn such as Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, John Lennon, Dave Van Ronk, etc., Slatnick's time studying at the Ali Akbar College of Music, his eventual taking over ownership of Music Inn from original owner Jerry Halpren, the changes and innovations he made in the store's operations. him and Andy Dowty founding Limulus   Music on this episode:"Bluegrass improvisation," by Adrian Koss and the Moonskippers"Old City" by Good Judgement (a.k.a. Dina Pfifer)All music used with permission. 

Stephen Nachmanovitch is the author of both Free Play and more recently The Art of Is. Yo Yo Ma wrote that “Stephen Nachmanovitch'sThe Art of Is is a philosophical meditation on living, living fully, living in the present. To the author, an improvisation is a co-creation that arises out of listening and mutual attentiveness, out of a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. It is a product of the nervous system, bigger than the brain and bigger than the body; it is a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, unprecedented and unrepeatable. Drawing from the wisdom of the ages,The Art of Is not only gives the reader an inside view of the states of mind that give rise to improvisation, it is also a celebration of the power of the human spirit, which — when exercised with love, immense patience, and discipline — is an antidote to hate.” This was an amazingly inspiring conversation, extremely wide-ranging, including some musical improvisation. I've included timestamps to help listeners navigate the many topics we touched on including many important artists, which include: Yehudi Menuhin, John Cage, William Blake, Herbert Zipper, Keith Johnstone, Ali Akbar Khan The video is here, and the transcript will also soon be linked on my podcast website: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/stephen-nachmanovitch-author-of-free-play-and-the-art-of-is Please buy me a coffee? Thanks! https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman Timestamps: (00:00) Intro to episode with Yo-Yo Ma quote and books “The Art of Is” and “Free Play” (01:46) World Music Menu (05:03) Violectra by David Bruce Johnson (09:43) sarangi, viola d'amore, sympathetic strings (13:10) work as a software programmer, sacred desk and secular desk (15:58) synesthesia, Visual Music Tone Painter, William Blake (18:19) Keith Johnstone and the intersections of art forms in improv: theatre, dance, music, (22:49) cooking (24:07) Yehudi Menuhin (26:47) Stephen re-learning the violin in a different way after injury (28:13) Indian music studies with Shashi Nayak and Ali Akbar Khan (29:49) “The Art of Is” and “Free Play” (30:52) Buddhism, Gregory Bateson, San Franciso Zen Center, Dorland Mountain Colony (37:53) William Blake (41:19) writing “The Art of Is” with Jack Nachmanovitch as editor (43:09) Herbert Zipper, documentary “Never Give Up” (49:38) parameters in improvisation (55:30) improvisation Leah Roseman on acoustic violin, Stephen Nachmanovitch on Violectra, waterphone and voice (01:03:23) body awareness, working with dancers (01:10:15) The judging specter (01:12:17) visual cortex interaction when listening (01:14:41) inspiration from nature, Stephen's health problems and isolation, album “Hermitage of Thrushes” with David Rothenberg, collaborations with Ellen Burr, Anders Hagberg (01:21:13) “Finger Kissing” and the judging specter (01:27:15) John Cage (01:36:47) Stephen's wife (01:39:29) Stephen's advice photo credit: Dirk Dobíey --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leah-roseman/message

My guests on Tuesday were Mary and Alam Khan, wife and son of the classical Indian musician Ali Akbar Khan. Ali Akbar Khan was the kind of leader our society so desperately needs today. He was a genius but entirely understated. He believed in equal opportunity and access to an affordable education. He understood why the arts were integral to the depth of a society as they are the pillars of our society. This is why people gravitated to this man. It is not mere coincidence that a great many bands from the Bay Area played benefit concerts to raise money for his music college. The work of Ali spans many decades and consist of compositions, writings, songs, pictures and other material that needs to be preserved and archived. As an aside I should also mention that his records have provided me great comfort during times of great pressure or imbalance in my life and have allowed my mind to open and be free of anxiety. Therefore this is part I of my homage to the Ali Akbar Khan School of Music in an effort to raise awareness and funds to uphold the sanctity of all his works.

My guest this month is Wendy Doniger. Read more about her and her many wonderful books here and here. She was educated at Radcliffe, the only part of Harvard then to admit women, and at Oxford. She has taught at SOAS, but has spent most of her career at the University of Chicago's Divinity School, on the Committee on Social Thought, and in South Asian Languages and Civilizations.Among her teachers, she lists Daniel Ingalls at Harvard, Robert Zaehner at Oxford, and in India, Ali Akbar Khan, from whom she learnt to play the Sarod, and the Purāṇic scholar Rajendra Chandra Hazra.Among the many texts that find mention today are the Kāmasūtra,  Kālidāsa's Kumārasaṃbhava (and that same story as it appears e.g. in the Śivapurāṇa), the story of Nala from the Mahābhārata, and among Professor Doniger's own books, The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, Dreams, Illusion and Other Realities, The Donigers of Great Neck and An American Girl in India, which she talks about here. Read more about Mircea Eliade,  Santiniketan,  the mā niṣāda śloka,  and see the hotel from Gentlemen's Agreement.Among the books Wendy Doniger recommends for kindling our interest in India are The Wonder That Was India, Midnight's Children, A Passage to India, Village India, The Inner Life of Dust, the works of A. K. Ramanujan.Her review of the Goldman translation of The Rāmāyaṇa can be found here.  

This episode features Silvia Nakkach, a Grammy® nominated musician and cross-cultural explorer of musical worlds. Silvia will enchant you as she shares her journey searching for the cosmic source of sound from her home in Brazil, to the Bay area where she learned North Indian Raga music under maestro Ali Akbar Khan for more than 30 years, as well as experimental and electronic music while at Mills College with Pauline Oliveros and Anthony Braxton. We will discuss the integrative power of the mystical sound-syllable AUM, and how she has cultivated the Yoga of Sound, Nada Yoga, and Dhrupad Chant as a form of deep listening and enhancing the sensibility of the subtle through sound. For many years teachings at CIIS, Silvia founded the Sound, Voice, Music in the Healing Arts, a certificate program that she is currently facilitating through the New York Open Center. She is an academic program consultant and the founder and artistic director of the International Vox Mundi School of the Sound and the Voice with centers and training programs across the world. In this conversation, recorded on April 5 of 2020, she shares ideas about how she has been developing an original integral framework through the practice of ancient and modern voice cultures and quantum listening. Silvia Nakkach, MA, MMT, is a Grammy® nominated composer and a pioneer in the field of sound and consciousness transformation. A sought-after educator, vocal artist, author and a former music psychotherapist, Silvia has served on the faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies where she created the premier certificate program on Sound, Voice and Music in the Healing Arts offered by a major academic institution. She is also the founding director of the International Vox Mundi School of the Voice. For more than 30 years, Silvia studied North Indian classical music under the direction of the late Maestro Ali Akbar Khan and various masters of the Art of Dhrupad singing. She is the author of Free Your Voice (Sounds True). Silvia has released 15 CDs and her music draws upon elements from contemporary avant-garde to ancient Indian ragas. She travels extensively and resides in the San Francisco Bay area. As program facilitator of the Sound and Music Institute Silvia works closely with the students throughout the course of the program. This podcast features 2 pieces form Silvia's albums: • Interlude: Bliss, from album Invocation • End music: Liminal Beauty, from album Liminality Websites: Silvia Nakkach • Vox Mundi - School of Sound and the Voice Connect with EWP: Website • Youtube • Facebook Hosted by Stephen Julich (EWP adjunct faculty, program manager) and Jonathan Kay (PhD student, EWP assistant) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

This episode features Silvia Nakkach, a Grammy® nominated musician and cross-cultural explorer of musical worlds. Silvia will enchant you as she shares her journey searching for the cosmic source of sound from her home in Brazil, to the Bay area where she learned North Indian Raga music under maestro Ali Akbar Khan for more than 30 years, as well as experimental and electronic music while at Mills College with Pauline Oliveros and Anthony Braxton. We will discuss the integrative power of the mystical sound-syllable AUM, and how she has cultivated the Yoga of Sound, Nada Yoga, and Dhrupad Chant as a form of deep listening and enhancing the sensibility of the subtle through sound. For many years teachings at CIIS, Silvia founded the Sound, Voice, Music in the Healing Arts, a certificate program that she is currently facilitating through the New York Open Center. She is an academic program consultant and the founder and artistic director of the International Vox Mundi School of the Sound and the Voice with centers and training programs across the world. In this conversation, recorded on April 5 of 2020, she shares ideas about how she has been developing an original integral framework through the practice of ancient and modern voice cultures and quantum listening. Silvia Nakkach, MA, MMT, is a Grammy® nominated composer and a pioneer in the field of sound and consciousness transformation. A sought-after educator, vocal artist, author and a former music psychotherapist, Silvia has served on the faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies where she created the premier certificate program on Sound, Voice and Music in the Healing Arts offered by a major academic institution. She is also the founding director of the International Vox Mundi School of the Voice. For more than 30 years, Silvia studied North Indian classical music under the direction of the late Maestro Ali Akbar Khan and various masters of the Art of Dhrupad singing. She is the author of Free Your Voice (Sounds True). Silvia has released 15 CDs and her music draws upon elements from contemporary avant-garde to ancient Indian ragas. She travels extensively and resides in the San Francisco Bay area. As program facilitator of the Sound and Music Institute Silvia works closely with the students throughout the course of the program. This podcast features 2 pieces form Silvia's albums: • Interlude: Bliss, from album Invocation • End music: Liminal Beauty, from album Liminality Websites: Silvia Nakkach • Vox Mundi - School of Sound and the Voice Connect with EWP: Website • Youtube • Facebook Hosted by Stephen Julich (EWP adjunct faculty, program manager) and Jonathan Kay (PhD student, EWP assistant) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode features Silvia Nakkach, a Grammy® nominated musician and cross-cultural explorer of musical worlds. Silvia will enchant you as she shares her journey searching for the cosmic source of sound from her home in Brazil, to the Bay area where she learned North Indian Raga music under maestro Ali Akbar Khan for more than 30 years, as well as experimental and electronic music while at Mills College with Pauline Oliveros and Anthony Braxton. We will discuss the integrative power of the mystical sound-syllable AUM, and how she has cultivated the Yoga of Sound, Nada Yoga, and Dhrupad Chant as a form of deep listening and enhancing the sensibility of the subtle through sound. For many years teachings at CIIS, Silvia founded the Sound, Voice, Music in the Healing Arts, a certificate program that she is currently facilitating through the New York Open Center. She is an academic program consultant and the founder and artistic director of the International Vox Mundi School of the Sound and the Voice with centers and training programs across the world. In this conversation, recorded on April 5 of 2020, she shares ideas about how she has been developing an original integral framework through the practice of ancient and modern voice cultures and quantum listening. Silvia Nakkach, MA, MMT, is a Grammy® nominated composer and a pioneer in the field of sound and consciousness transformation. A sought-after educator, vocal artist, author and a former music psychotherapist, Silvia has served on the faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies where she created the premier certificate program on Sound, Voice and Music in the Healing Arts offered by a major academic institution. She is also the founding director of the International Vox Mundi School of the Voice. For more than 30 years, Silvia studied North Indian classical music under the direction of the late Maestro Ali Akbar Khan and various masters of the Art of Dhrupad singing. She is the author of Free Your Voice (Sounds True). Silvia has released 15 CDs and her music draws upon elements from contemporary avant-garde to ancient Indian ragas. She travels extensively and resides in the San Francisco Bay area. As program facilitator of the Sound and Music Institute Silvia works closely with the students throughout the course of the program. This podcast features 2 pieces form Silvia's albums: • Interlude: Bliss, from album Invocation • End music: Liminal Beauty, from album Liminality Websites: Silvia Nakkach • Vox Mundi - School of Sound and the Voice Connect with EWP: Website • Youtube • Facebook Hosted by Stephen Julich (EWP adjunct faculty, program manager) and Jonathan Kay (PhD student, EWP assistant) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

I think Hindustani tends to be the more popular style of classical Indian music in the west (see: Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Chatur Lal, Dagar Brothers, etc) so I figured I'd shed some light on the Carnatic side.

The son of the legendary sarode maestro Ali Akbar Khan is a sarode virtuoso himself. And Alam Khan's performance career was introduced to the world when he began accompanying his father onstage -- but his inner voice began to emerge and grow with his ensuing solo career. Following in his father's footsteps, Alam is now the head of instrumental studies at the Ali Akbar College of Music and has dedicated his life to preserving, performing, and teaching the style of Indian classical music to the world. And we cover his musical journey, of course highlighting his recording of “These Walls” and friendship with Tedeschi Trucks Band, and his having the chance to perform the song live with the band. https://www.instagram.com/alamsarode, Tedeschi Trucks Podcast on YouTube, http://instagram.com/tedeschitruckspodcast, http://instagram.com/adamchoit, http://twitter.com/adamchoit, http://tedeschitrucksband.com

durée : 01:26:00 - Les Nuits de France Culture - En 1989, la collection Ocora Radio France publiait la BO du film "Le Salon de Musique" de Satyajit Ray. L'occasion pour le producteur Jacques Dupont, de consacrer un numéro d'"Opus" à ce chef d'oeuvre du cinéma (1958), et plus largement à la place de la musique dans l'oeuvre du cinéaste bengali. Au cours de cette émission, à laquelle participait le critique de cinéma Gilles Gourdon, les auditeurs ont pu entendre les propos de Satyajit Ray, interviewé quelques mois plus tôt chez lui, à Calcutta. Il y évoquait les circonstances qui l'avaient amené à tourner "Le Salon de musique".  * Alors que j'étais alité avec la jambe dans le plâtre, j'ai lu une courte nouvelle d'une dizaine de pages intitulée "Jalsaghar", "Le Salon de musique" . « Après un petit accident à Bénarès où je suis tombé au bord du Gange, raconte le réalisateur, je suis resté alité deux mois et demi. A l'époque, après l'échec de mon film "Aparajito" ("L"invaincu", 1956), je réfléchissais à une histoire potentielle avec de la musique, et j'ai lu une courte nouvelle d'une dizaine de pages, « Jalsaghar », (du romancier bengali Tarasankar Banerjee). A travers l'histoire d'un aristocrate, patron de la musique, des arts et de la danse, l'écriture du scénario s'est révélée comme une étude sur la décadence du féodalisme. J'ai souhaité alors que toute la musique du film soit de la musique classique indienne , absolument classique. »  Je n'imaginais pas que ce film allait être exporté, qu'il allait traverser les barrières culturelles et rencontrerait un tel succès en France et à l'étranger. "C'est un film qui a eu un succès raisonnable en Inde", considère Satyajit Ray trente ans après le tournage, "nous n'avons pas perdu d'argent, nous en avons même gagné un peu. Mais aujourd'hui encore, je ne comprends toujours pas les raisons de son succès en France et en Occident ! Lorsque j'ai fait ce film, personne n'avait jamais entendu parler du sitariste Ravi Shankar, il est devenu célèbre bien plus tard, tout comme le sitariste Vilayat Khan ou le joueur de sarod (luth) Ali Akbar Khan." Satyajit Ray évoque également ses méthodes de travail avec les virtuoses de la musique classique indienne, qui n'étaient pas des compositeurs de musiques de films : "Je leur décrivais des climats différents dans la salle de montage, ils choisissaient alors des ragas et ils enregistraient des pièces de trois minutes ". La musique de Satyajit Ray n'est pas dans la partition, elle est dans la structure et la composition des images. (Gilles Gourdon) Satyajit Ray dévoile enfin les raisons pour lesquelles, à partir de son long-métrage Trois Filles, (1961), il a décidé de composer lui-même la musique de ses films. Des musiques qui, en fonction des sujets, pouvaient s'inscrire dans la pure tradition de la musique indienne ou se situer au contraire au confluent des musiques occidentales et indiennes. Par Jacques Dupont  Avec Gilles Gourdon (critique de cinéma) et Satyajit Ray  Lecture d'extraits du texte du "Salon de Musique" par Philippe Baury  Réalisation Colette Chemama Rédaction web : Sylvain Alzial, Documentation Sonore de Radio France Opus - "Le Salon de Musique" de Satyajit Ray (1ère diffusion : 16/12/1989) Archive Ina-Radio France

Watch an exclusive interview of Farukhabad gharana's tabla maestro Pandit Anindo Chatterjee. He was born into a musical family. Chatterjee is a disciple of Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh. As director of the Farrukhabad Gharana of Tabla, founded by Haji Vilayat Khan Saheb, Chatterjee continues to give new voice to his instrument. In addition to solo performances and recordings, Chatterjee has worked with sitar players Nikhil Banerjee, Imrat Khan, Budhaditya Mukherjee, Rais Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Shahid Parvez, Manilal Nag and Krishna Bhatt; sarod players Buddhadev Das Gupta, Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, and Tejendra Narayan Majumdar; flutist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia; santoor player Pandit Shivkumar Sharma; and vocalists Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur and Gangubai Hangal. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/raag-giri/message

Historians write about the lives of others -- but what about their own journeys? Ramachandra Guha joins Amit Varma in episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen to reflect on his notion of home, how he got from there to here, and the strange dreams that sometimes come. Also check out: 1. Rebels Against the Raj -- Ramachandra Guha. 2. Savaging the Civilized -- Ramachandra Guha. 3. A Functioning Anarchy?: Essays for Ramachandra Guha -- Nandini Sundar and Srinath Raghavan. 4. Ramachandra Guha on Amazon. 5. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game -- Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 6. Taking Stock of Our Republic -- Episode 157 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 7. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas -- Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 8. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma -- Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 9. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Aadha Gaon -- Rahi Masoom Raza. 11. Jamuna Kinare Mera Gaon -- Kumar Gandharva. 12. What Have We Done With Our Independence? -- Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta). 13. A Fish in the Water -- Mario Vargas Llosa. 14. Subaltern and Bhadralok Studies -- Ramachandra Guha. 15. MN Srinivas on Amazon. 16. Manu Pillai on Amazon. 17. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4. 18. Sanjay Subrahmanyam on Amazon. 19. The Gun, the Ship and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions and the Making of the Modern World -- Linda Colley. 20. Linda Colley on Amazon. 21. Upinder Singh and Nayanjot Lahiri on Amazon. 22. Sturgeon's Law. 23. David Gilmour on Amazon. 24. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin -- Charles Darwin. 25. Of Gifted Voice: The Life and Art of MS Subbulakshmi -- Keshav Desiraju. 26. Finding The Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music -- Amit Chaudhuri. 27. Symphony No.3, Op.36 — Henryk Gorecki. 28. Mallikarjun Mansur, Bhimsen Joshi, Kumar Gandharva, Kishori Amonkar, Basavraj Rajguru, Sharafat Hussain Khan, DV Paluskar, Faiyaz Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee, Bismillah Khan, Vilayat Khan, Buddhadev Das Gupta, Arvind Parikh, Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande, Veena Sahasrabuddhe, Rashid Khan, Venkatesh Kumar and Priya Purushothaman on YouTube. 29. Raju Asokan and Subrata Chowdhury on YouTube. 30. Veena Doreswamy Iyengar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan in Jugalbandi, 1962-62. 31. Hamsadhvani -- Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, 1950s in Bangalore. 32. Dhano Dhanne -- Jaya Varma and the Chandigarh Choir. 33. The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do -- Judith Rich Harris. 34. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 35. In Absentia: Where are India's conservative intellectuals? -- Ramachandra Guha. 36. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 37. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society -- Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai). 38. Political Ideology in India -- Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 39. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. The Chipko Movement -- Shekhar Pathak. 41. DR Nagaraj, Meenakshi Mukherjee, Sujit Mukherjee, Tridip Suhrud, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Girish Karnad and Mahasweta Devi on Amazon. 42. Marxvaad aur Ram Rajya -- Karpatri Maharaj. 43. The Rise and Fall of the Bilingual Intellectual -- Ramachandra Guha. 44. Yuganta -- Irawati Karve. 45. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra on Amazon. 46. Reconcling the Nagas -- Ramachandra Guha. 47. The State of Our Farmers -- Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil). 48. KT Achaya on Amazon. 49. Shiv Visvanathan on Amazon. 50. Manthan -- Shyam Benegal. 51. Science as a Vocation -- Max Weber. 52. AA Thomson on Wikipedia. 53. Ernest Hemingway, W Somerset Maugham, Penelope Fitzgerald, Barbara Pym and Leo Tolstoy on Amazon. 54. The Kingdom of God Is Within You -- Leo Tolstoy. 55. Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy. 56. War and Peace -- Leo Tolstoy. 57. Father Sergius -- Leo Tolstoy (translated by Aylmer and Louise Maude). 58. Middlemarch -- George Eliot. 59. Limonov -- Emmanuel Carrère. 60. The Netanyahus -- Joshua Cohen. 61. The Gate of Angels -- Penelope Fitzgerald. 62. The Knox Brothers -- Penelope Fitzgerald. 63. Nicholas Boyle on Amazon. 64. Gandhi's Formative Years -- Ramachandra Guha's essay that mentions Boyle's Laws of Biography. 65. Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography -- Sarvepalli Gopal. 66. The Wire -- David Simon etc. 67. The Second Coming -- William Butler Yeats. 68. Ramachandra Guha interviewed by Madhu Trehan. 69. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul. 70. Granville Austin on Amazon. 71. The Citizenship Battles -- Episode 152 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 72. The Multiple Tragedies of the Kashmiri Pandit -- Ramachandra Guha. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Madhup Mudgal was born in New Delhi to Professor Vinay Chandra Maudgalya, a renowned classical musician from the Gwalior gharana. His father started Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, New Delhi in 1939 from their home near Plaza cinema, Connaught Place. Professor Vinay Chandra Maudgalya is best remembered today for the lyrics of the song Hind Desh ke Niwasi in the animation film Ek Anek Aur Ekta by Vijaya Mulay which won the National Film Award for Best Educational Film.[6] Because of his father's interests, Madhup grew up in a musical environment, where veteran musicians like Pt. Omkarnath Thakur and Ali Akbar Khan would come by regularly for sangeet baithaks (musical sittings). The school moved to its present location at Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Marg in 1972 and today houses over 1200 dance and music students and a faculty of 60 teachers. Madhup completed his early schooling at Modern School, New Delhi. He holds an M.A. and a MPhil degree from the Music Faculty of University of Delhi for his research in the structure of Khayal. He received his early training in Hindustani classical music from his father, and went on to learn under the tutelage of musicians like Pandit Vasant Thakar, Pandit Jasraj and finally the musical stalwart Kumar Gandharva. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/raag-giri/message

Episode one hundred and thirty-nine of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Eight Miles High” by the Byrds, and the influence of jazz and Indian music on psychedelic rock. This is a long one... Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Winchester Cathedral" by the New Vaudeville Band. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources No Mixcloud this time, as there were multiple artists with too many songs. Information on John Coltrane came from Coltrane by Ben Ratliffe, while information on Ravi Shankar came from Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar by Oliver Craske. For information on the Byrds, I relied mostly on Timeless Flight Revisited by Johnny Rogan, with some information from Chris Hillman's autobiography. This dissertation looks at the influence of Slonimsky on Coltrane. All Coltrane's music is worth getting, but this 5-CD set containing Impressions is the most relevant cheap selection of his material for these purposes. This collection has the Shankar material released in the West up to 1962. And this three-CD set is a reasonable way of getting most of the Byrds' important recordings. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript This episode is the second part of a loose trilogy of episodes set in LA in 1966. We're going to be spending a *lot* of time around LA and Hollywood for the next few months -- seven of the next thirteen episodes are based there, and there'll be more after that. But it's going to take a while to get there. This is going to be an absurdly long episode, because in order to get to LA in 1966 again, we're going to have to start off in the 1940s in New York, and take a brief detour to India. Because in order to explain this: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Eight Miles High"] We're first going to have to explain this: [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "India (#3)"] Before we begin this, I just want to say something. This episode runs long, and covers a *lot* of musical ground, and as part of that it covers several of the most important musicians of the twentieth century -- but musicians in the fields of jazz, which is a music I know something about, but am not an expert in, and Hindustani classical music, which is very much not even close to my area of expertise. It also contains a chunk of music theory, which again, I know a little about -- but only really enough to know how much I don't know. I am going to try to get the information about these musicians right, but I want to emphasise that at times I will be straying *vastly* out of my lane, in ways that may well seem like they're minimising these musicians. I am trying to give just enough information about them to tell the story, and I would urge anyone who becomes interested in the music I talk about in the early parts of this episode to go out and find more expert sources to fill in the gap. And conversely, if you know more about these musics than I do, please forgive any inaccuracies. I am going to do my best to get all of this right, because accuracy is important, but I suspect that every single sentence in the first hour or so of this episode could be footnoted with something pointing out all the places where what I've said is only somewhat true. Also, I apologise if I mispronounce any names or words in this episode, though I've tried my best to get it right -- I've been unable to find recordings of some words and names being spoken, while with others I've heard multiple versions. To tell today's story, we're going to have to go right back to some things we looked at in the first episode, on "Flying Home". For those of you who don't remember -- which is fair enough, since that episode was more than three years ago -- in that episode we looked at a jazz record by the Benny Goodman Sextet, which was one of the earliest popular recordings to feature electric guitar: [Excerpt: The Benny Goodman Sextet, "Flying Home"] Now, we talked about quite a lot of things in that episode which have played out in later episodes, but one thing we only mentioned in passing, there or later, was a style of music called bebop. We did talk about how Charlie Christian, the guitarist on that record, was one of the innovators of that style, but we didn't really go into what it was properly. Indeed, I deliberately did not mention in that episode something that I was saving until now, because we actually heard *two* hugely influential bebop musicians in that episode,  and I was leaving the other one to talk about here. In that episode we saw how Lionel Hampton, the Benny Goodman band's vibraphone player, went on to form his own band, and how that band became one of the foundational influences for the genres that became known as jump blues and R&B. And we especially noted the saxophone solo on Hampton's remake of "Flying Home", played by Illinois Jacquet: [Excerpt: Lionel Hampton, "Flying Home"] We mentioned in that episode how Illinois Jacquet's saxophone solo there set the template for all tenor sax playing in R&B and rock and roll music for decades to come -- his honking style became quite simply how you play rock and roll or R&B saxophone, and without that solo you don't have any of the records by Fats Domino, Little Richard, the Coasters, or a dozen other acts that we discussed. But what we didn't look at in that episode is that that is a big band record, so of course there is more than just one saxophone player on it. And one of the other saxophone players on that recording is Dexter Gordon, a musician who was originally from LA. Those of you with long memories will remember that back in the first year or so of the podcast we talked a lot about the music programme at Jefferson High School in LA, and about Samuel Browne, the music teacher whose music programme gave the world the Coasters, the Penguins, the Platters, Etta James, Art Farmer, Richard Berry, Big Jay McNeely, Barry White, and more other important musicians than I can possibly name here. Gordon was yet another of Browne's students -- one who Browne regularly gave detention to, just to make him practice his scales. Gordon didn't get much chance to shine in the Lionel Hampton band, because he was only second tenor, with Jacquet taking many of the solos. But he was learning from playing in a band with Jacquet, and while Gordon didn't ever develop a honk like Jacquet's, he did adopt some of Jacquet's full tone in his own sound. There aren't many recordings of Gordon playing solos in his early years, because they coincided with the American Federation of Musicians' recording strike that we talked about in those early episodes, but he did record a few sessions in 1943 for a label small enough not to be covered by the ban, and you can hear something of Jacquet's tone in those recordings, along with the influence of Lester Young, who influenced all tenor sax players at this time: [Excerpt: Nat "King" Cole with Dexter Gordon, "I've Found a New Baby"] The piano player on that session, incidentally, is Nat "King" Cole, when he was still one of the most respected jazz pianists on the scene, before he switched primarily to vocals. And Gordon took this Jacquet-influenced tone, and used it to become the second great saxophone hero of bebop music, after Charlie Parker -- and the first great tenor sax hero of the music. I've mentioned bebop before on several occasions, but never really got into it in detail. It was a style that developed in New York in the mid to late forties, and a lot of the earliest examples of it went unrecorded thanks to that musicians' strike, but the style emphasised small groups improvising together, and expanding their sense of melody and harmony. The music prized virtuosity and musical intelligence over everything else, and was fast and jittery-sounding. The musicians would go on long, extended, improvisations, incorporating ideas both from the blues and from the modern classical music of people like Bartok and Stravinsky, which challenged conventional tonality. In particular, one aspect which became prominent in bebop music was a type of scale known as the bebop scale. In most of the music we've looked at in this podcast to this point, the scales used have been seven-note scales -- do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti- which make an octave with a second, higher, do tone. So in the scale of C major we have C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and then another C: [demonstrates] Bebop scales, on the other hand, would generally have an extra note in, making an eight-note scale, by adding in what is called a chromatic passing note. For example, a typical bebop C major scale might add in the note G#, so the scale would go C,D,E,F,G,G#, A, B, C: [demonstrates] You'd play this extra note for the most part, when moving between the two notes it's between, so in that scale you'd mostly use it when moving from G to A, or from A to G. Now I'm far from a bebop player, so this won't sound like bebop, but I can demonstrate the kind of thing if I first noodle a little scalar melody in the key of C major: [demonstrates] And then play the same thing, but adding in a G# every time I go between the G and the A in either direction: [demonstrates] That is not bebop music, but I hope you can see what a difference that chromatic passing tone makes to the melody. But again, that's not bebop, because I'm not a bebop player. Dexter Gordon, though, *was* a bebop player. He moved to New York while playing with Louis Armstrong's band, and soon became part of the bebop scene, which at the time centred around Charlie Christian, the trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, and the alto sax player Charlie Parker, sometimes nicknamed "bird" or "Yardbird", who is often regarded as the greatest of them all. Gillespie, Parker, and Gordon also played in Billy Eckstine's big band, which gave many of the leading bebop musicians the opportunity to play in what was still the most popular idiom at the time -- you can hear Gordon have a saxophone battle with Gene Ammons on "Blowing the Blues Away" in a lineup of the band that also included Art Blakey on drums and Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet: [Excerpt: Billy Eckstine, "Blowing the Blues Away"] But Gordon was soon leading his own small band sessions, and making records for labels like Savoy, on which you can definitely hear the influence of Illinois Jacquet on his tone, even as he's playing music that's more melodically experimental by far than the jump band music of the Hampton band: [Excerpt: Dexter Gordon, "Dexter Digs In"] Basically, in the late 1940s, if you were wanting to play bebop on the saxophone, you had two models to follow -- Charlie Parker, the great alto saxophonist with his angular, atonal, melodic sense and fast, virtuosic, playing, or Dexter Gordon, the tenor saxophonist, whose style had more R&B grease and wit to it, who would quote popular melodies in his own improvisations. And John Coltrane followed both. Coltrane's first instrument was the alto sax, and when he was primarily an alto player he would copy Charlie Parker's style. When he switched to being primarily a tenor player -- though he would always continue playing both instruments, and later in his career would also play soprano sax -- he took up much of Gordon's mellower tone, though he was also influenced by other tenor players, like Lester Young, the great player with Count Basie's band, and Johnny Hodges, who played with Duke Ellington. Now, it is important to note here that John Coltrane is a very, very, big deal. Depending on your opinion of Ornette Coleman's playing, Coltrane is by most accounts either the last or penultimate truly great innovator in jazz saxophone, and arguably the single foremost figure in the music in the last half of the twentieth century. In this podcast I'm only able to tell you enough about him to give you the information you need to understand the material about the Byrds, but were I to do a similar history of jazz in five hundred songs, Coltrane would have a similar position to someone like the Beatles -- he's such a major figure that he is literally venerated as a saint by the African Orthodox Church, and a couple of other Episcopal churches have at least made the case for his sainthood. So anything I say here about him is not even beginning to scratch the surface of his towering importance to jazz music, but it will, I hope, give some idea of his importance to the development of the Byrds -- a group of whom he was almost certainly totally unaware. Coltrane started out playing as a teenager, and his earliest recordings were when he was nineteen and in the armed forces, just after the end of World War II. At that time, he was very much a beginner, although a talented one, and on his early amateur recordings you can hear him trying to imitate Parker without really knowing what it was that Parker was doing that made him so great. But as well as having some natural talent, he had one big attribute that made him stand out -- his utter devotion to his music. He was so uninterested in anything other than mastering his instrument that one day a friend was telling him about a baseball game he'd watched, and all Coltrane could do was ask in confusion "Who's Willie Mays?" Coltrane would regularly practice his saxophone until his reed was red with blood, but he would also study other musicians. And not just in jazz. He knew that Charlie Parker had intensely studied Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, and so Coltrane would study that too: [Excerpt: Stravinsky, "Firebird Suite"] Coltrane joined the band of Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, who was one of those figures like Johnny Otis, with whom Vinson would later perform for many years, who straddled the worlds of jazz and R&B. Vinson was a blues shouter in the style of Big Joe Turner, but he was also a bebop sax player, and what he wanted was a tenor sax player who could play tenor the way Charlie Parker played alto, but do it in an R&B setting. Coltrane switched from alto to tenor, and spent a year or so playing with Vinson's band. No recordings exist of Coltrane with Vinson that I'm aware of, but you can get an idea of what he sounded like from his next band. By this point, Dizzy Gillespie had graduated from small bebop groups to leading a big band, and he got Coltrane in as one of his alto players, though Coltrane would often also play tenor with Gillespie, as on this recording from 1951, which has Coltrane on tenor, Gillespie on trumpet, with Kenny Burrell and two of the future Modern Jazz Quartet, Milt Jackson and Percy Heath, showing that the roots of modern jazz were not very far at all from the roots of rock and roll: [Excerpt: Dizzy Gillespie, "We Love to Boogie"] After leaving Gillespie's band, Coltrane played with a lot of important musicians over the next four or five years, like Johnny Hodges, Earl Bostic, and Jimmy Smith, and occasionally sat in with Miles Davis, but at this point he was still not a major musician in the genre. He was a competent, working, sideman, but he was also struggling with alcohol and heroin, and hadn't really found his own voice. But then Miles Davis asked Coltrane to join his band full-time. Coltrane was actually Davis' second choice -- he really wanted Sonny Rollins, who was widely considered the best new tenor player around, but he was eventually persuaded to take Coltrane. During his first period with Davis, Coltrane grew rapidly as a musician, and also played on a *lot* of other people's sessions. In a three year period Coltrane went from Davis to Thelonius Monk's group then back to Davis' group, and also recorded as both a sideman and a band leader on a ton of sessions. You can get a box set of his recordings from May 1956 through December 1958 that comes to nineteen CDs -- and that's not counting the recordings with Miles Davis, which aren't included on that set. Unsurprisingly, just through playing this much, Coltrane had grown enormously as a player, and he was particularly fascinated by harmonics, playing with the notes of a chord, in arpeggios, and pushing music to its harmonic limits, as you can hear in his solo on Davis' "Straight, No Chaser", which pushes the limits of the jazz solo as far as they'd gone to that point: [Excerpt: Miles Davis, "Straight, No Chaser"] But on the same album as that, "Milestones", we also have the first appearance of a new style, modal jazz. Now, to explain this, we have to go back to the scales again. We looked at the normal Western scale, do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do, but you can start a scale on any of those notes, and which note you start on creates what is called a different mode. The modes are given Greek names, and each mode has a different feel to it. If you start on do, we call this the major scale or the Ionian mode. This is the normal scale we heard before -- C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C: [demonstrates] Most music – about seventy percent of the melodies you're likely to have heard, uses that mode. If you start on re, it would go re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do-re, or D,E,F,G,A,B,C,D, the Dorian mode: [demonstrates] Melodies with this mode tend to have a sort of wistful feel, like "Scarborough Fair": [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "Scarborough Fair"] or many of George Harrison's songs: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I Me Mine"] Starting on mi, you have the Phrygian mode, mi-fa-so-la-ti-do-re-mi: [demonstrates] The Phrygian mode is not especially widely used, but does turn up in some popular works like Barber's Adagio for Strings: [Excerpt: Barber, "Adagio for Strings"] Then there's the Lydian mode, fa-so-la-ti-do-re-mi-fa: [demonstrates] This mode isn't used much at all in pop music -- the most prominent example I can think of is "Pretty Ballerina" by the Left Banke: [Excerpt: The Left Banke, "Pretty Ballerina"] Starting on so, we have so-la-ti-do-re-mi-fa-so -- the Mixolydian mode: [demonstrates] That mode has a sort of bluesy or folky tone to it, and you also find it in a lot of traditional tunes, like "She Moves Through the Fair": [Excerpt: Davey Graham, "She Moved Thru' The Bizarre/Blue Raga"] And in things like "Norwegian Wood" by the Beatles: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Norwegian Wood"] Though that goes into Dorian for the middle section. Starting on la, we have the Aeolian mode, which is also known as the natural minor scale, and is often just talked about as “the minor scale”: [demonstrates] That's obviously used in innumerable songs, for example "Losing My Religion" by REM: [Excerpt: REM, "Losing My Religion"] And finally you have the Locrian mode ti-do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti: [demonstrates] That basically doesn't get used, unless someone wants to show off that they know the Locrian mode. The only vaguely familiar example I can think of is "Army of Me" by Bjork: [Excerpt: Bjork, "Army of Me"] I hope that brief excursion through the seven most common modes in Western diatonic music gives you some idea of the difference that musical modes can make to a piece. Anyway, as I was saying, on the "Milestones" album, we get some of the first examples of a form that became known as modal jazz. Now, the ideas of modal jazz had been around for a few years at that point -- oddly, it seems to be one of the first types of popular music to have existed in theory before existing in practice. George Russell, an acquaintance of Davis who was a self-taught music theorist, had written a book in 1953 titled The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. That book argues that rather than looking at the diatonic scale as the basis for music, one should instead look at a chord progression called the circle of fifths. The circle of fifths is exactly what it sounds like -- you change chords to one a fifth away from it, and then do that again and again, either going up, so you'd have chords with the roots C-G-D-A-E-B-F# and so on: [demonstrates] Or, more commonly, going down, though usually when going downwards you tend to cheat a bit and sharpen one of the notes so you can stay in one key, so you'd get chords with roots C-F-B-E-A-D-G, usually the chords C, F, B diminished, Em, Am, Dm, G: [demonstrates] That descending cycle of fifths is used in all sorts of music, everything from "You Never Give Me Your Money" by the Beatles: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "You Never Give Me Your Money"] to "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor: [Excerpt: Gloria Gaynor, "I Will Survive"] But what Russell pointed out is that if you do the upwards cycle of fifths, and you *don't* change any of the notes, the first seven root notes you get are the same seven notes you'd find in the Lydian mode, just reordered -- C-D-E-F#-G-A-B . Russell then argued that much of the way harmony and melody work in jazz could be thought of as people experimenting with the way the Lydian mode works, and the way the cycle of fifths leads you further and further away from the tonal centre. Now, you could probably do an entire podcast series as long as this one on the implications of this, and I am honestly just trying to summarise enough information here that you can get a vague gist, but Russell's book had a profound effect on how jazz musicians started to think about harmony and melody. Instead of improvising around the chord changes to songs, they were now basing improvisations and compositions around modes and the notes in them. Rather than having a lot of chord changes, you might just play a single root note that stays the same throughout, or only changes a couple of times in the whole piece, and just imply changes with the clash between the root note and whatever modal note the solo instrument is playing. The track "Milestones" on the Milestones album shows this kind of thinking in full effect -- the song consists of a section in G Dorian, followed by a section in A Aeolian (or E Phrygian depending on how you look at it). Each section has only one implied chord -- a Gm7 for the G Dorian section, and an Am7(b13) for the A Aeolian section -- over which Davis, Cannonball Adderley on alto sax, and Coltrane on tenor, all solo: [Excerpt: Miles Davis, "Milestones"] (For the pedants among you, that track was originally titled "Miles" on the first pressings of the album, but it was retitled "Milestones" on subsequent pressings). The modal form would be taken even further on Davis' next album to be recorded, Porgy and Bess, which featured much fuller orchestrations and didn't have Coltrane on it. Davis later said that when the arranger Gil Evans wrote the arrangements for that album, he didn't write any chords at all, just a scale, which Davis could improvise around. But it was on the album after that, Kind of Blue, which again featured Coltrane on saxophone, that modal jazz made its big breakthrough to becoming the dominant form of jazz music. As with what Evans had done on Porgy and Bess, Davis gave the other instrumentalists modes to play, rather than a chord sequence to improvise over or a melody line to play with. He explained his thinking behind this in an interview with Nat Hentoff, saying "When you're based on chords, you know at the end of 32 bars that the chords have run out and there's nothing to do but repeat what you've just done—with variations. I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords ... there will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them." This style shows up in "So What", the opening track on the album, which is in some ways a very conventional song structure -- it's a thirty-two bar AABA structure. But instead of a chord sequence, it's based on modes in two keys -- the A section is in D Dorian, while the B section is in E-flat Dorian: [Excerpt: Miles Davis, "So What"] Kind of Blue would become one of the contenders for greatest jazz album of all time, and one of the most influential records ever made in any genre -- and it could be argued that that track we just heard, "So What", inspired a whole other genre we'll be looking at in a future episode -- but Coltrane still felt the need to explore more ideas, and to branch out on his own. In particular, while he was interested in modal music, he was also interested in exploring more kinds of scales than just modes, and to do this he had to, at least for the moment, reintroduce chord changes into what he was doing. He was inspired in particular by reading Nicolas Slonimsky's classic Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. Coltrane had recently signed a new contract as a solo artist with Atlantic Records, and recorded what is generally considered his first true masterpiece album as a solo artist, Giant Steps, with several members of the Davis band, just two weeks after recording Kind of Blue. The title track to Giant Steps is the most prominent example of what are known in jazz as the Coltrane changes -- a cycle of thirds, similar to the cycle of fifths we talked about earlier. The track itself seems to have two sources. The first is the bridge of the old standard "Have You Met Miss Jones?", as famously played by Coleman Hawkins: [Excerpt: Coleman Hawkins, "Have You Met Miss Jones?" And the second is an exercise from Slonimsky's book: [Excerpt: Pattern #286 from Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns] Coltrane combined these ideas to come up with "Giant Steps", which is based entirely around these cycles of thirds, and Slonimsky's example: [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "Giant Steps"] Now, I realise that this is meant to be a history of rock music, not jazz musicology theory time, so I promise you I am just hitting the high points here. And only the points that affect Coltrane's development as far as it influenced the music we're looking at in this episode. And so we're actually going to skip over Coltrane's commercial high-point, My Favourite Things, and most of the rest of his work for Atlantic, even though that music is some of the most important jazz music ever recorded. Instead, I'm going to summarise a whole lot of very important music by simply saying that while Coltrane was very interested in this musical idea of the cycle of thirds, he did not like being tied to precise chord changes, and liked the freedom that modal jazz gave to him. By 1960, when his contract with Atlantic was ending and his contract with Impulse was beginning, and he recorded the two albums Olé and Africa/Brass pretty much back to back, he had hit on a new style with the help of Eric Dolphy, a flute, clarinet, and alto sax player who would become an important figure in Coltrane's life. Dolphy died far too young -- he went into a diabetic coma and doctors assumed that because he was a Black jazz musician he must have overdosed, even though he was actually a teetotal abstainer, so he didn't get the treatment he needed -- but he made such a profound influence on Coltrane's life that Coltrane would carry Dolphy's picture with him after his death. Dolphy was even more of a theorist than Coltrane, and another devotee of Slonimsky's book, and he was someone who had studied a great deal of twentieth-century classical music, particularly people like Bartok, Messiaen, Stravinsky, Charles Ives, and Edgard Varese. Dolphy even performed Varese's piece Density 21.5 in concert, an extremely demanding piece for solo flute. I don't know of a recording of Dolphy performing it, sadly, but this version should give some idea: [Excerpt: Edgard Varese, "Density 21.5"] Encouraged by Dolphy, Coltrane started making music based around no changes at all, with any changes being implied by the melody. The title song of Africa/Brass, "Africa", takes up an entire side of one album, and doesn't have a single actual chord change on it, with Dolphy and pianist McCoy Tyner coming up with a brass-heavy arrangement for Coltrane to improvise over a single chord: [Excerpt: The John Coltrane Quartet: "Africa"] This was a return to the idea of modal jazz, based on scales rather than chord changes, but by implying chord changes, often changes based on thirds, Coltrane was often using different scales than the modes that had been used in modal jazz. And while, as the title suggested, "Africa" was inspired by the music of Africa, the use of a single drone chord underneath solos based on a scale was inspired by the music of another continent altogether. Since at least the mid-1950s, both Coltrane and Dolphy had been interested in Indian music. They appear to have first become interested in a record released by Folkways, Music Of India, Morning And Evening Ragas by Ali Akbar Khan: [Excerpt: Ali Akbar Khan, "Rag Sindhi Bhairavi"] But the musician they ended up being most inspired by was a friend of Khan's, Ravi Shankar, who like Khan had been taught by the great sarod player Alauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan's father. The elder Khan, who was generally known as "Baba", meaning "father", was possibly *the* most influential Indian musician of the first half of the twentieth century, and was a big part of the revitalisation of Indian music that went hand in hand with the growth of Indian nationalism. He was an ascetic who lived for music and nothing else, and would write five to ten new compositions every day, telling Shankar "Do one thing well and you can achieve everything. Do everything and you achieve nothing". Alauddin Khan was a very religious Muslim, but one who saw music as the ultimate way to God and could find truths in other faiths. When Shankar first got to know him, they were both touring as musicians in a dance troupe run by Shankar's elder brother, which was promoting Indian arts in the West, and he talked about taking Khan to hear the organ playing at Notre Dame cathedral, and Khan bursting into tears and saying "here is God". Khan was not alone in this view. The classical music of Northern India, the music that Khan played and taught, had been very influenced by Sufism, which was for most of Muslim history the dominant intellectual and theological tradition in Islam. Now, I am going to sum up a thousand years of theology and practice, of a religion I don't belong to, in a couple of sentences here, so just assume that what I'm saying is wrong, and *please* don't take offence if you are Sufi yourself and believe I am misrepresenting you. But my understanding of Sufism is that Sufis are extremely devoted to attaining knowledge and understanding of God, and believe that strict adherence to Muslim law is the best way to attain that knowledge -- that it is the way that God himself has prescribed for humans to know him -- but that such knowledge can be reached by people of other faiths if they approach their own traditions with enough devotion. Sufi ideas infuse much of Northern Indian classical music, and so for example it has been considered acceptable for Muslims to sing Hindu religious music and Hindus to sing songs of praise to Allah. So while Ravi Shankar was Hindu and Alauddin Khan was Muslim, Khan was able to become Shankar's guru in what both men regarded as a religious observance, and even to marry Khan's daughter. Khan was a famously cruel disciplinarian -- once hospitalising a student after hitting him with a tuning hammer -- but he earned the devotion of his students by enforcing the same discipline on himself. He abstained from sex so he could put all his energies into music, and was known to tie his hair to the ceiling while he practiced, so he could not fall asleep no matter how long he kept playing. Both Khan and his son Ali Akhbar Khan played the sarod, while Shankar played the sitar, but they all played the same kind of music, which is based on the concept of the raga. Now, in some ways, a raga can be considered equivalent to a mode in Western music: [Excerpt: Ali Akbar Khan, "Rag Sindhi Bhairavi"] But a raga is not *just* a mode -- it sits somewhere between Western conceptions of a mode and a melody. It has a scale, like a mode, but it can have different scales going up or down, and rules about which notes can be moved to from which other notes. So for example (and using Western tones so as not to confuse things further), a raga might say that it's possible to move up from the note G to D, but not down from D to G. Ragas are essentially a very restrictive set of rules which allow the musician playing them to improvise freely within those rules. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the violinist Yehudi Mehuin, at the time the most well-known classical musician in the world, had become fascinated by Indian music as part of a wider programme of his to learn more music outside what he regarded as the overly-constricting scope of the Western classical tradition in which he had been trained. He had become a particular fan of Shankar, and had invited him over to the US to perform. Shankar had refused to come at that point, sending his brother-in-law Ali Akbar Khan over, as he was in the middle of a difficult divorce, and that had been when Khan had recorded that album which had fascinated Coltrane and Dolphy. But Shankar soon followed himself, and made his own records: [Excerpt: Ravi Shankar, "Raga Hamsadhwani"] The music that both Khan and Shankar played was a particular style of Hindustani classical music, which has three elements -- there's a melody instrument, in Shankar's case the sitar and in Khan's the sarod, both of them fretted stringed instruments which have additional strings that resonate along with the main melody string, giving their unique sound. These are the most distinctive Indian instruments, but the melody can be played on all sorts of other instruments, whether Indian instruments like the bansuri and shehnai, which are very similar to the flute and oboe respectively, or Western instruments like the violin. Historically, the melody has also often been sung rather than played, but Indian instrumental music has had much more influence on Western popular music than Indian vocal music has, so we're mostly looking at that here. Along with the melody instrument there's a percussion instrument, usually the tabla, which is a pair of hand drums. Rather than keep a steady, simple, beat like the drum kit in rock music, the percussion has its own patterns and cycles, called talas, which like ragas are heavily formalised but leave a great amount of room for improvisation. The percussion and the melody are in a sort of dialogue with each other, and play off each other in a variety of ways. And finally there's the drone instrument, usually a stringed instrument called a tamboura. The drone is what it sounds like -- a single note, sustained and repeated throughout the piece, providing a harmonic grounding for the improvisations of the melody instrument. Sometimes, rather than just a single root note, it will be a root and fifth, providing a single chord to improvise over, but as often it will be just one note. Often that note will be doubled at the octave, so you might have a drone on both low E and high E. The result provides a very strict, precise, formal, structure for an infinitely varied form of expression, and Shankar was a master of it: [Excerpt: Ravi Shankar, "Raga Hamsadhwani"] Dolphy and, especially, Coltrane became fascinated by Indian music, and Coltrane desperately wanted to record with Shankar -- he even later named his son Ravi in honour of the great musician. It wasn't just the music as music, but music as spiritual practice, that Coltrane was engaged with. He was a deeply religious man but one who was open to multiple faith traditions -- he had been brought up as a Methodist, and both his grandfathers were ministers in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, but his first wife, Naima, who inspired his personal favourite of his own compositions, was a Muslim, while his second wife, Swamini Turiyasangitananda (who he married after leaving Naima in 1963 and who continued to perform as Alice Coltrane even after she took that name, and was herself an extraordinarily accomplished jazz musician on both piano and harp), was a Hindu, and both of them profoundly influenced Coltrane's own spirituality. Some have even suggested that Coltrane's fascination with a cycle of thirds came from the idea that the third could represent both the Christian Trinity and the Hindu trimurti -- the three major forms of Brahman in Hinduism, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. So a music which was a religious discipline for more than one religion, and which worked well with the harmonic and melodic ideas that Coltrane had been exploring in jazz and learning about through his studies of modern classical music, was bound to appeal to Coltrane, and he started using the idea of having two basses provide an octave drone similar to that of the tamboura, leading to tracks like "Africa" and "Olé": [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "Olé"] Several sources have stated that that song was an influence on "Light My Fire" by the Doors, and I can sort of see that, though most of the interviews I've seen with Ray Manzarek have him talking about Coltrane's earlier version of "My Favourite Things" as the main influence there. Coltrane finally managed to meet with Shankar in December 1961, and spent a lot of time with him -- the two discussed recording an album together with McCoy Tyner, though nothing came of it. Shankar said of their several meetings that month: "The music was fantastic. I was much impressed, but one thing distressed me. There was turbulence in the music that gave me a negative feeling at times, but I could not quite put my finger on the trouble … Here was a creative person who had become a vegetarian, who was studying yoga, and reading the Bhagavad-Gita, yet in whose music I still heard much turmoil. I could not understand it." Coltrane said in turn "I like Ravi Shankar very much. When I hear his music, I want to copy it – not note for note of course, but in his spirit. What brings me closest to Ravi is the modal aspect of his art. Currently, at the particular stage I find myself in, I seem to be going through a modal phase … There's a lot of modal music that is played every day throughout the world. It is particularly evident in Africa, but if you look at Spain or Scotland, India or China, you'll discover this again in each case … It's this universal aspect of music that interests me and attracts me; that's what I'm aiming for." And the month before Coltrane met Shankar, Coltrane had had a now-legendary residency at the Village Vanguard in New York with his band, including Dolphy, which had resulted not only in the famous Live at the Village Vanguard album, but in two tracks on Coltrane's studio album Impressions. Those shows were among the most controversial in the history of jazz, though the Village Vanguard album is now often included in lists of the most important records in jazz. Downbeat magazine, the leading magazine for jazz fans at the time, described those shows as "musical nonsense" and "a horrifying demonstration of what appears to be a growing anti-jazz trend" -- though by the time Impressions came out in 1963, that opinion had been revised somewhat. Harvey Pekar, the comic writer and jazz critic, also writing in DownBeat, gave Impressions five stars, saying "Not all the music on this album is excellent (which is what a five-star rating signifies,) but some is more than excellent". And while among Coltrane fans the piece from these Village Vanguard shows that is of most interest is the extended blues masterpiece "Chasin' the Trane" which takes up a whole side of the Village Vanguard LP, for our purposes we're most interested in one of the two tracks that was held over for Impressions. This was another of Coltrane's experiments in using the drones he'd found in Indian musical forms, like "Africa" and "Olé". This time it was also inspired by a specific piece of music, though not an instrumental one. Rather it was a vocal performance -- a recording on a Folkways album of Pandita Ramji Shastri Dravida chanting one of the Vedas, the religious texts which are among the oldest texts sacred to any surviving religion: [Excerpt: Pandita Ramji Shastri Dravida, "Vedic Chanting"] Coltrane took that basic melodic idea, and combined it with his own modal approach to jazz, and the inspiration he was taking from Shankar's music, and came up with a piece called "India": [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "India"] Which is where we came in, isn't it? [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Eight Miles High"] So now, finally, we get to the Byrds. Even before "Mr. Tambourine Man" went to number one in the charts, the Byrds were facing problems with their sound being co-opted as the latest hip thing. Their location in LA, at the centre of the entertainment world, was obviously a huge advantage to them in many ways, but it also made them incredibly visible to people who wanted to hop onto a bandwagon. The group built up much of their fanbase playing at Ciro's -- the nightclub on the Sunset Strip that we mentioned in the previous episode which later reopened as It's Boss -- and among those in the crowd were Sonny and Cher. And Sonny brought along his tape recorder. The Byrds' follow-up single to "Mr. Tambourine Man", released while that song was still going up the charts, was another Dylan song, "All I Really Want to Do". But it had to contend with this: [Excerpt: Cher, "All I Really Want to Do"] Cher's single, produced by Sonny, was her first solo single since the duo had become successful, and came out before the Byrds' version, and the Byrds were convinced that elements of the arrangement, especially the guitar part, came from the version they'd been performing live – though of course Sonny was no stranger to jangly guitars himself, having co-written “Needles and Pins”, the song that pretty much invented the jangle. Cher made number fifteen on the charts, while the Byrds only made number forty. Their version did beat Cher's in the UK charts, though. The record company was so worried about the competition that for a while they started promoting the B-side as the A-side. That B-side was an original by Gene Clark, though one that very clearly showed the group's debt to the Searchers: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better"] While it was very obviously derived from the Searchers' version of "Needles and Pins", especially the riff, it was still a very strong, original, piece of work in its own right. It was the song that convinced the group's producer, Terry Melcher, that they were a serious proposition as artists in their own right, rather than just as performers of Dylan's material, and it was also a favourite of the group's co-manager, Jim Dickson, who picked out Clark's use of the word "probably" in the chorus as particularly telling -- the singer thinks he will feel better when the subject of the song is gone, but only probably. He's not certain. "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better", after being promoted as the A-side for a short time, reached number one hundred and two on the charts, but the label quickly decided to re-flip it and concentrate on promoting the Dylan song as the single. The group themselves weren't too bothered about their thunder having been stolen by Sonny and Cher, but their new publicist was incandescent. Derek Taylor had been a journalist for the Daily Express, which at that time was a respectable enough newspaper (though that is very much no longer the case). He'd become involved in the music industry after writing an early profile on the Beatles, at which point he had been taken on by the Beatles' organisation first to ghostwrite George Harrison's newspaper column and Brian Epstein's autobiography, and then as their full-time publicist and liner-note writer. He'd left the organisation at the end of 1964, and had moved to the US, where he had set up as an independent music publicist, working for the Byrds, the Beach Boys, and various other acts in their overlapping social circles, such as Paul Revere and the Raiders. Taylor was absolutely furious on the group's behalf, saying "I was not only disappointed, I was disgusted. Sonny and Cher went to Ciro's and ripped off the Byrds and, being obsessive, I could not get this out of my mind that Sonny and Cher had done this terrible thing. I didn't know that much about the record business and, in my experience with the Beatles, cover versions didn't make any difference. But by covering the Byrds, it seemed that you could knock them off the perch. And Sonny and Cher, in my opinion, stole that song at Ciro's and interfered with the Byrds' career and very nearly blew them out of the game." But while the single was a comparative flop, the Mr. Tambourine Man album, which came out shortly after, was much more successful. It contained the A and B sides of both the group's first two singles, although a different vocal take of "All I Really Want to Do" was used from the single release, along with two more Dylan covers, and a couple more originals -- five of the twelve songs on the album were original in total, three of them Gene Clark solo compositions and the other two co-written by Clark and Roger McGuinn. To round it out there was a version of the 1939 song "We'll Meet Again", made famous by Vera Lynn, which you may remember us discussing in episode ninety as an example of early synthesiser use, but which had recently become popular in a rerecorded version from the 1950s, thanks to its use at the end of Dr. Strangelove; there was a song written by Jackie DeShannon; and "The Bells of Rhymney", a song in which Pete Seeger set a poem about a mining disaster in Wales to music. So a fairly standard repertoire for early folk-rock, though slightly heavier on Dylan than most. While the group's Hollywood notoriety caused them problems like the Sonny and Cher one, it did also give them advantages. For example, they got to play at the fourth of July party hosted by Jane Fonda, to guests including her father Henry and brother Peter, Louis Jordan, Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty, and Sidney Poitier. Derek Taylor, who was used to the Beatles' formal dress and politeness at important events, imposed on them by Brian Epstein, was shocked when the Byrds turned up informally dressed, and even more shocked when Vito Paulekas and Carl Franzoni showed up. Vito (who was always known by his first name) and Franzoni are both important but marginal figures in the LA scene. Neither were musicians, though Vito did make one record, produced by Kim Fowley: [Excerpt: Vito and the Hands, "Vito and the Hands"] Rather Vito was a sculptor in his fifties, who had become part of the rock and roll scene and had gathered around him a dance troupe consisting largely of much younger women, and also of himself and Franzoni. Their circle, which also included Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean, who weren't part of their dance troupe but were definitely part of their crowd, will be talked about much more in future episodes, but for now we'll just say that they are often considered proto-hippies, though they would have disputed that characterisation themselves quite vigorously; that they were regular dancers at Ciro's and became regular parts of the act of both the Byrds and the Mothers of Invention; and we'll give this rather explicit description of their performances from Frank Zappa: "The high point of the performance was Carl Franzoni, our 'go-go boy.' He was wearing ballet tights, frugging violently. Carl has testicles which are bigger than a breadbox. Much bigger than a breadbox. The looks on the faces of the Baptist teens experiencing their grandeur is a treasured memory." Paints a vivid picture, doesn't it? So you can possibly imagine why Derek Taylor later said "When Carl Franzoni and Vito came, I got into a terrible panic". But Jim Dickson explained to him that it was Hollywood and people were used to that kind of thing, and even though Taylor described seeing Henry Fonda and his wife pinned against the wall by the writhing Franzoni and the other dancers, apparently everyone had a good time. And then the next month, the group went on their first UK tour. On which nobody had a good time: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Eight Miles High"] Even before the tour, Derek Taylor had reservations. Obviously the Byrds should tour the UK -- London, in particular, was the centre of the cultural world at that time, and Taylor wanted the group to meet his old friends the Beatles and visit Carnaby Street. But at the same time, there seemed to be something a little... off... about the promoters they were dealing with, Joe Collins, the father of Joan and Jackie Collins, and a man named Mervyn Conn. As Taylor said later "All I did know was that the correspondence from Mervyn Conn didn't assure me. I kept expressing doubts about the contents of the letters. There was something about the grammar. You know, 'I'll give you a deal', and 'We'll get you some good gigs'. The whole thing was very much showbusiness. Almost pantomime showbusiness." But still, it seemed like it was worth making the trip, even when Musicians Union problems nearly derailed the whole thing. We've talked previously about how disagreements between the unions in the US and UK meant that musicians from one country couldn't tour the other for decades, and about how that slightly changed in the late fifties. But the new system required a one-in, one-out system where tours had to be set up as exchanges so nobody was taking anyone's job, and nobody had bothered to find a five-piece group of equivalent popularity to the Byrds to tour America in return. Luckily, the Dave Clark Five stepped into the breach, and were able to do a US tour on short notice, so that problem was solved. And then, as soon as they landed, the group were confronted with a lawsuit. From the Birds: [Excerpt: The Birds, "No Good Without You Baby"] These Birds, spelled with an "i", not a "y", were a Mod group from London, who had started out as the Thunderbirds, but had had to shorten their name when the London R&B singer Chris Farlowe and his band the Thunderbirds had started to have some success. They'd become the Birds, and released a couple of unsuccessful singles, but had slowly built up a reasonable following and had a couple of TV appearances. Then they'd started to receive complaints from their fans that when they went into the record shops to ask for the new record by the Birds, they were being sold some jangly folky stuff about tambourines, rather than Bo Diddley inspired R&B. So the first thing the American Byrds saw in England, after a long and difficult flight which had left them very tired and depressed, especially Gene Clark, who hated flying, was someone suing them for loss of earnings. The lawsuit never progressed any further, and the British group changed their name to Birds Birds, and quickly disappeared from music history -- apart from their guitarist, Ronnie Wood, who we'll be hearing from again. But the experience was not exactly the welcome the group had been hoping for, and is reflected in one of the lines that Gene Clark wrote in the song he later came up with about the trip -- "Nowhere is there love to be found among those afraid of losing their ground". And the rest of the tour was not much of an improvement. Chris Hillman came down with bronchitis on the first night, David Crosby kept turning his amp up too high, resulting in the other members copying him and the sound in the venues they were playing seeming distorted, and most of all they just seemed, to the British crowds, to be unprofessional. British audiences were used to groups running on, seeming excited, talking to the crowd between songs, and generally putting on a show. The Byrds, on the other hand, sauntered on stage, and didn't even look at the audience, much less talk to them. What seemed to the LA audience as studied cool seemed to the UK audience like the group were rude, unprofessional, and big-headed. At one show, towards the end of the set, one girl in the audience cried out "Aren't you even going to say anything?", to which Crosby responded "Goodbye" and the group walked off, without any of them having said another word. When they played the Flamingo Club, the biggest cheer of the night came when their short set ended and the manager said that the club was now going to play records for dancing until the support act, Geno Washington and the Ramjam Band, were ready to do another set. Michael Clarke and Roger McGuinn also came down with bronchitis, the group were miserable and sick, and they were getting absolutely panned in the reviews. The closest thing they got to a positive review was when Paul Jones of Manfred Mann was asked about them, and he praised some of their act -- perceptively pointing to their version of "We'll Meet Again" as being in the Pop Art tradition of recontextualising something familiar so it could be looked at freshly -- but even he ended up also criticising several aspects of the show and ended by saying "I think they're going to be a lot better in the future". And then, just to rub salt in the wound, Sonny and Cher turned up in the UK. The Byrds' version of "All I Really Want to Do" massively outsold theirs in the UK, but their big hit became omnipresent: [Excerpt: Sonny and Cher, "I Got You Babe"] And the press seemed to think that Sonny and Cher, rather than the Byrds, were the true representatives of the American youth culture. The Byrds were already yesterday's news. The tour wasn't all bad -- it did boost sales of the group's records, and they became friendly with the Beatles, Stones, and Donovan. So much so that when later in the month the Beatles returned to the US, the Byrds were invited to join them at a party they were holding in Benedict Canyon, and it was thanks to the Byrds attending that party that two things happened to influence the Beatles' songwriting. The first was that Crosby brought his Hollywood friend Peter Fonda along. Fonda kept insisting on telling people that he knew what it was like to actually be dead, in a misguided attempt to reassure George Harrison, who he wrongly believed was scared of dying, and insisted on showing them his self-inflicted bullet wounds. This did not go down well with John Lennon and George Harrison, both of whom were on acid at the time. As Lennon later said, "We didn't want to hear about that! We were on an acid trip and the sun was shining and the girls were dancing and the whole thing was beautiful and Sixties, and this guy – who I really didn't know; he hadn't made Easy Rider or anything – kept coming over, wearing shades, saying, "I know what it's like to be dead," and we kept leaving him because he was so boring! ... It was scary. You know ... when you're flying high and [whispers] "I know what it's like to be dead, man" Eventually they asked Fonda to get out, and the experience later inspired Lennon to write this: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "She Said, She Said"] Incidentally, like all the Beatles songs of that period, that was adapted for the cartoon TV series based on the group, in this case as a follow-the-bouncing-ball animation. There are few things which sum up the oddness of mid-sixties culture more vividly than the fact that there was a massively popular kids' cartoon with a cheery singalong version of a song about a bad acid trip and knowing what it's like to be dead. But there was another, more positive, influence on the Beatles to come out of them having invited the Byrds to the party. Once Fonda had been kicked out, Crosby and Harrison became chatty, and started talking about the sitar, an instrument that Harrison had recently become interested in. Crosby showed Harrison some ragas on the guitar, and suggested he start listening to Ravi Shankar, who Crosby had recently become a fan of. And we'll be tracking Shankar's influence on Harrison, and through him the Beatles, and through them the whole course of twentieth century culture, in future episodes. Crosby's admiration both of Ravi Shankar and of John Coltrane was soon to show in the Byrds' records, but first they needed a new single. They'd made attempts at a version of "The Times They Are A-Changin'", and had even tried to get both George Harrison and Paul McCartney to add harmonica to that track, but that didn't work out. Then just before the UK tour, Terry Melcher had got Jack Nitzsche to come up with an arrangement of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (version 1)"] Nitzsche's arrangement was designed to sound as much like a Sonny and Cher record as possible, and at first the intention was just to overdub McGuinn's guitar and vocals onto a track by the Wrecking Crew. The group weren't happy at this, and even McGuinn, who was the friendliest of the group with Melcher and who the record was meant to spotlight, disliked it. The eventual track was cut by the group, with Jim Dickson producing, to show they could do a good job of the song by themselves, with the intention that Melcher would then polish it and finish it in the studio, but Melcher dropped the idea of doing the song at all. There was a growing factionalism in the group by this point, with McGuinn and to a lesser extent Michael Clarke being friendly with Melcher. Crosby disliked Melcher and was pushing for Jim Dickson to replace him as producer, largely because he thought that Melcher was vetoing Crosby's songs and giving Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn free run of the songwriting. Dickson on the other hand was friendliest with Crosby, but wasn't much keener on Crosby's songwriting than Melcher was, thinking Gene Clark was the real writing talent in the group. It didn't help that Crosby's songs tended to be things like harmonically complex pieces based on science fiction novels -- Crosby was a big fan of the writer Robert Heinlein, and in particular of the novel Stranger in a Strange Land, and brought in at least two songs inspired by that novel, which were left off albums -- his song "Stranger in a Strange Land" was eventually recorded by the San Francisco group Blackburn & Snow: [Excerpt: Blackburn & Snow, "Stranger in a Strange Land"] Oddly, Jim Dickson objected to what became the Byrds' next single for reasons that come from the same roots as the Heinlein novel. A short while earlier, McGuinn had worked as a guitarist and arranger on an album by the folk singer Judy Collins, and one of the songs she had recorded on that album was a song written by Pete Seeger, setting the first eight verses of chapter three of the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes to music: [Excerpt: Judy Collins, "Turn Turn Turn (To Everything There is a Season"] McGuinn wanted to do an electric version of that song as the Byrds' next single, and Melcher sided with him, but Dickson was against the idea, citing the philosopher Alfred Korzybski, who was a big influence both on the counterculture and on Heinlein. Korzybski, in his book Science and Sanity, argued that many of the problems with the world are caused by the practice in Aristotelean logic of excluding the middle and only talking about things and their opposites, saying that things could be either A or Not-A, which in his view excluded most of actual reality. Dickson's argument was that the lyrics to “Turn! Turn! Turn!” with their inflexible Aristotelianism, were hopelessly outmoded and would make the group a laughing stock among anyone who had paid attention to the intellectual revolutions of the previous few decades. "A time of love, a time of hate"? What about all the times that are neither for loving or hating, and all the emotions that are complex mixtures of love and hate? In his eyes, this was going to make the group look like lightweights. Terry Melcher disagreed, and forced the group through take after take, until they got what became the group's second number one hit: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Turn! Turn! Turn!"] After the single was released and became a hit, the battle lines in the group hardened. It was McGuinn and Melcher on one side, Crosby and Dickson on the other, with Chris Hillman, Michael Clarke, and Gene Clark more or less neutral in the middle, but tending to side more and more with the two Ms largely because of Crosby's ability to rub everyone up the wrong way. At one point during the sessions for the next album, tempers flared so much that Michael Clarke actually got up, went over to Crosby, and punched Crosby so hard that he fell off his seat. Crosby, being Hollywood to the bone, yelled at Clarke "You'll never work in this town again!", but the others tended to agree that on that occasion Crosby had it coming. Clarke, when asked about it later, said "I slapped him because he was being an asshole. He wasn't productive. It was necessary." Things came to a head in the filming for a video for the next single, Gene Clark's "Set You Free This Time". Michael Clarke was taller than the other Byrds, and to get the shot right, so the angles would line up, he had to stand further from the camera than the rest of them. David Crosby -- the member with most knowledge of the film industry, whose father was an Academy Award-winning cinematographer, so who definitely understood the reasoning for this -- was sulking that once again a Gene Clark song had been chosen for promotion rather than one of his songs, and started manipulating Michael Clarke, telling him that he was being moved backwards because the others were jealous of his good looks, and that he needed to move forward to be with the rest of them. Multiple takes were ruined because Clarke listened to Crosby, and eventually Jim Dickson got furious at Clarke and went over and slapped him on the face. All hell broke loose. Michael Clarke wasn't particularly bothered by being slapped by Dickson, but Crosby took that as an excuse to leave, walking off before the first shot of the day had been completed. Dickson ran after Crosby, who turned round and punched Dickson in the mouth. Dickson grabbed hold of Crosby and held him in a chokehold. Gene Clark came up and pulled Dickson off Crosby, trying to break up the fight, and then Crosby yelled "Yeah, that's right, Gene! Hold him so I can hit him again!" At this point if Clark let Dickson go, Dickson would have attacked Crosby again. If he held Dickson, Crosby would have taken it as an invitation to hit him more. Clark's dilemma was eventually relieved by Barry Feinstein, the cameraman, who came in and broke everything up. It may seem odd that Crosby and Dickson, who were on the same side, were the ones who got into a fight, while Michael Clarke, who had previously hit Crosby, was listening to Crosby over Dickson, but that's indicative of how everyone felt about Crosby. As Dickson later put it, "People have stronger feelings about David Crosby. I love David more than the rest and I hate him more than the rest. I love McGuinn the least, and I hate him the least, because he doesn't give you emotional feedback. You don't get a chance. The hate is in equal proportion to how much you love them." McGuinn was finding all this deeply distressing -- Dickson and Crosby were violent men, and Michael Clarke and Hillman could be provoked to violence, but McGuinn was a pacifist both by conviction and temperament. Everything was conspiring to push the camps further apart. For example, Gene Clark made more money than the rest because of his songwriting royalties, and so got himself a good car. McGuinn had problems with his car, and knowing that the other members were jealous of Clark, Melcher offered to lend McGuinn one of his own Cadillacs, partly in an attempt to be friendly, and partly to make sure the jealousy over Clark's car didn't cause further problems in the group. But, of course, now Gene Clark had a Ferrarri and Roger McGuinn had a Cadillac, where was David Crosby's car? He stormed into Dickson's office and told him that if by the end of the tour the group were going on, Crosby didn't have a Bentley, he was quitting the group. There was only one thing for it. Terry Melcher had to go. The group had recorded their second album, and if they couldn't fix the problems within the band, they would have to deal with the problems from outside. While the group were on tour, Jim Dickson told Melcher they would no longer be working with him as their producer. On the tour bus, the group listened over and over to a tape McGuinn had made of Crosby's favourite music. On one side was a collection of recordings of Ravi Shankar, and on the other was two Coltrane albums -- Africa/Brass and Impressions: [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "India"] The group listened to this, and basically no other music, on the tour, and while they were touring Gene Clark was working on what he hoped would be the group's next single -- an impressionistic song about their trip to the UK, which started "Six miles high and when you touch down, you'll find that it's stranger than known". After he had it half complete, he showed it to Crosby, who helped him out with the lyrics, coming up with lines like "Rain, grey town, known for its sound" to describe London. The song talked about the crowds that followed them, about the music -- namechecking the Small Faces, who at the time had only released two single

A 2014 recording. Zareen Daruwala was born on 9 October 1946. She was a child prodigy and a celebrated sarod player of India. Zarin had been known for her on-stage performances besides her trysts with the film studios in the tinsel city. She had been a pioneering female hand to play the sarod, a stringed instrument believed to have been an Indian adaptation of central Asia's rabab. If its feature of having no frets makee many believe that sarod is tough to play, Zarin's religion made her entry into north Indian classical look as someone all the more alien: ‘that Parsi girl', as many referred to her initially. Zarin was barely into her teens when she played for the title music for the 1960 movie Maasoom, though her steadier engagement with Bollywood began only by the middle of that decade. Her work in the studios also gifted the musician her future husband: sitarist Ashok Sharma. Zarine Sharma, once a child prodigy, had kickstarted her career at the age of 4 on the harmonium. She was trained by Manohar Chimote, Bhishmadev Vedi and P Madhukar; all renowned harmonium players. She was enthralled by the sound of the great Ali Akbar Khan's sarod when she was all of six. “In 1952, I had gone to perform my harmonium solo recital at the ‘Sur Singar Sansad' which would have its Haridas Sangeet Sammelan at the Cowasjee Jehangir Hall.After my performance was over, I listened to other musicians. The evening concluded with a sitar-sarod jugalbandi by Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. I was unaware what the instruments were called, but I was irresistibly drawn to the sound of the sarod,” recalls Sharma.Having begun her career in films with Rajesh Roshan in 1964, Sharma has embellished songs like Mere naina saawan bhaado and Naam gum jaayega with her Sarod strains.While her training with vocalists like Laxmanprasad Jaipurwale and violinists V G Jog, S N Ratnajankar and SCR Bhatt gave her insights into ragas, she mastered the technique of sarod-paying from Haripad Ghosh. “I have always learned with a sense of determination. I remember Jaipurwale humming a tappa once.I requested him to teach me the form. He thought it was not possible to reproduce the difficult patterns on the sarod. After rigorous practice, I could do that,” she says.Sharma performs her tappas with effortless ease on the Sarod and has fashioned her own style a fascinating marriage of gayaki and tant styles She was trained by several eminent musicians like Pandit Haripad Ghosh, Pandit Bhishamdev Vedi, Khayal vocalist Pandit Laxman Prasad Jasperware (doyen of Jaipur & Goswami Gharana) , violinist Pandit V.G. Jog (1922-2004) and Pandit Shrikrishna Narayan Ratanjankar (1900-1974) of Agra Gharana.One of the very few female Sarod players represented on highest level the Hindustani vocal style Agra Gharana. She became Zareen Sharma after she married the famous sitarist Pandit Ashok Sharma (youngest son of Bhagatram, the famous Husnalal-Bhagatram film music duo).As a musician of the top order she received several honours including Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1988 and Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar in 1990. Zarin Daruwala passed away on 20 December 2014 in Mumbai. Audio extract of this program. Anchor-Producer: Irfan Camera: Anirban Sadhu Editing: Abaan --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sm-irfan/message

This is a 30-minute preview. To access the full interview please visit https://nightclub.andrewholecek.com/join -- Join the renowned Kirtan musician Krishna Das (KD) on a heartfelt journey into the world of devotion, and the role of sound on the path. What is Kirtan, and how does one listen to it? Can you bring music onto the path, and what are the near enemies in doing so? The discussion turns to sound as the nature of reality, and the role of mantra to reveal reality. Even scientists talk about the Big Bang, and “string theory.” Is the world made of sound and light? (“In the beginning was the word, and the word was made flesh.”) How does one “listen to the mind,” instead of the classic instruction of looking at the mind? KD talks about creativity, the role of improvisation, and what happens when he performs. The conversation turns to how devotion, guru yoga, bhakti yoga, and openness are central to the journey. This interview is uniquely personal, with Andrew and KD sharing intimate stories of their respective paths. At Andrew's request, KD offers two selected Kirtan chants, with commentary; and Andrew offers his performance of a Rachmaninoff prelude. Join us for this disarming and sound-soaked interview, with one of the most endearing artists on the planet. About Krishna Das Layering traditional kirtan with instantly accessible melodies and modern instrumentation, Krishna Das has been called yoga's “rock star.” With a remarkably soulful voice that touches the deepest chord in even the most casual listener, Krishna Das ” known to friends, family, and fans as simply KD ” has taken the call-and-response chanting out of yoga centers and into concert halls, becoming a worldwide icon and the best-selling western chant artist of all time. His album ‘Live Ananda' (released January 2012) was nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Age album category. KD spent the late '60's traveling across the country as a student of Ram Dass, and in August 1970, he finally made the journey to India, which led him to Ram Dass' own beloved guru, Neem Karoli Baba, known to most as Maharaj-ji. Given the name Krishna Das, KD began to chant as part of following the path of Bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion. After two and a half years with Maharaj-ji, returned to USA – alas, six months after his return, word came that Maharaj-ji had died. He took solace in music, finding peace and strength in both his Bhakti yoga practice as well as in such heroes as Ray Charles, Van Morrison, Steely Dan, and Bruce Springsteen (whom he laughingly calls “the Bodhisattva of New Jersey”). KD also co-founded Triloka Records, a California-based label specializing in world music, releasing such artists as Jai Uttal, sarod virtuoso Ali Akbar Khan, and legendary jazz musician/composer Jackie McLean. In 1994, KD started leading chant at Jivamukti Yoga Center, NYC, with an ever-growing audience of yoga students that has led him to chant with people all around the world. In February 2013, Krishna Das performed at the Grammy awards in Los Angeles, CA streamed online to millions of viewers. The award-winning film ‘One Track Heart: The Story of Krishna Das' has been in over 100 US cities, over 10 countries worldwide and is available on DVD everywhere.

Join the renowned Kirtan musician Krishna Das (KD) on a heartfelt journey into the world of devotion, and the role of sound on the path. What is Kirtan, and how does one listen to it? Can you bring music onto the path, and what are the near enemies in doing so? The discussion turns to sound as the nature of reality, and the role of mantra to reveal reality. Even scientists talk about the Big Bang, and “string theory.” Is the world made of sound and light? (“In the beginning was the word, and the word was made flesh.”) How does one “listen to the mind,” instead of the classic instruction of looking at the mind? KD talks about creativity, the role of improvisation, and what happens when he performs. The conversation turns to how devotion, guru yoga, bhakti yoga, and openness are central to the journey. This interview is uniquely personal, with Andrew and KD sharing intimate stories of their respective paths. At Andrew's request, KD offers two selected Kirtan chants, with commentary; and Andrew offers his performance of a Rachmaninoff prelude. Join us for this disarming and sound-soaked interview, with one of the most endearing artists on the planet.About Krishna DasLayering traditional kirtan with instantly accessible melodies and modern instrumentation, Krishna Das has been called yoga's “rock star.” With a remarkably soulful voice that touches the deepest chord in even the most casual listener, Krishna Das ” known to friends, family, and fans as simply KD ” has taken the call-and-response chanting out of yoga centers and into concert halls, becoming a worldwide icon and the best-selling western chant artist of all time. His album ‘Live Ananda' (released January 2012) was nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Age album category.KD spent the late '60's traveling across the country as a student of Ram Dass, and in August 1970, he finally made the journey to India, which led him to Ram Dass' own beloved guru, Neem Karoli Baba, known to most as Maharaj-ji.Given the name Krishna Das, KD began to chant as part of following the path of Bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion.After two and a half years with Maharaj-ji, returned to USA – alas, six months after his return, word came that Maharaj-ji had died.He took solace in music, finding peace and strength in both his Bhakti yoga practice as well as in such heroes as Ray Charles, Van Morrison, Steely Dan, and Bruce Springsteen (whom he laughingly calls “the Bodhisattva of New Jersey”). KD also co-founded Triloka Records, a California-based label specializing in world music, releasing such artists as Jai Uttal, sarod virtuoso Ali Akbar Khan, and legendary jazz musician/composer Jackie McLean.In 1994, KD started leading chant at Jivamukti Yoga Center, NYC, with an ever-growing audience of yoga students that has led him to chant with people all around the world. In February 2013, Krishna Das performed at the Grammy awards in Los Angeles, CA streamed online to millions of viewers. The award-winning film ‘One Track Heart: The Story of Krishna Das' has been in over 100 US cities, over 10 countries worldwide and is available on DVD everywhere.

Episode Notes Notes from Pramit My conversation with Dr Sarah Morelli is a fascinating look into how she became a Kathaka, Academic, and a student of Hindustani Music. Her book, "A Guru's Journey" detailing the life of Pt Chitresh Das is my favorite book on Kathak and I feel honored to be able to present this episode to all of you! PS: Please note that the name of the book in the introduction is "A Guru's journey" and not "Tales of A modern Guru" Bio Sarah Morelli was blessed to train with two of the greatest artists of recent generations: renowned kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das and maestro Ali Akbar Khan, from whom she studied vocal music and the sarod, as well as their disciples Dr. George Ruckert, Gretchen Hayden, Steve Oda, and Pt. Rajeev Taranath. Her book, A Guru's Journey: Pandit Chitresh Das and Indian Classical Dance in Diaspora (University of Illinois Press, 2019), is an ethnographic examination of Pandit Das's artistic contributions and the development of kathak's “California gharana.” Active as a kathak performer, scholar, and educator, Sarah is an Associate Professor at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music and a founding member of the Leela Dance Collective. Her kathak performances have included full solos and leading roles in productions in U.S. and India at venues such as Mumbai's Royal Opera House, LA's Ford Amphitheatre, and Philadelphia's Kimmel Center. Sarah is founder and artistic director of Sureela, a kathak academy in Denver, CO that has recently joined sister schools in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York in creating the national institution the Leela Institute of Kathak. Show Highlights: 0:02:26 How did Sarah Morelli Get into Kathak 0:14:52 Keeping up with Everything 0:18:14 Teaching Kathak to different ethnicities 0:21:49 Why did people stick to learning with Pt Chitresh Das ji 0:23:55 Personal Connection with Pt ji 0:25:17 Meaning of Intense Workshop 0:51:42 Dynamics of Leela Collective 1:02:25 Memorable Experiences in performing 1:10:20 What is Sarah ji's Style of Kathak 1:13:50 Work in Denver 1:17:34 Differences between now and then 1:25:17 Portrayal of Pt Chitresh Das ji 1:25:33 Make this book controversial

Comenzamos con músicas que van enlazando Europa y América a través del Atlántico, para deleitarnos después con dos maestros del sarod indio gracias a las nuevas grabaciones que se lanzan de Amjad Ali Khan y al recuerdo para Ali Akbar Kahn, dentro de nuestra sección «Los esenciales de Mundofonías«. We begin with music that links Europe and America across the Atlantic, to later delight in two masters of the Indian sarod thanks to the new recordings released by Amjad Ali Khan and a memory for Ali Akbar Kahn, within our section «The Essentials of Mundofonías«. · Javier Ruibal – Solo la dosis hace el veneno – Ruibal · Camilla Barbarito – Lamento di un servo – Sentimento popolare, vol. 2 · Burgos Buschini Dúo – Cumbrecita – Tierra que arde · Szabadság (Ariane Cohen-Adad & Jefferson Louvat) – Dvoretsa Balchik & Honga from Podoloy – Ellis Island · Amjad Ali Khan – Raag Shankara – Simply Amjad Ali Khan, vol. 1 · Ali Akbar Khan – Two lovers – Garden of dreams · (Ali Akbar Khan – Blessings of the heart, part 1 – Garden of dreams) Imagen / Image: Amjad Ali Khan

Brilliant sarod player talks about his late father (Ali Akbar Khan) and his own musical excursions including playing with Charles Lloyd and Shanti. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jake-feinberg/support

Jeff Slatnick is the owner of Music Inn, a store in New York City that sells instruments from around the world. Music Inn is one of the oldest continually-run music stores in NYC, and it is a neighborhood institution. Jeff studied classical music under Ali Akbar Khan, the renowned Indian Hindustani classical musician. He shared his incredible stories of meeting Muhammad Ali, experiencing a police raid while inside Chuck Berry's house, hanging out with Led Zeppelin and Joni Mitchell, and much more. Check out Music Inn: https://www.musicinn.nyc/ instagram.com/musicinnnyc Support TVTV on Patreon: www.patreon.com/thevoyagesoftimvetter

Welcome to episode 28, A Sound Within, featuring Buddhist musician, poet, translator, and world traveler, Louise Landes Levi. She has translated renowned mystic writers such as Mirabai, René Daumal, and Henri Michaux. She's released over a dozen books of her own poetry, like Guru Punk and The Book L. Having studied with Annapurna Devi, Ali Akbar Khan, La Monte Young and others, Levi is a skilled sarangi player in the North Indian tradition. Now in her 80s, she continues releasing more music than ever before. And always her work has been guided by spiritual discipline, most notably in the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition, studying directly with Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. Through this episode we'll pass through 1960s psychedelia, North Indian raga, Tibetan Buddhism, and more. Welcome to the Sacred Conversation.More: https://coolgrove.com/press/louise-landes-levi/

Benjy Wertheimer is an award-winning musician, composer, vocalist, producer and multi-instrumentalist equally accomplished on tabla, congas, percussion, esraj, guitar and keyboards, Benjy Wertheimer has performed and recorded with such artists as Krishna Das, Deva Premal and Miten, Jai Uttal, Walter Becker of Steely Dan, virtuoso guitarist Michael Mandrell, tabla master Zakir Hussain, and renowned bamboo flute master G. S. Sachdev. He has also opened for such well-known artists as Carlos Santana, Paul Winter, and Narada Michael Walden. Benjy is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed world fusion ensemble Ancient Future.In addition to touring with Shantala, Benjy is a founding member of the sacred music ensemble The Hanumen (including Gaura Vani, John De Kadt, and Visvambhar Sheth of the Mayapuris) and has toured and produced two CDs with them since 2009.  Benjy joined David Michael and Grammy winner Nancy Rumbel to form the Confluence Trio in 2019. They released their first CD, Confluence, in May 2019.He began his musical studies at age five, starting with piano and later violin, flamenco guitar, and Afro-Cuban percussion. Benjy has been a student of Indian classical music for over 40 years, sitting with some of the greatest masters of that tradition, including Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan, and Z. M. Dagar. Along with the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart, he was a contributing composer and member of the Zakir Hussain Rhythm Experience. Trained in audio engineering at San Francisco State University, Benjy is also very much in demand as a producer, engineer, and studio session musician.Benjy has produced 18 CDs since 2000, which receive extensive airplay around the world, and his CD Circle of Fire went to #1 on the New Age radio charts. Benjy is also in demand as a scoring composer, having scored for such varied projects as NBC's Santa Barbara series and the Emmy-nominated documentary SEED: The Untold Story. Making his home in Portland, Oregon, he now tours internationally with his wife Heather in the kirtan group Shantala.Click here to download Shantala's newest release, "LIVE2Love."Click here to download "Voice of the Esraj" and all of Benjy and Shantala's albums:https://shantalamusic.com/store/voice-of-the-esraj/With love,StuSupport the show (https://stuartwatkins.org/podcast/)

Sonata for Oboe and Piano (2004)                                            Bill Douglas (1944-)Cantabile Tenderly Singing, Playful Bill Douglas is a Canadian-born bassoonist, pianist and composer who now lives in Boulder, Colorado. He toured and recorded for thirty years with the classical clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and with his own jazz ensembles. Among the musicians he says influenced him are J. S. Bach, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Josquin Desprez, William Byrd, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Ali Akbar Khan. He wrote this sonata for the oboist Alan Vogel. He has written that “(his) basic philosophy of music is that it can be helpful to the world. It can evoke such positive emotions as compassion, tenderness, strength, nobility, upliftedness, and joy.”Bill Douglas provided this program note in the score: “The first and third movements follow the standard bebop jazz form: a somewhat complex theme played in unison, followed by an improvisation on the chord progression of the theme and then a return to the theme with variations. In this case, however, the ‘improvisation' sections are completely written out. The third movement was influenced by West African rhythms.” Scores and recordings of Bill Douglas' work, including a wonderful CD of vocal rhythm exercises, are available at https://billdouglas.cc. photo ©Lefteris Padavos 2016

Jai Uttal is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer. Hailed as a world music pioneer, his powerful voice and panoramic musical vision have been at the core of the yoga community’s embrace of kirtan—India’s traditional call-and-response devotional chanting. Having studied for years with the sarod master Ali Akbar Khan, Jai’s music is deeply rooted in the Indian classical tradition, but is also imbued with other influences, including reggae, rock, folk, Brazilian music and Bollywood. His latest release, Gauri’s Lullaby: Music for Healing and Other Joys, is his first instrumental album. Jai has also held Kirtan Camps in Northern California and international locations for almost 20 years, and this year he’s offering the camp online. We spoke mainly about his newest album, kirtan, bhakti yoga, and life in the pandemic. Learn more about Jai Uttal here. http://jaiuttal.com/

It's been over 60 years since western musicians began taking Indian music seriously. And no wonder — it's so completely different from western music, it might as well have come from another planet. Nevertheless, beginning in the 1950s, Indian classical musicians led by RAVI SHANKAR and ALI AKBAR KHAN, established a dialog with European and American classical artists like violinist YEHUDI MENUIN, and in the 1960s, famously with pop artists like GEORGE HARRISON of the BEATLES. The last 40 years have seen creative cross-fertilizations in many genres, from film music to rap, folk music to ambient electronic. At the same time, the emotional devotion at the core of Indian music has taken hold in the west with the bhakti tradition of devotional chant, bhajan and kirtan. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the slow, sensuous sound of Indian devotional chants and ambient instrumentals, on a program called DIVINE SURRENDER. Music is by AL GROMER KHAN, HANS CHRISTIAN, MARK SEELIG, CRAIG PRUESS, BEN LEINBACH, and RAGANI. [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

This month on Sonosphere we hear from Ken Zuckerman, co-founder of the Ali Akbar College in Basel, Switzerland and sarod aficionado.  Peter Lavezzoli, author, percussionist and vocalist also joins us as we discuss how Indian Classical Music has influenced modern rock, pop and ambient music today. While we only scratch the surface of Indian Classical Music, you'll find how one man in particular, Ali Akbar Khan, took America and popular music by storm through his teachings that span across the world and across musical genres. More information at www.sonospherepodcast.com

Josh Feinberg hails from a musical family. Having started his journey in music at age 4 with classical piano, he moved on to study bass at 8 and later studied jazz, which led him to Hindustani Classical Music. He went on to study formally with Dr. Peter Dew and then with Ust. Ali Akbar Khan, and also trained under Sri James Pomerantz, and Dr. George Ruckert. Presently, Josh is continuing his training with Ust. Ali Akbar Khan’s sons Ust. Aashish Khan and Sri Alam Khan, as well as his senior disciple Sri Anindya Banerjee.

This episode of Sonosphere features the North Indian instrument, the sarod. One of the most popular instruments in Hindustani music, the sarod's 20th century master was Indian composer, teacher and musician, Ali Akbar Khan. We speak with contemporary sarod virtuoso, Ken Zuckerman about mastering the demanding instrument and how he and Khan brought various innovations and inventions to the sound.  For more info visit www.sonospherepodcast.com @sonospod

For our 29th episode, I had the honor to sit down with Jai Uttal. I heard about Jai’s Kirtan a long time before I was able to attend in person, but the wait was totally worth it. The music itself was transporting, the performance was exciting and calming at the same time, it left me feeling totally grounded, open and connected. As soon as It was done, I knew I wanted to sit down with him to talk about music, chanting, kirtan and devotion.As always, I really appreciate your support. So as you leave a review on iTunes or on your iPhone podcast app, you automatically enter a giveaway. Athleta is generously continuing to support this podcast in their effort to ignite a community of strong women who lift each other up, and is giving out a 75$ shop card! If you're not sure how to leave a review, check this article. Thank you so much if you left a review. The winner of this episode's giveaway is iTunes user YogawithDana. Email me at erika.belanger@gmail.com or DM me on instagram @erika.belanger and I’ll send you your shop card!ABOUT OUR GUEST : ​​Jai Uttal is a kirtan artist, multi-instrumentalist, and ecstatic vocalist. He is considered a pioneer in the world music community with his combined influences from India and American rock and jazz. Jai has been leading, teaching, and performing World Music and kirtan—the ancient yoga of chanting or singing to God—around the world for close to 50 years, creating a safe environment for people to open their hearts and voices.He grew up in New York City and lived in a home filled with music. Jai began studying classical piano at the age of seven, and later learned to play old-time banjo, harmonica, and guitar. At age 17, he heard Indian music for the first time, and two years later moved to California and studied under the famous sarod player, Ali Akbar Khan. Jai later began taking regular pilgrimages to India, living among the wandering street musicians of Bengal, and singing with the kirtan wallahs in the temple of his guru, Neem Karoli Baba.Jai has emerged as a leading influence in the Bhakti tradition. He considers bhakti to be the core of his musical and spiritual life.Learn more about him here : His Website : www.jaiuttal.comInstagram : @jaiuttalFacebook : @jaiuttalQUESTIONS HE ANSWERED For people that have never heard the word Kirtan, would you explain what it means?What can they expect if they come to an event?Why is it a call and response format? What the goal of that type of chanting?Why chant Mantras and not something else? Why is chanting in Sanskrit so important?Personally, why do you love Kirtan and sacred music vs any other style.What is your all time favorite chant?You also teach a Kirtan Camp, who is this for? What do people learn there? What can people expect?What would you tell people that might be interested but think they can’t sing?What do you say to people for whom it it feels odd, uncomfortable or inauthentic to chants to god and goddesses in a language they don’t even understand?Do you also think it’s important for people to know the English translations?*Edited and mastered by Alexandre Saba See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Layering traditional kirtan with instantly accessible melodies and modern instrumentation, Krishna Das has been called yoga’s “rock star.” With a remarkably soulful voice that touches the deepest chord in even the most casual listener, Krishna Das ” known to friends, family, and fans as simply KD ” has taken the call-and-response chanting out of yoga centers and into concert halls, becoming a worldwide icon and the best-selling western chant artist of all time. His album ‘Live Ananda’ (released January 2012) was nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Age album category. KD spent the late ’60’s traveling across the country as a student of Ram Dass, and in August 1970, he finally made the journey to India, which led him to Ram Dass’ own beloved guru, Neem Karoli Baba, known to most as Maharaj-ji. Given the name Krishna Das, KD began to chant as part of following the path of Bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion. After two and a half years with Maharaj-ji, returned to USA – alas, six months after his return, word came that Maharaj-ji had died. He took solace in music, finding peace and strength in both his Bhakti yoga practice as well as in such heroes as Ray Charles, Van Morrison, Steely Dan, and Bruce Springsteen (whom he laughingly calls “the Bodhisattva of New Jersey”). KD also co-founded Triloka Records, a California-based label specializing in world music, releasing such artists as Jai Uttal, sarod virtuoso Ali Akbar Khan, and legendary jazz musician/composer Jackie McLean. In 1994, KD started leading chant at Jivamukti Yoga Center, NYC, with an ever-growing audience of yoga students that has led him to chant with people all around the world. In February 2013, Krishna Das performed at the Grammy awards in Los Angeles, CA streamed online to millions of viewers. The award-winning film ‘One Track Heart: The Story of Krishna Das’ has been in over 100 US cities, over 10 countries worldwide and is available on DVD everywhere. With the release of his 16th album Peace Of My Heart , October 2018 – KD on behalf of the Kirtan Wallah Foundation offers nearly two hours of deeply moving, meditative and artfully restrained new recordings born out of a request from a yoga teacher who works with children on the Autism Spectrum. Forgoing the ecstatic tempo changes so common to temple-style kirtan, these 5 new tracks move slowly and deliberately. The song to song steadiness is both striking and soothing, and as emotionally impactful as ever. “The chanting just hits you and you want to be a part of it,” KD promises. “That’s the point of this whole thing. That’s what cuts through all the ‘stuff’. You get lit up. You don’t have to know what it means.” krishnadas.com eastforest.org

Discos que han hecho y harán historia. Reediciones de clásicos de Cachaíto, desde Cuba, o de Ravi Shankar, desde la India; grabaciones que se publicarán en el mes de septiembre y músicas globales que nos llegan desde Francia, Nueva York, China, Berlín y la antigua Unión Soviética. Y en nuestra #TremendAgenda hablamos de eventos globales como The Spirit of Tengri, en Kazajistán; IOMMA y festival Sakifo, en La Reunión; Medimex, en el sur de Italia; Africa Fête, en Marsella; FIMPT, en Cataluña, o la gira de Efrén López y Michalis Kouloumis. Escuchamos también música inédita de estos últimos y del proyecto PolCat, que se estrenará en el FIMPT. Some albums that have made and will made history. Classics reissued from Cuba (Cachaíto) or India (Ravi Shankar). Albums that will be published in September and global music coming from France, New York, China, Berlin and the former Soviet Union. On our #TremendAgenda we talk about different global events, like The Spirit of Tengri in Kazakhstan, IOMMA and Sakifo Festival in Réunion island, Medimex in Southern Italy, Africa Fête in Marseille, FIMPT in Catalonia and Efrén López and Michalis Kouloumis' tour. We also listen to some unreleased music by the latter ones and the PolCat project, to be premiered at FIMPT. Orlando Cachaíto López - Redención - Cachaíto [2018] Jean Baptiste Ferré - Liken - Mambas Hazmat Modine - Crust of bread - Box of breath [adelanto / preview] MirMix Orkeztan - Kuydum chok - Global grooves PolCat: Janusz Prusinowski Trio & Manu Sabaté - [título desconocido / unknown title] - [grabación inédita / unreleased recording] Efren López & Michalis Kouloumis - Horticarium - [grabación inédita en directo / unreleased live recording] Bao Jian, Hu Jian, Gao Hong - Zui weng zi - Chinese Buddhist temple music Ravi Shankar - Mangalam - Chants of India [2018] Ravi Shankar - Tilak shyam - The Rough Guide to Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Alla Rakha - Raga Manj khamaj [fragmento / excerpt] - In concert 1972 [2018] Imagen: / Image: Gao Hong

On this episode of Mindrolling, profound musician, Benjy Wertheimer, shares his practice of Nāda yoga along with stories of his study under legendary musician Ali Akbar Khan. Raghu and Benjy discuss the consciousness changing qualities of devotional music and how those insights can be used to better interact with ourselves and the world.

Jai Uttal is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer. Hailed as a world music pioneer, he was among the first to hear the universal heartbeat in the variegated rhythms of the globe. His powerful voice and panoramic musical vision have also been at the core of the yoga community’s embrace of the traditional call-and-response devotional chanting known as Kirtan. Having studied for years with the Indian sarod master Ali Akbar Khan, Jai’s music is deeply rooted in the Indian classical tradition, but it is also plentifully imbued with other influences, including reggae, rock, folk, Brazilian music and Bollywood. We spoke about how he came to his unique devotional music, his guru Neem Karoli Baba, and his latest CD, “Roots, Rock, Rama!” Learn more about Jai Uttal here. http://jaiuttal.com/

There are many great teachers and musicians who have come on the IAH podcast but I have to say that the magic, wisdom and love that Jai Uttal brought to the kitchen table was like nothing else. Jai effortlessly weaves together stories, knowledge and devotion into one voice like few others can do. We talked about his early days studying with Ali Akbar Khan, the landscape of spirituality and the 1960s, his passion for Indian classical music and kirtan and of course Neem Karoli Baba. Hearing Jai tell these stories had me forgetting that I was supposed to be on the other side of the table guiding the conversation. It was as if I was I was floating down the Ganga yearning for more of the unique musical magic that Jai creates. His new album "Roots, Rock, Rama!" is out now.  Jai Uttal has been rightly hailed as a world music pioneer. Singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, he was among the first to hear the universal heartbeat in the variegated rhythms of the globe. But his powerful, plangent voice and panoramic musical vision have also long been at the core of the yoga community’s tradition of call-and response devotional chanting known as kirtan. While his music is deeply rooted in Indian classical tradition—he studied long and hard under the Indian sarod master Ali Akbar Khan—it is also plentifully imbued with echoes of reggae, rock, folk, Brazilian music, Bollywood and other sounds from across the musical universe. All of these diverse and colorful strands are woven together beautifully on Roots, Rock, Rama! www.jaiuttal.com

This live recording with Yogendra and Ravi is from the Yoga Vidya Ayurveda Congress 2014. Concert Magic Indian ragas with Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) With Indian classical raga music want Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) the Directing mind inwards to the essence of all emotions, and eventually lead him to Ananda, the highest state Bliss. Yogendra learned over 20 years with significant Masters such as Ali Akbar Khan and Partha Chatterjee and applies now considered one of the best German sitarists. Tabla player Ravi Srinivasan comes from a family of Tamil Ayurveda Doctors and plays worldwide as companions Indian classical and in your own projects. More about the artist Yogendra. Be part oft he next music festival. More about Yoga Vidya. Join our great Yoga Community!. Information about the next Congress and about Yoga Vidya Teachers Training Course or workshops Part 3 of 3. Konzert: Magie indischer Ragas mit Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) Mit klassischer indischer Raga-Musik möchten Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) den Geist nach innen lenken, zur Essenz aller Emotionen, und ihn schließlich in Ananda führen, den Zustand höchster Glückseligkeit. Yogendra lernte gut 20 Jahre bei bedeutenden Meistern wie Ali Akbar Khan und Partha Chatterjee und gilt heute als einer der besten deutschen Sitaristen. Tablaspieler Ravi Srinivasan stammt aus einer Familie tamilischer Ayurveda-Ärzte und spielt weltweit als Begleiter indischer Klassik und in eigenen Projekten. Mehr Informationen über unseren nächsten Kongress! Mehr über den Musiker Yogendra. Erfahre mehr über Yoga Vidya, Yoga und "yogische" Lebensweise. Bei Yoga Vidya gibt es zahlreiche Seminare zum Thema Mantrasingen oder Musik. Sei per livestream beim Samstag Abend Satsang dabei!

This live recording with Yogendra and Ravi is from the Yoga Vidya Ayurveda Congress 2014. Concert Magic Indian ragas with Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) With Indian classical raga music want Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) the Directing mind inwards to the essence of all emotions, and eventually lead him to Ananda, the highest state Bliss. Yogendra learned over 20 years with significant Masters such as Ali Akbar Khan and Partha Chatterjee and applies now considered one of the best German sitarists. Tabla player Ravi Srinivasan comes from a family of Tamil Ayurveda Doctors and plays worldwide as companions Indian classical and in your own projects. More about the artist Yogendra. Be part oft he next music festival. More about Yoga Vidya. Join our great Yoga Community!. Information about the next Congress and about Yoga Vidya Teachers Training Course or workshops Part 3 of 3. Konzert: Magie indischer Ragas mit Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) Mit klassischer indischer Raga-Musik möchten Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) den Geist nach innen lenken, zur Essenz aller Emotionen, und ihn schließlich in Ananda führen, den Zustand höchster Glückseligkeit. Yogendra lernte gut 20 Jahre bei bedeutenden Meistern wie Ali Akbar Khan und Partha Chatterjee und gilt heute als einer der besten deutschen Sitaristen. Tablaspieler Ravi Srinivasan stammt aus einer Familie tamilischer Ayurveda-Ärzte und spielt weltweit als Begleiter indischer Klassik und in eigenen Projekten. Mehr Informationen über unseren nächsten Kongress! Mehr über den Musiker Yogendra. Erfahre mehr über Yoga Vidya, Yoga und "yogische" Lebensweise. Bei Yoga Vidya gibt es zahlreiche Seminare zum Thema Mantrasingen oder Musik. Sei per livestream beim Samstag Abend Satsang dabei!

This live recording with Yogendra and Ravi is from the Yoga Vidya Ayurveda Congress 2014. Concert Magic Indian ragas with Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) With Indian classical raga music want Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) the Directing mind inwards to the essence of all emotions, and eventually lead him to Ananda, the highest state Bliss. Yogendra learned over 20 years with significant Masters such as Ali Akbar Khan and Partha Chatterjee and applies now considered one of the best German sitarists. Tabla player Ravi Srinivasan comes from a family of Tamil Ayurveda Doctors and plays worldwide as companions Indian classical and in your own projects. More about the artist Yogendra. Be part oft he next music festival. More about Yoga Vidya. Join our great Yoga Community!. Information about the next Congress and about Yoga Vidya Teachers Training Course or workshops Part 2 of 3. Konzert: Magie indischer Ragas mit Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) Mit klassischer indischer Raga-Musik möchten Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) den Geist nach innen lenken, zur Essenz aller Emotionen, und ihn schließlich in Ananda führen, den Zustand höchster Glückseligkeit. Yogendra lernte gut 20 Jahre bei bedeutenden Meistern wie Ali Akbar Khan und Partha Chatterjee und gilt heute als einer der besten deutschen Sitaristen. Tablaspieler Ravi Srinivasan stammt aus einer Familie tamilischer Ayurveda-Ärzte und spielt weltweit als Begleiter indischer Klassik und in eigenen Projekten. Mehr Informationen über unseren nächsten Kongress! Mehr über den Musiker Yogendra. Erfahre mehr über Yoga Vidya, Yoga und "yogische" Lebensweise. Bei Yoga Vidya gibt es zahlreiche Seminare zum Thema Mantrasingen oder Musik. Sei per livestream beim Samstag Abend Satsang dabei!

This live recording with Yogendra and Ravi is from the Yoga Vidya Ayurveda Congress 2014. Concert Magic Indian ragas with Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) With Indian classical raga music want Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) the Directing mind inwards to the essence of all emotions, and eventually lead him to Ananda, the highest state Bliss. Yogendra learned over 20 years with significant Masters such as Ali Akbar Khan and Partha Chatterjee and applies now considered one of the best German sitarists. Tabla player Ravi Srinivasan comes from a family of Tamil Ayurveda Doctors and plays worldwide as companions Indian classical and in your own projects. More about the artist Yogendra. Be part oft he next music festival. More about Yoga Vidya. Join our great Yoga Community!. Information about the next Congress and about Yoga Vidya Teachers Training Course or workshops Part 2 of 3. Konzert: Magie indischer Ragas mit Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) Mit klassischer indischer Raga-Musik möchten Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) den Geist nach innen lenken, zur Essenz aller Emotionen, und ihn schließlich in Ananda führen, den Zustand höchster Glückseligkeit. Yogendra lernte gut 20 Jahre bei bedeutenden Meistern wie Ali Akbar Khan und Partha Chatterjee und gilt heute als einer der besten deutschen Sitaristen. Tablaspieler Ravi Srinivasan stammt aus einer Familie tamilischer Ayurveda-Ärzte und spielt weltweit als Begleiter indischer Klassik und in eigenen Projekten. Mehr Informationen über unseren nächsten Kongress! Mehr über den Musiker Yogendra. Erfahre mehr über Yoga Vidya, Yoga und "yogische" Lebensweise. Bei Yoga Vidya gibt es zahlreiche Seminare zum Thema Mantrasingen oder Musik. Sei per livestream beim Samstag Abend Satsang dabei!

This live recording with Yogendra and Ravi is from the Yoga Vidya Ayurveda Congress 2014. Concert Magic Indian ragas with Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) With Indian classical raga music want Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) the Directing mind inwards to the essence of all emotions, and eventually lead him to Ananda, the highest state Bliss. Yogendra learned over 20 years with significant Masters such as Ali Akbar Khan and Partha Chatterjee and applies now considered one of the best German sitarists. Tabla player Ravi Srinivasan comes from a family of Tamil Ayurveda Doctors and plays worldwide as companions Indian classical and in your own projects. More about the artist Yogendra. Be part oft he next music festival. Part 1 of 3. More about Yoga Vidya. Join our great Yoga Community!. Information about the next Congress and about Yoga Vidya Teachers Training Course or workshops Konzert: Magie indischer Ragas mit Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) Mit klassischer indischer Raga-Musik möchten Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) den Geist nach innen lenken, zur Essenz aller Emotionen, und ihn schließlich in Ananda führen, den Zustand höchster Glückseligkeit. Yogendra lernte gut 20 Jahre bei bedeutenden Meistern wie Ali Akbar Khan und Partha Chatterjee und gilt heute als einer der besten deutschen Sitaristen. Tablaspieler Ravi Srinivasan stammt aus einer Familie tamilischer Ayurveda-Ärzte und spielt weltweit als Begleiter indischer Klassik und in eigenen Projekten. Mehr Informationen über unseren nächsten Kongress! Mehr über den Musiker Yogendra. Erfahre mehr über Yoga Vidya, Yoga und "yogische" Lebensweise. Bei Yoga Vidya gibt es zahlreiche Seminare zum Thema Mantrasingen oder Musik. Sei per livestream beim Samstag Abend Satsang dabei!

This live recording with Yogendra and Ravi is from the Yoga Vidya Ayurveda Congress 2014. Concert Magic Indian ragas with Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) With Indian classical raga music want Yogendra (Sitar) and Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) the Directing mind inwards to the essence of all emotions, and eventually lead him to Ananda, the highest state Bliss. Yogendra learned over 20 years with significant Masters such as Ali Akbar Khan and Partha Chatterjee and applies now considered one of the best German sitarists. Tabla player Ravi Srinivasan comes from a family of Tamil Ayurveda Doctors and plays worldwide as companions Indian classical and in your own projects. More about the artist Yogendra. Be part oft he next music festival. Part 1 of 3. More about Yoga Vidya. Join our great Yoga Community!. Information about the next Congress and about Yoga Vidya Teachers Training Course or workshops Konzert: Magie indischer Ragas mit Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) Mit klassischer indischer Raga-Musik möchten Yogendra (Sitar) und Ravi Srinivasan (Tabla) den Geist nach innen lenken, zur Essenz aller Emotionen, und ihn schließlich in Ananda führen, den Zustand höchster Glückseligkeit. Yogendra lernte gut 20 Jahre bei bedeutenden Meistern wie Ali Akbar Khan und Partha Chatterjee und gilt heute als einer der besten deutschen Sitaristen. Tablaspieler Ravi Srinivasan stammt aus einer Familie tamilischer Ayurveda-Ärzte und spielt weltweit als Begleiter indischer Klassik und in eigenen Projekten. Mehr Informationen über unseren nächsten Kongress! Mehr über den Musiker Yogendra. Erfahre mehr über Yoga Vidya, Yoga und "yogische" Lebensweise. Bei Yoga Vidya gibt es zahlreiche Seminare zum Thema Mantrasingen oder Musik. Sei per livestream beim Samstag Abend Satsang dabei!

A powerful interview with yoga’s rock star, Krishna Das.  Join CJ as she talks to Grammy-nominated artist, Krishna Das, about why we are here on earth, love, death, the power of chanting, and an experience that completely changed Krishna Das’s life.  Part 1: Krishna Das has been on a spiritual path most of his adult Life.  He shares his current thoughts on why we are here?? And the meaning of life? Part 2: What is Love and what escapes us? Part 3: Why chanting helps alleviate darkness and suffering? Part 4:  What does Krishna Das think about death? Part 5:  Is figuring out who YOU are self-indulgent? Part 6:  How Krishna Das was able to let go of his desires, and finally be free to play his music from a totally different place.   About our Guest   Layering traditional Hindu kirtan with instantly accessible melodies and modern instrumentation, Krishna Das has been called yoga’s “rock star.” With a remarkably soulful voice that touches the deepest chord in even the most casual listener, Krishna Das – known to friends, family, and fans as simply KD – has taken the call-and-response chanting out of yoga centers and into concert halls, becoming a worldwide icon and the best-selling chant artist of all time, with over 300,000 records sold. His album ‘Live Ananda’ (released January 2012) was nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Age album category. KD spent the late ’60’s traveling across the country as a student of Ram Dass, and in August 1970, he finally made the journey to India, which led him to Ram Dass’ own beloved guru, Neem Karoli Baba, known to most as Maharaj-ji. Given the name Krishna Das, KD began to chant as part of following the path of Bhakti yoga – the yoga of devotion. After two and a half years with Maharaj-ji, returned to USA – alas, six months after his return, word came that Maharaj-ji had died. He took solace in music, finding peace and strength in both his Bhakti yoga practice as well as in such heroes as Ray Charles, Van Morrison, Steely Dan, and Bruce Springsteen (whom he laughingly calls “the Bodhisattva of New Jersey”). KD also co-founded Triloka Records, a California-based label specializing in world music, releasing such artists as Jai Uttal, sarod virtuoso Ali Akbar Khan, and legendary jazz musician/composer Jackie McLean. In 1994, KD started leading chant at Jivamukti Yoga Center, NYC, with an ever-growing audience of yoga students that has led him to chant with people all around the world. In February 2013, Krishna Das performed at the Grammy awards in Los Angeles, CA streamed online to millions of viewers. The award-winning film ‘One Track Heart: The Story of Krishna Das’ has been in over 100 US cities, over 10 countries worldwide and is available on DVD everywhere. With the release of his 14th album, Kirtan Wallah—one who sings kirtan, KD offers a westward-leaning album, fully embracing his American roots in rock and country and yet embodying the spirit of deeply devotional Indian chants – the heart of this latest album is still in the Names that he’s singing. “The chanting just hits you and you want to be a part of it,” KD promises. “That’s the point of this whole thing. That’s what cuts through all the ‘stuff’. You get lit up. You don’t have to know what it means.” More Information on KD’s catalog is below:  In 1990, Krishna Das founded Karuna/Triloka Records, a leading distributor of world music recordings. His debut album, One Track Heart, released in 1996, focuses on updated chants from the ancient tradition of Bhakti Yoga. His second album, Pilgrim Heart, released in 1998, features a guest appearance by Sting, who sings on the tune, “Mountain Hare Krishna,” and plays bass on “Ring Song.” Krishna Das released the double CD Live on Earth…For a Limited Time Only in early 2000, and followed it with Pilgrim of the Heart (Sounds True), a recording of many of Krishna Das’ stories about his experiences with Maharaj-ji and, later, in America (re-released in 2008 as a three-CD set). 2001’s Breath of the Heart was produced by Rick Rubin and features a kirtan choir of fifty people (including Beastie Boy Mike D) and ten top eastern and western musicians and was followed in 2003 by another Rick Rubin production, Door of Faith, a departure from Krishna Das’ signature call-and-response-style chant that is, instead, a deeply moving collection of solo prayers. Greatest Hits of the Kali Yuga, released in 2004, is a compilation of old favorites and new chants accompanied by a DVD, One Life at a Time, featuring clips of live kirtan and interviews with Krishna Das and friends. Krishna Das’ next CD, All One, is a dynamic 70-minute recording of the Hare Krishna mantra in Krishna Das’ own unique style – that moves from a contemplative style, reminiscent of the hills of India, to a rocking South African ‘township’ finale. This was followed by Flow of Grace – Chanting the Hanuman Chalisa in 2006, in CD/book form, offering the reader/listener some background on Hanuman in different traditions, photos, translations, and a variety of melodies in which he sings this 4-verse traditional hymn from India. Next came 2007’s Gathering in the Light, a collaboration between Krishna Das and composer/overtone singer Baird Hersey and Prana, utilizing only voice and percussion to create new arrangements of seven of Krishna Das’ most beloved chants. Krishna Das’ CD release, Heart Full of Soul (two-CD set; fall 2008) is a vibrant live recording that immerses the listener in the joyous experience of an evening of devotional chant with Krishna Das, from beginning to end. Chants of the Lifetime (February 2010), includes 230 pages of KD’s stories of his youth, his time with his Guru, and his experiences on the Path – written in his own words, with photos, and a CD especially designed for the reader/listener to develop her own chanting practice. Heart as Wide as World (March 2010), his first studio album release in a few years, reveals the merging of KD’s youth in the American rock’n’roll world with his spiritual roots in the Indian tradition. We find new tracks of original English songs flowing into chants from the east, beautifully accompanied by western and eastern instrumentation. Live Ananda (January 2012), nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Age album category is the first-time release of live recordings of classic Krishna Das favorites drawn from his early studio recordings. These tracks capture the depth and spirit of the group of chanters on a 3 -day retreat in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. Krishna Das accompanied by tabla, khol mridanga, bass, violin, flute, and cymbals, blends the musical and spiritual tradition of the east with the voice of the west to create this rendition of call-and-response chanting that lead us into Ananda – Happiness and our true state of Being. One Track Heart – The Story of Krishna Das (Dec 2012), a film that chronicles KD’s chanting path premiered and was winner of best documentary at the Maui Film Festival Dec 2012. The film is distributed by Zeitgeist Films and has been screened in over 100 US cities, over 10 countries, and is available on DVD around the world. Kirtan Wallah (April 2014) – With the release of his 14th album, Kirtan Wallah—one who sings kirtan, KD offers a westward-leaning album, fully embracing his American roots in rock and country and yet embodying the spirit and practice of of deeply devotional Indian chants. 

Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)​Since 1996 Ben Ratliff has been writing about music with passion and insight for The New York Times. Over the course of two decades he has been expanding his readers’ horizons and turning them on to new sounds. At the same time, the past 20 years have brought an utterly transformative revolution in the distribution and consumption of those sounds. In 1996—three years before Napster, five years before the first iPod—listeners were largely constrained in what they could hear by their geographical, financial, and historical situations. For many of us today, those constraints have largely disappeared. It has never been so easy to hear so much for so little. Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty is Ben Ratliff’s bracing, impassioned response to this unprecedented situation. It is a music appreciation guide for the cloud era.As Ratliff sees things, there are both negative and positive aspects to the current landscape. Services like Spotify and Pandora can monitor our listening practices, feeding us back more of what we already know we like. At their worst, these services encourage musical comfort-listening, a surrender of agency to algorithms. On the flipside, we’re living in an age of unprecedented access, rendering old categories and hierarchies of taste obsolete. As Ratliff asserts, a huge wealth of music is out there for all of us to experience—all we need to do is listen better than the algorithms are listening to us.And so, in a series of beautifully composed and originally conceived chapters, Ratliff gives us a refreshingly new framework for engaging with music—one that largely ignores genre categorizations or a composer’s intent and instead places the listener at center stage. Ratliff focuses on various qualities of music that we can listen for, exploring aural attributes like repetition or speed, as well as more subjective emotions and ideas such as sadness or “the perfect moment.” Along the way, Ratliff touches on a dizzying array of music, drawing surprising connections from João Gilberto and Frank Sinatra to Aaliyah and Erik Satie (and that’s just one chapter).Ratliff has a lot of smart things to say about the changes of the past 20 years, and there is no doubt Every Song Ever will spur debate about our relationship to music, and its role as both culture and commodity. But at its heart, this book is a celebration—of the possibilities for pleasure within music, of the diversity of recorded sound, and of the act of listening at a time when listeners have never had it so good.Praise for Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty“In this insightful guide to contemporary music appreciation, genre limitations are off the table . . . Ratliff’s scholarship shines; there’s a lot to be said for a book on music appreciation that can draw apt parallels between DJ Screw and Bernstein’s rendition of Mahler’s ninth symphony.”—Publishers Weekly“It’s fascinating how Ratliff can bring a fresh ear to such familiar music . . . and how inviting he makes some little-known music sound . . . [Every Song Ever] makes unlikely connections that will encourage music fans to listen beyond categorical distinctions and comfort zones.”—Kirkus Reviews“Every Song Ever jumps into the grand adventure of losing yourself in music, at a time when the technology boundaries have blown wide open. Ratliff brilliantly makes connections between the arcane and the everyday, pointing to sounds you’ve never heard—as well as finding new pleasures in music you thought you’d already used up.” —Rob Sheffield, author of Love Is a Mix Tape and Turn Around Bright Eyes“Everyone knows we live in an age when most people can listen to anything, anytime, anywhere. Whether that’s depressing or mind-expanding depends ultimately on what kind of attention we pay. Ben Ratliff has the gifts to help us surf this wave of sonic information, not stand there mumbling at it in a grumpy-grampy way. After all, it’s presumably not going to end until the electrical grid does.”—John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead“This is a book about one exemplary listener’s love for how many ways music can mean, set in sentences as forceful and subtle as Elvin Jones. Slayer and Shostakovich, Ali Akbar Khan and the Allman Brothers—none of them are the same once Ben Ratliff’s ears get through with them. And your ears won’t be the same once you get through Every Song Ever.”—Michael Robbins, author of Alien vs. Predator and The Second SexBen Ratliff has been a jazz and pop critic for The New York Times since 1996. Every Song Ever is his fourth book, followingThe Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music (2008); Coltrane: The Story of a Sound (2007, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award); and Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (2002). He lives with his wife and two sons in the Bronx.Alex Ross has been the music critic for The New Yorker since 1996. He is the author of the essay collection Listen to This, and the international bestseller The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, which was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award.

In this episode, we'll hear great examples of Hindustani music, classical music from north India. This shows opens with an interactive portion as I play sitar and invite you to sing and learn some of the key ideas about this music. After that, I feature sitarist Ravi Shankar & sarodist Ali Akbar Khan, vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty, and sitarist Indrajit Banerjee. You can find videos of the last two performances on YouTube. Enjoy!Episode 5

  Liederhalle. In Deutsch, a place of song. A place to celebrate music of all kinds. This night the Mozart-Saal, one of the music halls within the beautiful Konzerthaus Liederhalle, is host to Ravi Shankar and his sitar.  Yes, Nate has seen Ravi and Allah Rakha and Ali Akbar Khan before, at Monterey Pop, but his experiences tonight – both psychedelic and otherwise – will trump anything he, in his highest moments of imagination, might have dreamt could happen. It all began when a delicate hand with long painted nails, rings with large green and red and blue stones glistening on every finger, and a lace cuff at the wrist, touched Alan’s arm. But that was not the only event of note. Whatever happened to Nate’s entry in the USAFE Short Story Contest?

The Friday Night Dance Party welcomes back by popular demand, Fontain's Muse!  We'll hear what's been happening since we first heard them in September.  And we're going to play more of their music! Hour 1 features Special Guest Star:  Fontain's Muse!   Hear the stories and the music from Fontain and Flash!     Hour 2 will be YOUR listener requests!   Call 323 657-1493 to ask Fontain a question or request a song for hour 2! Purchase Fontains Muse MYSTIC KISS on iTunes by clicking here! Purchase Fontains Muse SPIRAL DANCE on iTunes by clicking here! Like Fontains Muse on Facebook by clicking here! This unique duo has enchanted audiences throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego with their mix of improvisation, alternative and Eastern styles since 2000. They have been described as a mix of Florence and the Machine, Beats Antique, Adele, Ali Akbar Khan, and Thomas Dolby. 

The Friday Night Dance Party welcomes back by popular demand, Fontain's Muse!  We'll hear what's been happening since we first heard them in September.  And we're going to play more of their music! Hour 1 features Special Guest Star:  Fontain's Muse!   Hear the stories and the music from Fontain and Flash!     Hour 2 will be YOUR listener requests!   Call 323 657-1493 to ask Fontain a question or request a song for hour 2! Purchase Fontains Muse MYSTIC KISS on iTunes by clicking here! Purchase Fontains Muse SPIRAL DANCE on iTunes by clicking here! Like Fontains Muse on Facebook by clicking here! This unique duo has enchanted audiences throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego with their mix of improvisation, alternative and Eastern styles since 2000. They have been described as a mix of Florence and the Machine, Beats Antique, Adele, Ali Akbar Khan, and Thomas Dolby. 

Get ready for the most fun you'll have anywhere during the next hour of your life!   Tonight's Special Guest Star:  Fontain's Muse!   Hear the stories and the music from Fontain and Flash!     Purchase Fontains Muse MYSTIC KISS on iTunes by clicking here! Purchase Fontains Muse SPIRAL DANCE on iTunes by clicking here! Like Fontains Muse on Facebook by clicking here! This unique duo has enchanted audiences throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego with their mix of improvisation, alternative and Eastern styles since 2000. They have been described as a mix of Florence and the Machine, Beats Antique, Adele, Ali Akbar Khan, and Thomas Dolby.  This year the duo performs for Lucidity Festival and Shakti Festival.  Fontain's M.U.S.E. has performed for the popular Sonoma County, CA Harmony Festival as well as Techno-Tribal Groove Temple and Ojai CA, OneLove Festival. Recently, Fontain's M.U.S.E. opened for internationally famous Ozomatli for the Grammy Party 2013 hosted by East West Studios in collaboration with Planet LA Records benefiting Whole Planet.       

Get ready for the most fun you'll have anywhere during the next hour of your life!   Tonight's Special Guest Star:  Fontain's Muse!   Hear the stories and the music from Fontain and Flash!     Purchase Fontains Muse MYSTIC KISS on iTunes by clicking here! Purchase Fontains Muse SPIRAL DANCE on iTunes by clicking here! Like Fontains Muse on Facebook by clicking here! This unique duo has enchanted audiences throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego with their mix of improvisation, alternative and Eastern styles since 2000. They have been described as a mix of Florence and the Machine, Beats Antique, Adele, Ali Akbar Khan, and Thomas Dolby.  This year the duo performs for Lucidity Festival and Shakti Festival.  Fontain's M.U.S.E. has performed for the popular Sonoma County, CA Harmony Festival as well as Techno-Tribal Groove Temple and Ojai CA, OneLove Festival. Recently, Fontain's M.U.S.E. opened for internationally famous Ozomatli for the Grammy Party 2013 hosted by East West Studios in collaboration with Planet LA Records benefiting Whole Planet.       

Raghu and Dave gab with Jai Uttal, world music and kirtan pioneer. They introduce Jai's excellent new album "Return to Shiva Station" - also on the table, Ali Akbar Khan, Jai's musical Guru, and his exploits with the Bauls of Bengal deep in the forests near Calcutta, India. Order Jai's new album here: http://goo.gl/ThxOtA

Music can actually transform our consciousness, thereby changing our life, song by song, chant by chant. We discuss the sixties and the momentum created during that time. David tells us about his extensive work with Bob Marley. We hear a couple of tracks from the unique Triloka world music label and examine trance as experienced through being open to and listening to music of all kinds from John Coltrane to Ali Akbar Khan.

Joshua Mellars has a thing for world travel and world music, and he combines both passions in his latest pair of films. Play Like a Lion: The Legacy of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan is a portrait of the late Indian classical virtuoso and his son Alam Khan, who's carrying on the family musical tradition. Heaven's Mirror: A Portuguese Voyage is about Portuguese Fado music, and features some of the top contemporary fadistas (fado singers), including Katia Guerreiro, Ana Moura, Camané, and Carlos do Carmo. Joshua joined me to discuss the films and the music that inspired them.

As the son of the Master virtuoso sarodiya Ali Akbar Khan, Alam has understood the spirit and traditions of North Indian Classical music since he began formal training at age 7. His new CD Shades Of Sarode, released this week, carries on the … Continue reading → The post ALAM KHAN – Maestro In The Making appeared first on Bill Murphy Show.

As the son of the Master virtuoso sarodiya Ali Akbar Khan, Alam has understood the spirit and traditions of North Indian Classical music since he began formal training at age 7. His new CD Shades Of Sarode, released this week, carries on the … Continue reading → The post ALAM KHAN – Maestro In The Making appeared first on Bill Murphy Show.

This Educator Guide corresponds with the "Ali Akbar Khan: North Indian Musician" video from KQED Spark.

Learn why more than 1,0000 students have beaten a path to the classroom of North Indian musician Ali Akbar Khan.

John Handy, a living jazz legend is being honored with the coveted SFJAZZ Beacon Award for Lifetime Achievement, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009 at 7 PM at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. Sunday's concert, like many of John's rare appearances is going to be historic just for the personnel SFJAZZ has assembled for this tribute. I thought at one's tribute the honoree is serenaded, but in this case John is working—there are four bands, the first three will perform first and the second set will be with a newer ensemble. This afternoon when I called I caught him at a good time, but then John is a talker and his memory is phenomenal, so our hour jaunt along the banks of his memory lane ended up being a stroll down his discography as John shared both old and new stories of the past 61 years of his professional career playing Indian music with the great sarodist/composer Ali Akbar Khan and others, along with his sojourn with the great bassist/composer Charles Mingus and Randy Weston, whom he called one of his favorite bosses. I open the program with a piece: Three in One recorded Visit http://www.sfjazz.org/concerts/2009/fall/artists/handy.php

No End in Sight: Immigrants wait months, years in prisons. A project helps them have their day in court. A talk with Michael Tan of the ACLU. And, tabla performance and tribute to master Indian musician Ali Akbar Khan. A student of his music college, tabla player Robin Sukhadia talks of Khansahib's contributions. The post Apex Express – August 20, 2009 appeared first on KPFA.

Learn why more than 10,000 students have beaten a path to the classroom of North Indian musician Ali Akbar Khan. Original air date: April 2003.

Asian, African and Jazz music come together on Apex. Anthony Brown, leader of the Grammy-nominated Asian American Orchestra, and Alam Khan – son of the great Ali Akbar Khan – talk about how they bring their diverse heritages into their art as well as how music, cultures and social concepts converge. We'll hear about their up-coming performances with the Asian American Orchestra at Stern Grove and with programmer Robin Sukhadia talking about a free event at the Ali Akbar Khan school of music. And, we'll learn about the sentiments of South Koreans towards the greater deployment of their troops to Iraq and about the death of the South Korean hostage. Plus music, calendar and more. The post APEX Express – July 1, 2004 appeared first on KPFA.