Adrienne Redd (1995): East Jazz

In this article from 1995, Adrienne Redd explores the connection (or influence) Indian music has had on jazz. Interesting read.

EastJazz

Intricate connections, cultural contradictions and coming home: the influence of Indian music in world music genres

"For the better and finer enjoyment of Indian music, Western audiences should forget about harmony and counterpoint or the mixed tone colors... and relax rather in the rich melody and rhythm, and with the exquisitely subtle inflections through which the atmosphere of a Raga is built up." - Ravi Shankar, 1956

Indian-influenced music seemed to explode into western culture when George Harrison of the Beatles studied with Ravi Shankar in the 1960s, but avant-garde musicians and jazz performers had discovered the joy and versatility of classical Indian music long before. World and American music continue to draw heavily from Indian music because it offers potential found nowhere else. Jazz brims with connections and is about picking up themes and improvising on them. Similarly, the few Americans and Indians living in America and playing Indian-influenced fusions are interconnected. Members of this small circle know one another's names and influence one another's work. Warren Senders is one such musician.

With his extravagant handlebar mustache, square embroidered cap, collarless shirt and serious, far away eyes Senders looks like a late-19th century Brit caught in the magnetic field of Asian subcontinent culture. Senders splits his physical life between Cambridge, Massachusetts and Pune, India. And he has given over his soul to Khayal, the vocal style of north Indian classical music, while contributing a bluesy bassline to the ragas he performs with six Indian partners playing violin, bansuri, flute, sitar, guitar, tabla and drums. (A raga is a melodic sequence with a minimum of five notes patterned in a fixed ascending and descending order - the aroha and avaroha.)

Every artist yearns to experience a genre for the first time and to have that intoxicating wave of recognition, of coming home. Senders has a solid background in western music performance, theory and history, having studied four years with a tutor in Cambridge and two at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, but his first reaction to Hindustani music was one of inspiration and passion. "I said, 'God - this is what I've been hearing in my head.'"

He elaborates, "The first piece that really turned me on was a piece of light music for an all-Indian ensemble composed by Ravi Shankar; it featured a vocal interlude performed by Laxmi Shankar. Subsequent to that, the music that excited me beyond all measure was an LP of Bhimsen Joshi performing Raag Marwa." Bhimsen Joshi is arguably the most significant living performer of Hindustani vocal music.

Seeming to allude to Hindu beliefs, Senders says that the first American incarnation of his band, Antigravity, took place from 1979 until 1983. Antigravity included saxophone (Phil Scarff), trombone, guitar, bass (Senders) and two drummers. Senders says, "It was a hot band!" He explained that it then dissolved and reformed, but that the American version of Antigravity is "on the back burner, but I do hope sometime in the next few years to put out a record with that ensemble as well." The current avatar of the band has released a new recording, Boogie for Hanuman (released Fall of 97 on Accurate Records). The CD consists of seven ragas composed by Senders and based on Hindustani religious text. Warren Sender's wife, Vijaya Sundaram, who performed on the first Antigravity CD and on all the cassettes, will also be on the forthcoming CD. She is a sitarist, singer-songwriter and composer who has released several cassettes of her own.

Connections between jazz and Indian music

There has long been a connection between jazz and Indian music. This cross-cultural pollination has lead to recordings, such as Boogie for Hanuman. John McLaughlin, for example, came to prominence as a guitarist with Miles Davis's ensemble, then led an early, and successful, jazz-rock fusion outfit called the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was at the time a devotee of the Indian mystic Sri Chinmoy, which furthered his interest in things Indian. Chick Corea, Stanley Clark, Al DiMeola and Lenny White formed "Return to Forever", which was another highly acclaimed Hindustani-influenced jazz fusion effort.

Northern Indian music, which sustains notes, while southern Indian does not, seems to be more suited to melding with Afro-Caribbean, Brazilian, North American jazz and other influences. Karnatic or southern Indian music is more a part of everyday life in India, while Hindustani or northern Indian music is of the court and of the intelligentsia, perhaps making it more open to variations and experimentation. Another reason that Hindustani music may adapt to and blend with other influences is that Persian influences were grafted onto the rootstock of Hindustani music during the Mughal empire (1526-1857) when Islamic law was not tolerant of praising other than Allah, so the creative energy of the music had to be malleable.

Phil Scarff became interested in playing Hindustani classical music through his work with vocalist, bassist, and composer Senders, playing in Antigravity beginning in 1980. Scarff says, "At that point, Warren [Senders] had been studying Hindustani Sangeet for several years, and he incorporated Indian influences in his compositions, as well as in his instructions for improvisation. As a jazz musician, I was interested in new techniques and ideas for improvising, and the Indian concepts were very intriguing to me. After several years of listening to recordings and attending concerts, I began my formal study of Indian classical music in 1985, first in Boston, and then traveling to Pune, India." Since then, Scarff has made eight more trips to India to continue his music studies. He has performed Indian classical music, both in the context of his Indo-Afro-jazz ensemble Natraj, and in smaller, more "traditional" Indian classical settings.

He says, " Having been involved with Indo-jazz fusion for 17 years now, I can respond to how jazz and Indian classical music blend: Both musics are deep and expressive, and are based on improvisation. Both employ improvisation that can derive from an underlying composition. Concepts from both idioms can increase the musical vocabulary of the musician and composer, and can be used as resources for improvisation and composition."

The late Don Cherry, the trumpet player who performed with saxophonist Ornette Coleman's "harmolodic" bands, explained that the symbiosis between Hindustani music and jazz comes from the fact that to a greater extent than having notes, Indian music has tones - 36 of them to an octave, so that there is a greater potential for playing "between the notes" and creating what is called free jazz.

However, unlike American jazz, or other western music, Indian music is built around the rag or melody, which the individual artist clothes and makes new with improvisation and variation each time the melody is performed. On the liner notes of his album, Ravi Shankar Plays Three Classical Ragas in 1956, the artist explained the very minor role of harmony, saying, "Indian music is modal by nature, and though harmony may be present in its simplest form, it is inherent, rather than deliberate. For the better and finer enjoyment of Indian music, Western audiences should forget about harmony and counterpoint or the mixed tone colors which may be considered the prime essentials of a symphonic or similar work, and relax rather in the rich melody and rhythm, and with the exquisitely subtle inflections through which the atmosphere of a Raga is built up."

Trey Gunn, Warr guitarist and King Crimson member, talks about these necessary inflections in connection with his sixth solo album, The Third Star. He says, "The influence of Indian music in the west has opened as many doors as it has closed. The new sounds, the sophisticated rhythmic structures and the expansive melodic development all point to new areas for the western musical improviser. However, the 'apparent' static nature of Indian music has often 'given permission' to westerners to do 'nothing' as players, and do it badly at that. (Sadly, I am no exception to this observation.)

"Within the particular atmosphere of a raga, we have a lot to learn. A player can deliver all the elements of a particular raga and get the feel entirely wrong. This has become my latest work as a player/composer: how do define, and deliver, the extremely particular feel of particular piece (even when the musical material is virtually identical to another piece.) The Indian musicians have always been masters of this skill.

"On The Third Star, the first obvious connection to Indian music would be through the sounds, then through the rhythms of the recording -- the droning tones, reminiscent of the tamboura, and soothing slow melodies conjuring the introductory alap of a raga. The percussionist, Bob Muller, plays tabla all over the record and his influence on the material is quite considerable. Most notably there are several tihaisthroughout certain pieces. (A tihai is an Indian rhythmic device, used at the end of phrases.) In addition, many of the pieces are based on asymmetrical rhythms, like seven beats. My hope with these 'odd' rhythms is that they continue to lope along within our western sense of groove without attracting too much attention to themselves. I think, that generally, we have succeeded with this."

Phil Scarff explains what convergence is possible between Indian music and jazz. "Use of tension and resolution is important in creating expression and forward motion in both musics. In Indian music, melodic tension and resolution is created in two primary ways: moving from dissonance to consonance with the drone, and by creating lines that move toward important melodic material central to the raga (chalan).

Rhythmic tension and resolution is created by the use of rhythmic patterns such as tihais, nauhais, and chakradhars, that typically resolve to sam (beat one of the rhythmic cycle). These ideas can also be used in [American] jazz and in Indo-jazz. In jazz, tension and resolution in achieved by harmonic movement; melodic movement, moving from dissonance to consonance against the underlying harmony; and rhythmic activity building into an importance beat in a cycle (this is similar to but less structured than Indian tihais, etc.). Indian classical music and Indo-jazz are very compatible with these melodic and rhythmic ideas; harmonic movement can be applied in Indo-jazz."

Sarod player, George Ruckert says that Indian music blends well with other styles, such as jazz, but stipulates, "The melodic and rhythmic repertoire of Indian music is quite vast. Polyphonic music can give us some of the gifts of the monophonic traditions, but has a hard time with the precision of tuning, emotional content, ornaments, improvised patterns, and lack of harmonic rhythms on Indian music. The "successful" fusions are possible in the light-classical realm, not in the classical, where there is so much to learn before playing it."

Room for originality within a structure is another asset shared by both jazz and (Northern) Indian music. Bhimsen Joshi says, "I listen to (my) old recordings to hear what is lacking so I can improve. When an artist starts at the beginning he always copies his guru, his master. After years and experiences, it is not enough. You must have your own ideas. Remaining true to your gharana's style and to what your guru has taught you, you have to infuse your own personality in your own individual musical style."

Some musicians also note the goofiness and great joyfulness displayed by practitioners of Indian music. This comes from the improvisational paradigm of Indian music (something else it shares with jazz) within which, as Senders says the musicians and particularly the vocalists can, "fail gloriously and succeed even more gloriously." This resonates with Charlie Parker's assertion that "If you want to be a great jazz musician, you have to be ready to be a fool. Senders adds, "The great Indian musicians are great chance takers, but a lot of people are so beholden to tradition that they are afraid to go up on the high board and jump."

Cultural contradictions

A discussion of the broad and indefinable genre of Indo-jazz is also full of cultural contradictions. For example, although, westerners are sometimes questioned in the role of virtuoso practitioners of Indian music, these same westerners often describe a sense of coming home to the music of a completely alien continent and culture. Like Senders, bamboo flute player, Steve Gorn had the experience of returning to his beginnings with Indian music and says, "When I first heard it. This music felt like home to me. People in India tell me I must have lived there in a previous lifetime and that makes sense to me. I have an affinity for western classic but this is the music I can speak through. Even when I play in jazz ensemble, I am basically drawing on the Indian material, although I am reframing it."

Phil Scarff comments, "I have never felt any resentment. However, there certainly is a credibility issue. In my case, it is probably more severe than for most Western musicians because I play Indian classical music on soprano saxophone, which is not an instrument on which Indian classical music is usually performed. This aside, I have felt a lot of enthusiasm and support from the Indian community, both in the US and in India, regarding my playing of Indian classical music, my playing of Indo-jazz, and Natraj's music."

Ruckert, adds, "Resented" is not the word I would use. But the fact is that most people think of me as an outsider in this music...and will opt to accommodate lesser musicians from India as both teachers and performers. Most people, even from India, haven't the vaguest notion of what this tradition is all about. It is the same with blacks and whites in jazz (or rather, used to be). It will change with Indian music, too, as more people hear and learn. Curiously enough, sometimes when I play in Europe I am "resented" for being an American - they can be very suspicious of Americans telling them about India (they do not like the third party sources who should stick to purveying McDonalds', for which they are naturally gifted). My wife is a Kathak (Indian classical) dancer - blond, blue-eyed, and very good at it. She really feels the stigma that is attached to westerners and Indian arts, since she is so visually anomalous to what people expect."

Centrality of voice in Hindustani music

One contradiction of Indian-influenced music, according to Senders, is that Americans think of Indian music as purely instrumental. In fact, singing, with all of its potential for improvisation, subtlety and personal imprimatur, is central to Indian music.

He says, "The tamber, flute or sitar don't go to the core of the music, which is the human voice. My understanding is that the voice is central and I discovered that if I wanted to learn Indian music, I must first learn to sing. In the west if you tell someone I'm a musician, they ask, 'What instrument do you play?' And they may ask, 'Do you also sing?' In India, if you say, 'I'm a musician, people ask, 'In what style do you sing?' And they may ask, 'Do you also play an instrument?'"

Yet another connection between Hindustani music and jazz may be drawn between Khayal, meaning literally imagination, and scat, improvized nonsense syllables. In Khayal, explains Senders, "There are words that have semantic meaning but are not treated in a meaning-intensive way. Six words may be sung over two minutes of tonal space. The vowels are open and the words are varied. Indians may also improvise on syllables and there are also nonsense songs with meaningless vocal components."

Senders says it is a cultural fluke that Americans perceive Indian music as predominantly instrumental. That may be because of the prominence of the instrumental Indian musican Ravi Shankar, with whom many Americans are familiar. Equally important, however is his brother-in-law, Ali Akbar Kahn. The two were disciples of the same teacher. Khan came to California in 1965, moved the school to Marin County a few years later, and it has operated there ever since. Khan teaches the traditional music to students vocally (all the serious students study vocal music) as well as sarod (his instrument), sitar, violin, flute, guitar, sarangi, and whatever instrument they choose.

Getting below the surface

Classical Indian musicians and performers who blend eastern and western influences study for decades, and seem to resent both dilettante listeners and dabbler musicians. Senders has now been studying Indian classical music for twenty years, and while highly respected, acknowledges that he is a relative youngster and must dedicate himself to further study. Phil Scarff says, "For the typical listener it takes several years of listening to recordings and attending concerts to get below the surface texture of the music. Of course, it depends on the cultural background of the listener. One brought up in India would not need so much time; but one brought up in the West, and generally not exposed to Indian classical music would need significantly more time. I believe that one's exposure to a particular culture and music throughout life, especially early life, plays a major role in one's ability to appreciate a particular type of music.

Ruckert tells his MIT students, "The first four listens through the assigned piece (Western or Eastern, African, or Indian...whatever) are for acquaintance purposes only. Real knowledge of the music comes with the fifth time through and after. Music, especially if it is unfamiliar, takes repeated hearings to become familiar with the idiom, intent, mood, rhythm, length, etc."

Phil Scarff says that the basic trends in appreciation and performance of classical Indian music in the United States are that Indian classical music in the US tends toward shorter concerts and shorter renditions of ragas, compared to performance practice in India. He adds, "There seems to be more audience appreciation of instrumental rather than vocal music in the US. This trend may be working its way into the younger audiences in India, as well. The "flashier" instrumental music seems to have still more appeal in the US."

Senders talks about several landmark albums in Indo-jazz by tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, violinist, L. Shankar, ghatam (clay pot) player, Vikku Vinayakraman and Jody Stecher, who studied in India with rudra-veena player Z.M. Dagar. As is the case for Scarff, "flashy" is not, for him, a complimentary adjective. Senders comments that Shakti, the group that Hussain formed, produced "records [that] by and large have weathered well. He adds, "The music was acoustic, well balanced and highly virtuoso. Its downside was that it was if anything too much a virtuoso high-wire act that showcased more the dazzling technique of the participants than any particular innovations of structure or concept. In fact Shakti's music qua music was very similar structurally to traditional Karnatic (South Indian classical). Some of their pieces were in fact adaptations of traditional Karnatic pieces (for which, curiously enough, John McLaughlin and Shankar took composer credit). They are excellent records for the most part, though heavy on flash and dazzle."

In spite of the work it demands, there seems to be a growing appreciation of Indian and particularly Indian-influenced music. Part of the reason for this is the popularity of Indian cinema and its fusion music, which is relatively well regarded by serious musicians. Classical Indian music itself has survived the rise and fall of empires and perhaps its adaptability and openness to new interpretations will allow it live on, in traditional as well as fresh and risk-taking new forms.

- Adrienne Redd

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Below is a partial discography of Indian-influenced fusion or Indo-jazz mentioned or recorded by musicians quoted here. Allen Lutins has compiled a more complete list to be found atwww.lutins.org/indyjazz.html

Antigravity, the Pune group

• Antigravity: The Music of Warren Senders - Accurate AC-4307
• Wings and Shadows: Warren Senders and Steve Gorn - Bamboo Ras BRQ-5339
• Antigravity: Boogie for Hanuman to be released September 1997, Accurate Records
• Making Music by Zakir Hussain (ECM Records) : tabla, percussion,voice / Hariprasad Chaurasia: flutes / John McLaughlin: acoustic guitar / Jan Garbarek : tenor, soprano saxophones. Comments Steve Gorn, "They found some beautiful things there"
• Asian Journal (Music of the World J-101) by Steve Gorn: saxophone, Indian bamboo flute (bansuri)/ Nana Vasconcelos: Brazilian percussionist / Badal Roy: tabla / Mike Richmond: bass. Says Gorn, "It was presented in a jazz context, in that it is improvisatory and the interaction is a jazz interaction."
• Rasa (1982), a collaboration between guitar picker Jody Stecher and sitarist Krishna Bhatt tends to be listed as folk music. It is currently out of print.
• Journey by Ali Akbar Khan (Triloka): sarod /Swapan Chaudhry, tabla/ Jai Uttal, keyboards & others
• Natraj: The Goat Also Gallops originally released by Accurate Records, 1990 (no longer available on Accurate) reissued by Dorian Discovery, 1994. It features Phil Scarff - soprano saxophone, axatse, gankogui; Mat Maneri - five-string electric violin, axatse; Michael Rivard - acoustic bass, gankogui, kidi Jerry Leake - tabla, naqqara, cymbals, gongs, temple block, voice; Simone Haggiag - congas, bongos, tambourine snare, tom-toms, talking drum, cymbals, cowbells, gongs, naqqara, bell trees, wood blocks, gankogui accompanied by Warne Russell - tamboura
• Natraj: Meet Me Anywhere was released by Dorian Discovery, 1994. Phil Scarff - soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, axatse, voice, tamboura; Michael Rivard - acoustic bass, axatse, voice; Jerry Leake - tabla, clay drum, riq, tar, glockenspiel, maracas, naqqara, gankogui, temple blocks, stick, Tibetan bell, voice; Russ Gold - congas, bongos, tom-toms, cymbals, cowbells, wood blocks, gankogui, naqqara with special guests: Mick Goodrick - guitar; Steve Gorn - bamboo flute; Godwin Agbeli - kidi, atsimevu with Warren Senders - voice
• Natraj has a third album recorded whose release date is TBA. On it Phil Scarff plays soprano saxophone; Peter Row - sitar; George Ruckert - sarod; Steve Gorn - bansuri; Brian Silver - sitar; Jerry Leake - tabla Ray Speigel - tabla; Abby Rabinovitz - flute.
• Trey Gunn: "One Thousand Years" and "The Third Star" both available through Discipline Records.
• Ruckert also praises Ry Cooder-Vishva Mohan Bhatt's Meeting by the River, (Water Lily) while Senders, ever the curmudgeon, comments, "I know of the recording and have heard it once or twice. It struck me as a fairly simplistic collaboration; evidently they had no time for rehearsal and simply played their favorite lines for one another. To my ears it is a rather 'easy-listening' record -- very pretty and enjoyable but without much in the way of challenge. Cooder's duet with Ali Farka Toure (the African guitarist) is much more content-rich, as is Bhatt's duet with Simon Shaheen, the oud virtuoso."

Ashwin Permangalore: The Heritage of the old Hindi Film Song

Some very interesting writings, on the heritage of Jazz in India. The strain of melancholia lingers through each, almost lamenting the days gone by - the lost bow-ties and the 11-piece bands and the Can-Can dancers...

Here's one I found, an excellent piece by Ashwin Panemangalore, on the influence of jazz on Hindi film music. Very well-researched and expertly written, it captures a not-so-well-known side of film music's influence, as it offers a wonderful peep at the background of some of the chart-busters we grew up with. Thanks Ashwin...

The Heritage of the old Hindi Film Song

Circa 1956 C Ramachandra the prolific film music director (a misnomer for composer) has been entrusted with the score for ‘Aasha’. One of the songs calls for a fun  and spice melody designed  to titillate the senses. CR immersed in creative thought  in his music room, is distracted by his kids playing outside. Distraction turns to interest. He  captures the Eeni Meeni which becomes ‘Eena Meena ……' this soon enfolds into “ Eena Meena Deeka.”

He shares it with his assistant John Gomes. Together they create “..Eena Meena Deeka.. De Dai Damanika..”.John being a Goan adds the’ maaka naka (‘I don’t want’ in konkani). The lyric develops, longer on each phrasing, gathering tempo till “ram pam po.” John is ecstatic. He promptly whistles  an elegant 16th note 4 bar  bridge and notates it immediately. Later he employs a 2-man  saxophone section for the part. The voices come on to finish the 1st chorus to the infectious rhythm. “Eeena Meena Deeka” is born. 

Many ‘Aasha’ showings later the song is on everyone’s lips. The film is eventually gone but, with apologies to Irving Berlin… the melody lingers on. Circa 2006 The JJ Bhabha theatre. A 16 piece German  big band is wading through a string of Broadway hits, strange to most in the audience. The band soon  strikes the notes of ‘Eena Meena Deeeka’ specially arranged for them by the Mumbai maestro, Louis Banks. A roar of recognition lights up as the audience delightedly surprised, claps and foot taps its way through the song. Banks however has not been content just to reproduce the melodic line..Individual scores painstakingly created and  written for brass and reed sections act as counterpoint, add body and a new feel to the song conceived  by CR,which was thin on  instrumentation. The original  has been transformed into an orchestrated piece written specially for this band and its individual players but with the same lilt and feeling generated by the composer. Banks’ arrangement of the composition  has given it his own identity. 

What makes this song and so many others of that era between the 40s and the 70s cherished two generations later, across waves of contemporary hindi film music  most of which are forgotten quicker than the waves die. The old hindi film song stands like a monument on the shore weathered by the winds of time and the gentle lap of these  waves to be admired across generations. 

And there are many such monuments along an endless musical shoreline  built  by a legion of architects, engineers and craftsmen who valiantly worked with their age old tools creating priceless works of art each unique in shape, form and styling  to create a rich heritage of that golden era of the music.  And who are they ?  Enshrined in the media and in memory  are the architects.. the music directors... Naushad, C Ramachandra, Shankar Jai Kishan, Madan Mohan, N Dutta, Usha Khanna, S D Burman, Jaidev, O P Nayyar and later RD, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji ….supported by  their famous lyricist partners like Shakeel, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri,Qamar..…. enhanced by the lilting voices of  the legends Lata, Asha, Geeta Dutt, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey,Talat, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar,Mohamed Rafi…. 

But architects alone cannot build an edifice. They require a band of engineers and craftsmen dedicated to the task who will transform the architects ideas  into exotic reality of a song comprising orchestra and singer to produce a rich listenable tapestry of  sound . Some of these orchestras which accompanied the legends on those famous compositions spawned 40 and at times 60 musicians performing on  a variety of musical instruments ranging from Indian to Latin to Western popular and Western classical. The result you have violins, sarangi or sitar, trumpets, clarinet, saxophones, piano, guitar, Indian bamboo flute, double bass, congas, western drums. Each instrument has its own space its own role which the arranger used to distinction. 

Consequently, each song represented a rich unparalleled texture of music singularly unique in its creative output of outstanding melody,  blended harmony, engaging lyrics, ethereal  voice and delectable rhythm. The lyricists were scholars and poets from UP largely Muslim, while the composers and directors were from parts of the North mostly Hindu. The  arrangers who were often Goan had the skills to notate music (translate the ideas of the composer into sheets of written notations which a schooled musician could read and play) and create harmonies. 

The perfect blend of each of these  talents made for the everlasting value of the old hindi film song. Examine the cross section of those who populate the current  film music world and it is not difficult to determine the cause of the lack of durability of today’s output. 

Listen closely to the songs of that era, for example  the songs made  famous by Talat .The music is rich with a variety of instruments playing counterpoint.The fills in the space between the lines of an antara and the stanzas are engaging. And the strings in the background serve as velvet backing to Talat’s voice. 

During the same period worldwide, bands had typically, 16 piece orchestras across a narrow spectrum of instruments, brass (trumpets, trombones ), reeds (saxophones, clarinets) and rhythm (bass, drums). Names like Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller hit the marquee. Stan Kenton  in America was hailed  a great  big band leader with 40 pieces  sometimes up to 70. Kenton has carved out his name in the history of American popular music. Thanks to the practice there to recognize arrangers and document such contributors, Nelson Riddle and Billy May who arranged music for the singing greats like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald have carved out their name in the history of American popular music.  

Ask any avid listener of old hindi film songs about who arranged that music or what was behind the director and the singer. Chances are, he would not have even thought about it. And this, when these arrangers utilized  their imagination  across a  wider range of instrumentation that the Americans or Europeans knew. With no recognition and no documentation four decades of effort by an unsung  band of dedicated artistes threatens to be  buried forever in the sands of time. 

But what is an arranger? He is someone who adapts a musical composition for voices, instruments, and performance styles working in close collaboration with the composer or director. He determines the structure of the melodic line, enlarges the composition by creating harmonies, selects the instruments which would be deployed to play them, decides where they come in either as solos or as accompaniment or as fills between stanzas or as backdrop to the singer. He sets the rhythms and the instruments for the rhythms. As he does this, he is  notating his thoughts  into sheet music for each instrument or a section of instruments comprising two or more playing in unison e.g. violins. It’s a painstaking developmental process with revisions and changes to suit the composer, the singer or musicians. The arranger of the old Hindi film song is its unsung engineer. 

Who were those engineers who conceived and painstakingly got together  those craftsmen to perform ? They were the assistant directors read arrangers. Names like Anthony Gonsalves, John Gomes, Joe Gomes, Sebastian D’Souza,  Manohari Singh, Kersi Lord, Chic Chocolate, Y S Mulky and several others. They were the arrangers and themselves super musicians. John and Joe excelled on clarinet, violin and alto sax. Manohari is a master of all these reed instruments and Chic Chocolate was known for his trumpet. Mulky is an accomplished pianist and accordion player. All were well schooled on musical theory, the  tool for the construction of a piece. 

A little known fact concerns Pyarelal of the famed Laxmikant Pyarelal duo. Pyare as he was affectionately known, was an accomplished violinist of the western classical school who was taught by Anthony Gonsalves mentioned above. He nursed ambitions to perform in the west like Zubin Mehta but was persuaded by Laxmi not to do so. Anthony was recognized by Pyare in the song by that name in “Amar Akbar Anthony”. Pyare was the arranger while Laxmi composed as they together put their stamp  on over 300 films. 

And who were the craftsmen ? Jazz music  scrupulously documents all musicians in a record down to the recording engineer, the studio, the date of recording and equipment. The Indian film music world has been  blissfully neglectful of all this. Consequently the craftsmen were uniformly unrecognised and unwritten about. All are today either old and neglected or  dead. Sadly, in an era of a distribution explosion of this music across the internet and the media where the tunes they performed on reach millions across a new generation in mind boggling volumes. 

Names like Anna Joshi (tabla) Amancio D’Silva, guitar, Francis Vaz, drums, Enoch Daniels, accordion, Kartik Kumar, sitar, George Fernandes trumpet, Mark Machado piano, the Monserrate brothers and  many more performed and soloed on so many of the songs which continue to delight the senses. 

The following is reported on Manohari Singh, belatedly recognized on his 75th birthday for his work across 4 decades by the Indian Express, Pune ... “…….An illustrious career spanning over four-and-a-half-decades, Singh still wishes real musicians behind film songs, be brought to the forefront. “These are people who sit in a recording studio and play deserve as much credit as music directors and singers do,” says Singh who was very fond of his colleague and ace trumpeter George Fernandes. “He lent his talent to the famous song ‘Aane Wala Pal Jaane Wala Hai’ from Golmaal. But how many people know about Fernandes?” sadly questions Singh..” 

But more on these engineers , the craftsmen and their experiences is the scope of articles to follow. 

Ashwin can be contacted at ashwinpanemangalore@yahoo.com

Jazz Music and India, By Madhav Chari

Madhav Chari, jazz pianist and composer, on the history and current state of jazz in India. Interesting, almost melancholic reading... Chari's album "Parisian Thoroughfares", a Bud Powell inspired adventure, is available in the market, and is a wonderful collection...

Madhav Chari a Jazz Pianist and Composer says” Make friends with the music, and do not worry about the "structure" of the music: just taste it for now.”

Jazz music is one of the most important artistic contributions of humankind in the modern era, and one of America's greatest contributions to the world of art. 

One of the guiding features of jazz music is improvisation: the art of spontaneously creating sounds in real time. Improvisation within jazz music is not an "anything goes" approach and has guidelines and principles. This process of improvisation is analogous to improvisation in Hindustani and Carnatic music. In all these forms of music improvisation is structured (and the sound itself is structured according to particular musical grammar and vocabulary), there is a strong rhythmic basis to all the sounds that are created (and definite protocol in terms of rhythmic articulation or the way rhythm is projected), and there is a dynamic interplay of the different musicians on the bandstand (in other words musicians should be listening to each other). Within jazz music there is also a dialogue between the musicians in real time known as "call and response'' and this is similar in principle to the saval-jawab idea in Hindustani music.  

However, the similarity ends there: the way in which jazz musicians organize sound is very different from carnatic or Hindustani musicians. To use a metaphor of language, the grammar, vocabulary and structure of the language and its idioms is radically different from carnatic and Hindustani, and is more closely related to western classical music and music forms from west and central Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. 

For an initial taste of jazz music, describing the music using the English language will not take anyone very far, and the only solution is to experience it firsthand: just listen to the great recordings of jazz musicians past and present. Make friends with the music, and do not worry about the "structure" of the music: just taste it for now.  

The Indian influences in jazz music are not so much specific music forms such as Hindustani or carnatic but ideas behind these music forms (such as the drone to anchor the tonality and provide one reference point) and the idea that music is a conduit to higher consciousness. John Coltrane did some initial study on scales used in Indian music, but rather than organise tonal material using the structure of a specific raga, he was more interested in the "spirit of the music" and not so much the specifics of the music. In any case if one listened carefully and for a sustained period to his music in the 1960s, one can hear that his organization of sound is derived from both the blues as well as a sophisticated understanding of harmony. In fact if one wanted to make an analogy with Coltrane's music and Indian cultural traditions, the closest link would be the Bhakti movement within India, and the idea that ecstatic trances can provide conduits to higher consciousness (whether or not they are generated by music). 

In India, jazz was probably first performed regularly in the metropoles Calcutta and Bombay around the late 1920s. African American musicians such as pianist Teddy Weatherford (who recorded with Louis Armstrong) and Crickett Smith were some of the founding fathers of Indian jazz music, and the 20s till the 40s was a golden era for jazz music within India. In the late 40s Bollywood was employing many musicians who were mainly jazz or western classical musicians, and one can hear strains of swing, cha cha cha and more basic jazz harmonies in the early music soundtracks. In that sense jazz music is not at all foreign to India. 

Currently the Indian jazz scene is weak, and worse is the claim that many musicians in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore or Kolkata "play jazz", when in fact the bulk of these musicians have little or no understanding of the working knowledge and grammar/vocabulary of jazz music: they do not even listen regularly to the works of the jazz masters. However there are listeners of the music, and if many listeners seem to be "turned off" by jazz music in India, it is not so much a fault of the music as the fault of substandard jazz (or not so jazz) musicians and promoters who perform and program the music with little passion, knowledge and integrity.  

If you have a belief based on very partial knowledge and experience that jazz music is not accessible, that idea propagates itself and tends to become a self fulfilling prophecy: my own suggestion is to be open to the music, taste it a little bit, tap your feet to the swing of Count Basie or Horace Silver, be open to be moved by the bluesy sound of Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong and you are already on your way to becoming a listener of good jazz music. It really does not take that much effort. 

The fact remains that high quality jazz music can have a resonance with audiences in India from western classical music, blues music, some rock music (especially very high energy jazz music), latin American music (e.g.salsa and tango are  sister music forms to jazz), Hindustani/Carnatic (extremely dedicated high quality improvisation with dynamic interplay of musicians), and audiences who like music from "ecstatic" Bhakti type traditions including Sufi music from Rajasthan and Baul music from Bengal (the music that is deeply influenced by John Coltrane played with intensity and passion works well). I know this firsthand and all these audience groups have listened to me perform across India. The important principle to understand from a naive audience viewpoint when it comes to music is that people always remember the passion of the musician more than specific "things" that a musician did or specific nuances of a music form in a performance. 

Jazz music also has resonances within India outside the immediate world of music. India is starting to make a very important mark as a serious global player on the world political and economic stage, and specific insights from jazz music can be used as pathways of creativity within the corporate workplace and can benefit India a great deal: for example a cutting edge project, the very first of its kind in the world, is a duet collaboration between martial artist George Kuriyan and myself. This multidimensional project initiated by George Kuriyan not only includes a duet concert performance, but targeted corporate workshop modules for both senior and middle management on creativity, leadership, crisis management and effectiveness in the workplace. This project in totality not only provides a link to the modern world, but at the same time provides access to the traditional mythologies and spiritual traditions of the world (including India). It answers an important question on an experiential level that India has been asking for over a hundred years: how to simultaneously access modernity and tradition. 

My own response to the current Indian situation is to see possibilities where others do not see it. I also prefer to look at cups that people say are half empty, and see them as half full instead. This alteration of perspective has allowed me access to audiences that jazz musicians in India have never accessed in the entire history of jazz music in India. All this without diluting the core of the music that I play, and I do not play fusion. 

Is there a viable future for jazz music in India: I think so, I am optimistic.

Skinny Alley at Opus, on an incandescent afternoon.

Yesterday did not start well at all. Woke up with a hang-over (from the typical building party I have now become accustomed to - only this time I was the host), popped in a Saridon, and tried to go back to sleep. Could not.

A couple of hours later, Soni and I were in an auto, bound for Opus. What the heck! This was supposed be a special Opus afternoon. Skinny Alley was here.

For those who do not know Opus, its a pub. For those who do know Opus, its a lot more. After three years of choking, coughing and cursing in Bangalore, I can safely call Opus the high-point of my life here.

It is a lovely bungalow, converted into a free-flowing, beachy Goan kind of a place, which serves you good beer, decent food, and great music. And it has great people. Not only does Opus offer probably the finest eye-candy in the city, but it has also given me some good friends. And I am gratfeul for that. For the ties that bind the people in Opus together is definitely the music (and definitely not the service). Such friends are always welcome.

Anyway - I digress. We walked into a typically crowded Sunday afternoon at the pub, and found ourselves drifting to the front. The great Otis D'Souza hailed us, all liquid charm and grace, with a smile that is as infectious as it is genuine. Carlton breezed by, Gina and Shonali hovered. Opus was on.

Also on were these middle-aged people on stage. Skinny Alley needs little introduction, at least to those of us who grew up in Kolkata. Any band which Amyt Datta fronted was always revered, and Skinny had Amyt really coming into his own. Then there were the usual suspects who had made Skinny Alley not only popular (so is Assma, I am told), but also very original: Jayshree on vocals (and the writer of the songs), Gyan Singh on bass, and the two Jeff's - Rick on drums and Menezes on keyboards. Old warhorses, seen it all, to turn it on, once more.

And turn it on, they did. Rarely have I attended a gig which has given me such goosebumps. This was an incredible show, of power, grace and creativity. Outstanding. Breath-taking.

Jay was brilliant with the vocals - control, poise, power and flawless delivery. As usual. She remains the finest Calcutta rock vocalist I have heard. Jeffrey Rick blazed on the drums, and the vocals on "Green Ring" (Steely Dan). Jeff Menezes and Gyan were as good as ever.

Then there was Amyt. The grey hair, the poker face, the easy control. Brought back memories of the Amyt-da we grew up listening to - as Shiva, Hip Pocket et al. Only better.

He was incredible. Covering rock'n'roll to jazz to blues to funk, changing scales, controling the tempo, jamming with the keyboard. On "Voodoo Chile" and "Bodhisattva", and on the originals "In and Out", "Fence" - he blazed through with an incadescent performance which had the audience stunned.

I have rarely seen a performance like this, having been to numerous shows now for over 20 years. I have seen Amyt a hundred times before. But yesterday was special. It was at a different level. There has always been debate as to where he fits in among India's top guitarists. Those of us who saw him perform yesterday, we have the answer.

As we stepped out, I felt enveloped. By a strange sense of satisfaction and well-being, of satiation and wholesomeness. I cannot describe it better. I felt fulfilled.

Soni, who had a few minutes ago, done the a very groupie thing, put in a very nice point. "After a show like this", she said, "I feel proud to have grown up in Kolkata, where such music still flourishes."

Absolutely.

These guys have struggled. Probably not made it to what they could have been, being from Kolkata, practising in garages and attics, suffocated by Bengali cultural hang-overs. But they are as good as it gets. The sound is original, international and world-class. The talent is awe-inspiring.

And I appreciate my home town for that (I admit, I don't do that too much), for having sheltered and nourished them for so long. Allowed them to be what they are.

Even today, while other city kids (and I have seen a few) hang out in malls, or daaance to the latest remixed poop, I see Kolkata kids lugging their second hand Gibsons to some hole in the wall, to practise. Could be Dylan, could be Dead, could be Suman. Could be their own "Bangla Rock". Mocked and maligned by mothers and aunts, they go on, hoping for their break. Hoping to be Amyt Datta one day.

Long live Rock 'n' Roll.... Amen!