India and Pakistan music reviews

what's great about this album is that you don't HAVE to understand what it's all about, you just feel it, music transcends understanding (and with all the sex-kitten pop out there right now rock is a dying genre).

i can't help but roll down the windows of my car and sing at the top of my lungs to these songs (for the highway fast songs like "Pyaar Bina" are highly recommended and for the sidestreets where traffic is a litte slower songs like "Mitti" are essential).

In this global economy and global society international music is essential and this band (and album) are a fantastic place to start. if you love rock, and enjoy just singing and dancing to great rock music, this album is definately for you!

In this case, four accomplished San Francisco Bay Area instrumentalists accompany a vocalist trained the north Indian classical tradition. Additionally, each song is composed in a rag format, and is based on a 16-beat rhythm, and I've just told you everything I know about the rag format.

The first track, "Invocation," is a perfect introduction to Jhaveri's vocal prowess. She begins softly, then her voice soars with sudden assured power, then effortlessly slips into a more quiet, delicate, slightly breathy tone, while maintaining remarkable precision in intonation and melody. She's only singing the syllable "ah" to start the song, but the sheer beauty of her voice is riveting.

The second track, "To A Beloved," is the one that completely blew me away and made me fall in love with this record. The instrumental introduction is very strong---too strong, in my opinion, for a jazz vocal piece. But Jhaveri's voice, with its astounding power and grace, is more than up to the task. She truly has an amazing instrument.

Her voice is so powerful I can think of no other comparable vocalist. She reminds me more of a jazz horn player. In fact, I would say that if Miles Davis had ever made an Indian rag record, it would sound something like this record. Miles had the ability to play soft and gentle, and then suddenly take your breath away with his power. Shweta Jhaveri has the same ability, and it is perfectly showcased on this record.

"Anahita" is a modern jazz masterpiece.

Ravi joins his own ensemble to the Russian Folk Ensemble, the Government Chorus of Ministry of Culture of USSR, & the chamber orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic. He composed all the music. The Moscow Philharmonic ensemble doesn't fare too swell with the three ragas, but it's thrilling to hear the Government Chorus singing along with Ravi's crack percussion unit. & Ravi does play it straight a few times. The 25 minute, five movement closer, Bahu-Rang, based on Raga Mishra Pilu, rises to an ecstatic mix of voices, balaikas, sitar & South Asian riddems. Everyone seems to be having a great time. Curried cavier, anyone?

Bob Rixon

Shabir Hussain's tabla is never overdone. The vilambits are never accelerated, but Shaurast has a ten-minute drut, not advertised on the cover, which is the least successful item. Sajjad Ali (2nd tabliya) goes overboard here, with even unusually much bayan "melodics", and Ghulam Hassan Shagan at this stage in his career is obviously a better vilambit than drut singer. (Surprisingly, he reaches some very high notes.) These exaggerations are carried over into Puriya Dhanashree; Ghulam Hassan Shagan produces some extremely out-of-tune gamaka, which, although hardly good classical singing, in fact add genuinely haunting, beautiful effect.

Ustad Shagan has an astonishingly rich, mellow voice which is capable of remarkable fluidity. The ragas he sings are built around scales of just a few notes and much of his virtuosity is displayed through his ability to moan, growl, wail and keen throughout these surprisingly expressive scales. This music is very intense, but also (for me) trance-inducing. Don't put this record on to wash dishes by, or you'll never finish them.

The instrumentation consists of swirling layers of sarangi (kind of a fiddle) and the insect-buzz drones of a sitar-like instrument whose name escapes me at the moment. Providing a throbbing, bouncing bass line is some excellent tabla playing. This two-handed drum is more than adequate to the task of anchoring the whirl of voices (Ustad Shagan's son accompanies him) and strings.

This music contrasts strongly with - for example - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's qawwali, which involves lots of hand-clapping and chanting choruses; the deep classical ragas on offer here are superficially at least far calmer and more serene. This is not to say that the music is dull. It is not. It is otherworldly, like the soundtrack to another planet, or maybe Heaven.

I have been fortunate enough to hear Ustad Shagan in concert two times, once in Morocco and once in Pakistan. Listening to this record is not exactly the same experience, but it comes close. Technically it is top-notch, and the disc is generous (the three ragas clock in at 70+ minutes). If you're not afraid of losing yourself in someone else's music, check it out.

I did purchase the "Ghost World" soundtrack which has that particular cut on it, but it wasn't enough. So, I went to the next logical step, the actual artist. Alas, the majority of Raffi's stuff is more traditional Indian music. it didn't have that quirky sorta 60's kick to it....you know, like that music from the Peter Sellers movie "The Party".

Then I came across this little gem. Although it doesn't eek of swingin sixties, it has an amazing overlay of 70's funk which makes it perfection.

I am stil searching for the perfect blend of 60's and Indian music, when I find it, I will be in Nirvana..till then, I will funk-it-up with this.

The Biswas CD #185 has the tracks listed correctly, but the picture shows a different CD from a different label.

1. Raga Bageshri (alap, jor, jhala) 39:04

2. Raga Zilla Kafi (alap, vilambit & drut gats in tintal) 33:40

Soloists are Tejendra Narayan Majumdar on sarod, Pandit Kumar Bose on tabla (track 2 only).

The performance, as per usual from these great musicians, is superb. So is the recorded sound.