Running Gamak: Warren Senders' Blog

So Much Beauty

Mallikarjun Mansur, singing Ek Nishad Bihagada and Nat Bihag.

The Antigravity String Band, 1982

By the end of 1981, the band had undergone significant changes in personnel. Dee Wood had too much else going on, and left the group (although he continued to play brilliantly in the “jazz” incarnation of Antigravity, documented here), and Skip Parente got a lucrative and creatively fulfilling gig with a major Irish band. After some shuffling, we wound up with Karl Boyle (on flute, pennywhistle and occasional guitar) and a fine fiddler named Anna Teigen, along with me, Anne Goodwin, Stefan Senders and Michelle Kisliuk.

It was this configuration that endured for several years. This band was certainly the most popular one I ever played in; because of the “world music” orientation we had a very different repertoire from any other string band on the scene (even though we did some traditional Appalachian and Irish numbers, they were recontextualized by being heard alongside Tibetan, Lebanese and African pieces) — but because of our instrumentation we had entree to all the venues of Massachusetts’ lively folk circuit.

Lover’s Desire

untitled Turkish Melody

United Like A Mighty River

Shona Agbekor

I’ll post more in the days to come as I get the pieces digitized and uploaded.

From the Vault: The Antigravity String Band, 1981

Around 1980, I worked out the fingering for a guitar arrangement of multiple parts of the Agbekor drum rhythms which I’d been studying with David Locke. The arrangement I came up with had the Totodzi part in the thumb, the Kagan part in the index finger, and the Gankogui (bell) part in the middle and ring fingers. I messed around with it for a while as a way of internalizing the relationship of the three parts, but never found a chordal structure that seemed satisfactory.

Then one day I was fiddling around with a DADF#AD open tuning, and discovered that the I-IV-I-V progression that manifested so often in group arrangements of Shona music (like Dumisani Maraire’s marimba ensembles) fell naturally under the fingers.

There were some other people in the Agbekor ensemble at the time who played stringed instruments, including Dee Wood (known at the time as “Dogwood”), my brother Stefan, Michelle Kisliuk and Anne Goodwin, and we began experimenting together with multi-instrument versions of the piece. I shifted to bass, and it started to turn into something delightful. Soon after that, we added the fiddle playing of Eddie Parente (known at the time as “Skip”), and we did a few concerts together, presenting our version of the Agbekor rhythms/Shona harmony along with some other pieces we threw together. Skip was a wonderful violinist who brought a beautiful sound to the group, and I was sorry to see him move on after a few months; he got offered a fabulous gig with a major Irish band and would have been a fool not to take it.

Here are a few recordings from our first concert, in May of 1981 at Studio Red Top in downtown Boston. We put together a 45-minute set that included two “Shona-ized” Ghanaian dance rhythms, Dee Wood’s nice arrangement of Abdullah Ibrahim’s piano piece “Tokai,” an Afghani melody called “Lover’s Desire” that I learned from an old lp by the Human Arts Ensemble, and my original composition “Night Melody.” The audience loved us. Loooooved us. That was rare for me; most of my performance ensembles were greeted with desultory applause and phrases like, “Gee, Warren, that was interesting.”

But I digress.

We led off with “Lover’s Desire.” I had threaded paper through the strings of my bass to give a buzzing sound.

The African adaptation that started it all, which we called “Shona Agbekor.” In rehearsal we would sometimes play this for an hour without stopping. Fun.

My original composition “Night Melody.” The scale is that of raga Malkauns, but the ensemble organization was inspired by recordings of Sundanese music which I’d been enjoying.

Abdullah Ibrahim’s “Tokai,” in Dee Wood’s beautiful arrangement — like a chorus of stringed instruments.

“Gahu” was the other African theme we developed…a real dance-party piece.

The band went through some personnel changes in the months after this concert, but continued to gig regularly for the next several years. I’ll be posting more of those recordings in the weeks to come.

Enjoy.

Raga Bhatiyar: Taleem from S.G. Devasthali, 1994

This clip has just gone up on the S.G. Devasthali memorial page. It’s 30 minutes of detailed instruction from Guruji to me and Vijaya in early 1994.

Hope you enjoy it.

Amazing. Just Amazing.

More Krishnarao Shankar Pandit.

Here is his magnificent Devgandhari:

And another morning raga, Deshkar. His audacity of imagination is fully evident here, for example in his excursions into the lower register — Deshkar is usually considered to dwell exclusively in the upper range, so it’s quite a feat to sing in the basement without making it turn into Bhoopali.

And finally a bhajan in Raga Pilu, the oft-heard “Raghubir tum ko mori laaj.”

More to come.

WWPD?

Write a song. That’s what.

Inuit Throat-Singing, Just For Fun

These Inuit throat-singing duets seem like a total gas for everybody involved.

I understand that this genre is described as a “laughing game.” The object is to make the other person crack up. Cool.

These clips illustrate again for me how deeply our musicality is integrated into our humanity. The mutual sympathy of the performers is very evident.

Dominique Eade’s Set (excerpt)

Because of technical issues, only these two tunes from Dominique Eade’s wonderful set at the “Singing For The Planet” concert are available. She is accompanied very sympathetically and supportively by Will Graefe on guitar and Will Slater on bass.

Here is her version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Buttermilk Sky,” a song which I’d never heard before.

This is her original piece, called “The River.” She begins with some nice singing and kalimba:

The other performances from “Singing For The Planet” can be found here:

Mili Bermejo’s Set

Warren Senders’ Set

Krishnarao Shankar Pandit: Raga Darbari Kanada

One of the greatest recorded performances of Hindustani music, this 30-minute gem comes from 1957, when Krishnarao Shankar Pandit was in his prime. The force and power of his improvisations are astonishing; there is nobody else in Hindustani tradition who can imagine some of the things he comes up with, let alone execute them with such verve and clarity.

Anokhey Lal, who was known for his brilliant and supportive theka, is accompanying on tabla. The violinist is not credited. Any thoughts?

Enjoy.

Antigravity — The Indian Group, 1990-1991

Here are the pieces which make up the first Antigravity CD, released as “Antigravity — The Music of Warren Senders” (Accurate AC-4307), along with scans of the complete CD booklet & tray card. These were recorded at Ishwani Kendra Studios in Pune in 1990 and 1991.

This has been out of print for years. I only have a few mint copies left.
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