environment India Indian music music Personal Politics Warren's music: benefit concert
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India Indian music music Personal vocalists Warren's music: khyal pune
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Pune Concert, August 20, 2011
This concert was arranged by Chaitanya Kunte, the extraordinary musicologist, composer and harmonium virtuoso.
It was a pleasant and unusual experience to have two melodic accompanists — Chaitanyaji on harmonium and Eeshan Devasthali (my Guruji’s grandson) on violin. Milind Pote provided the rock-solid and very sympathetic tabla sangat.
Ragas:
Shyam Kalyan
Puriya Dhanashri
Tilak Kamod
Kafi
Bhairavi
Here’s the concert, embedded as a single playlist:
India Indian music music Personal vocalists Warren's music: khyal
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Nasik Concert, August 19, 2011
Finally getting around to uploading and embedding the concerts from last summer’s trip to India. Here is the concert from Nasik embedded as a single playlist, leading off with Puriya Kalyan, and including Mian ki Malhar, Kafi tappa, Tilak Kamod, Khamaj, Pahadi and Bhairavi.
I greatly enjoyed this evening. Nitin Ware’s accompaniment was extremely solid, and Dyaneshwar Sonawane gave very supportive sangat on harmonium.
Note the cascade of inaccuracies in the news clipping. I began studying khyal in 1977, went to India first in 1985. I never studied with Nana Joshi, who was my Guru’s first teacher. Etc., etc., etc.
I’m grateful to Asmita Sevekare and her father for arranging this program. With luck I’ll go back there again next year.
This review is remarkable for its near-complete inaccuracy!
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Education India Indian music music Personal vocalists Warren's music: promotion
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India Indian music Personal Warren's music: travel notes
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More from Bharat…
…Here it is Tuesday night. I’m back at the cybercafe updating.
Mehfil in Mumbai went very well, with exceptionally supportive tabla playing from a young woman named Mukta Raste. A good audience, lots of appreciative daad — just the thing to get me in a good mood. I returned to Pune the next day and was promptly hammered with all the jet lag I’d been ignoring for days. I spent all Monday lying down, alternately napping and reading (Neal Stephenson’s “Quicksilver” if you’re interested). Rehearsed for Saturday’s Pune concert that night, then came back home and crashed spectacularly, falling asleep with my specs still on.
Today was a lazy day. I bought my ticket for Nasik; I will leave Thursday at noon, getting in around 5 pm. The concert there is on Friday night. Saturday night I am singing in Pune. That will be interesting, coming on top of a five-hour bus ride earlier in the day.
Now to shut down and head back home for dinner.
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Timings and Trips
I’m leaving for India in a day and a half. Lots of cleaning to do around the house, and some practicing, too. I have concerts in Pune, Mumbai and Nasik over the next fortnight, along with some lecture-demonstrations, and some family time.
As of today, August 10th, I have written “climate letters” that carry me through August 27th; I am going to have a vacation from writing the damn things. This will be my first such break in a year and eight months. The website knows not from “vacation,” however, and will continue to publish the letters without my intervention.
The ongoing release of my 78 rpm recordings has slowed a little, but I’ve got a few more goodies coming up over the next two weeks. Don’t worry, there’s still a lot more that I haven’t been able to turn into videos yet.
Cheers!
India Indian music music Personal Warren's music: concerts
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Khyal update
The Chinmaya Center concert went well, I thought. I did a 90-minute set:
Maru Bihag: “Unhi se jaaye” in vilambit ektaal; “Kaahe bajaaye daayi ho Shyam” in tintaal; “Sun sun tori batiyaa” in drut ektaal.
Paraj: “Chandani raat ati bhaave sakhi” in tintaal.
Desh: Tarana in tintaal
Surdaas bhajan: “Ankhiyaan Hari darasan ki pyaasi”
Bhairavi thumri: “Jamuna ke teer”
Chris Pereji played tabla, George Ruckert was on harmonium and Vijaya Sundaram on tamboura and supporting vocals.
This was the longest span of time I’ve sung in quite a while, as I’ve been gradually (veeeeerrrrrry gradually) recovering from an acid reflux condition that’s damaged my vocal chords over the past couple of years. I’m definitely on the mend, which is tremendously cheering.
Chris gave nice supportive theka; George was his usual preturnaturally alert self; Vijaya’s vocal sangat felt lovely. People liked it. I liked it.
The good news is that I got a recording off the PA board.
The bad news is that it (WTF?) has my voice mixed so low as to be inaudible. People in the hall said they could hear me clearly, and I was coming through the monitors nicely, so I’m baffled as to what mix the PA guys were giving me. Dammit. I’m told there was a video recorded; I hope that at least turns out properly.
India Indian music music Personal vocalists Warren's music: concerts
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I am performing khyal…
…a little later on today at the Chinmaya Mission in Andover, MA.
It’s been fun practicing although I have not really had enough time. Many of the techniques that I discuss in Posts About Practicing really come in handy here in the first part of the twenty-first century, with a kid and a house and a global climate crisis occupying my attention. Ten hours of practice a day, which I used to do back in India in the 1980s, really seems like a mythological accomplishment.
Full report later on…
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A Song When Hope Dims: Pete Seeger And The Napalm Ladies
I think I was twelve when my parents gave me a new Pete Seeger lp. They knew I loved his music; I’d listened over and over to “We Shall Overcome: The Carnegie Hall Concert” and knew most of the songs, or at least their lyrics, by heart. I’d memorized most of the songs on the “Children’s Concert at Town Hall,” and forty years later I can get a good laugh from any kid by singing “Where have you been all the day long, Henry my boy?” with its gross, lugubrious “greeeeeeeeen and yeller” chorus.
But this was a new disc, and I’m quite sure my folks just went into the store and grabbed something off the shelf. After all, Pete had a lot of albums, and they were all pretty much the same, right?
Well, actually, no.