Monday, April 27, 2009

Pandit Pran Nath - Ragas Yaman Kalyan & Punjabi Berva (1972)

My friend John and I recently had an e-mail chat in which we discussed the implications of various iterations of "spazzy" behavior. Modern dance/performance art often looks to me like Pentecostal glossolalia, and shroomed-out 60s children (saxophones and guitars alike) made no secret of stealing directly from the raga form. What primal itch do the facial contortions of both godheads and dorks scratch?

Indian classical music is an attempt at collectively scratching that itch on the way to enlightenment through a highly complex system of improvisation based upon melodic modes and rhythmic patterns. I, unfortunately, don't have the necessary base of knowledge to break down what is actually occurring on these recordings, but I do know that the primordial ooze flowing through my body starts to bubble and burst when these sounds tickle my eardrums.


PS: For any other bloggers out there trying to figure out the issues with hard returns and formatting, it has something to do with haywire-ass div tags. I still don't know where they came from, but, when I cleaned out those extra div's, my posts finally began to meet the stringent aesthetic standards that I had envisioned for them.

2 comments:

Pat said...

I blogged about some Indian-American jazz that might interest you. In case you skipped over it: http://sunchildspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/03/did-you-hear-rudresh-mahanthappa.html

Also, Carnatic saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVOsJvIfklQ

haywooj said...

Bugger - this isn't on Mediafire any more, and I'd love to listen to it - any chance of a repost?