A bright intrusion of fusion - tribute to the Amit Heri Group

I went randomly to Vaayu in Eva Mall in Bangalore last year, to watch a jazz group I’d never heard of, perform. It turned out to be a mind blowing display of fusion music that provided a stimulating feast for the eyes, ears, skin and soul. The Amit Heri Group consists of seasoned musicians with excellent technique, timing and feel. Individually and as a group, they freely improvise to create pleasant vibrations that frequently gave me goosebumps. The music was a magical mix of Indian classical with rock, funk and jazz. I had to find out more about the architect of this marvelous musical entity. What followed was a heartfelt conversation of what it takes to connect with the audience as a fusion performer, the future of jazz and music education in India.

Amit is a schooled musician, who learned the piano at the age of 9. He then picked up the guitar when he was 12 and sitar when 14. A pursual for a serious education in music took place in 1989 aged 17. He went to study jazz performance and composition for his undergraduate degree in Berkeley. “I went to Berkeley at an age where my mind just opened up. Sometimes if you don’t have that opportunity you will get stuck with what’s here. Traveling and seeing other places gives you a diverse perspective and can help you to contribute in a different way.” He has also studied and grown up on Carnatic music.

So, what does it take to become a good fusion artist? The music is twice as complicated as playing or composing one type of music, because it requires a thorough understanding of all styles of music involved. Amit points out how “Unfortunately, there are very few people who have this understanding or depth. First of all you need to be a strong musician yourself. Then you have to know what the other music is about and feel it in a way that’s natural.” He has noticed that a lot of people get into fusion music, “just to get on the bandwagon.” He stresses on how lots of Indian classical musicians are culprits of this shallow mentality, “They don’t understand western music concepts, structures or have an emotional relationship with that music. They get together just because it’s fashionable. Anyone can call a drummer or a guitarist, pay them money, and ask them to play. Very few people do it in a way that is authentic and that has depth.”

Amit’s advice for aspiring musicians is simple, “First concentrate on the music. Many people play music for the glamour. But if you don’t have depth, it won’t sustain you, even if it’s commercial pop music.” He suggests studying what great musicians have done in the past and using that information as a tool to come up with something original. “Take time to develop your skills by having a strong foundation so that when a great opportunity arises, you’re ready for it. Don’t worry about the goal at the end. Just concentrate on what you need to do right now.”

In spite of the plentiful availability of western education in India, there aren’t many choices for contemporary music fields like jazz, rock or pop in India. People interested in opting for this line, tend to flock to foreign countries. However, many get too caught up with the excitement of going abroad, that a realization strikes after they reach, that their musical ability is inferior to people from the west (because this stuff is taught in high school). Amit feels that this could all change quickly, “Anyone interested in making an investment to open a couple of really good schools with good teachers, is looking at a great opportunity. There are so many people and no real decent schools. If someone opened a great school in Bangalore for contemporary music, not just classical, it would do very well.”

Along with the proliferation of foreign influences in our lives and lifestyles, Amit is optimistic that Jazz and music in general, can only go up. The change is noticeable when one looks at the number of big acts performing concerts in India, and the increase in platforms like Vaayu, Bluefrog and Opus that have music as their agenda for people to perform. “Earlier there might have been more musicians playing at home. With more platforms, clubs and festivals, the growth of the music scene, naturally gets better. Bluefrog for example, has concerts everyday, which promotes a culture for people to go out and more musicians to come. People always want entertainment and there are always going to be takers for music no matter what style.”

His upcoming new album (set for release in October) is comprised of works originating from various regions in India such as Leh, Shillong, Goa and more. Basically he went to different villages, found out what the traditional folk and classical music was, recorded it as the core melody and composed songs around it. The tricky thing about folk music, is when heard in its raw form, it might be difficult for an audience unfamiliar to that culture to relate to it. So the challenge is to breathe a unique expression into it and make it appealing to an audience today. “India is such a treasure for music. The concept of this album is to take those treasures and to bridge it into a modern contemporary language that people can appreciate and evoke an emotional response.”

One of Amit’s most amazing attributes is that he is constantly smiling while playing on stage. It’s an infectious demeanor, which spreads to the band and the audience. I had a strong feeling yoga and meditation was accountable for this attitude. Amit confirmed my prediction and added that, “when you are in a profession that has to do with energy transference like music, I believe that its important to tune yourself and state of mind to a good place because that’s what you transmit to other people.” He further elaborated on the key thing to performing being, creating a connection out of positive energy, “Life is about overcoming negative with positive. A lot of the music that we play can be quite complicated. Sometimes people can’t get what that is when they think from the head. But everyone can appreciate positive energy that comes from the heart, by relating to it with their own hearts.”

In my opinion, the Amit Heri Group is a powerful musical being that’s able to sway the emotions of the audience to blend with the emotions of the band. “Sometimes in life some of us get that calling this is what you need to do. Even if you find yourself in a different place you have to make a move so to speak so that you can do what you want do,” comments Amit Heri whose calling I believe was to make emotional connections to people through music. Whether it’s listening to the sound of the sitar on a guitar, participating with claps to the vocal percussions of Konakol, or watching a group of highly trained musicians thoroughly enjoying their music, the Amit Heri Group is a spectacle of virtuosity and limitless creativity, that’s guaranteed to delight and excite anyone interested in wonderful music.

http://www.myspace.com/amitherigroup

Could God have created a better world than the one we're in now and Bob Brozman

This post is associated with the previous post. I recommend you read the first part of the previous post before you get into reading this post.

There's a very nice thought experiment that Robert Adams came up with which goes like this;
Imagine if there was a couple that loved handicapped children immensely. Now say this couple took a drug so that they could conceive a child which was handicapped. Then they gave this child all the love and the care in the world. The question that arises now is have the parents wronged the child? And in general have the parents done wrong? Intuitively the first thing i thought of was no they haven't. Maybe because the capability of the parents to love a handicapped child exceeds that of their capability to love a normal child. Then i believe if you are to truly to accept or reject any premises or conclusions of an argument, do so by trying to imagine yourself as being the party that is on the receiving/giving end of the premise/conclusion. Which basically means i imagine what if i was that handicapped child. I hate being sick, or injured in anyway because it diminishes my potential ability to do things the best that i can. It limits my capabilities to be retarded in anyway. So i thought definitely my parents would have wronged me if i had been handicapped. But the problem is still not adequately answered. Here's the crux explained by Adams. He says no because there are 2 possible beings in this case. Lets say there are 2 possible beings, normal child Norman and handicapped child Harry. Its important to understand that Harry and Norman are completely distinct and different from each other. So if the parents took the drug and they got Harry, Harry would not have been wronged. For if they didn't consume the drug then they would have had Norman. However lets say they did have a normal child Norman and if after 5 years they decided, well actually we would like our child to be handicapped. Then they turn the child upside down and drop him on his head a few times so as to make him retarded. In this case the child has clearly been wronged. This analogy can futher be extended into our current world. Its easy for us to think of a better world than the one we're in. For instance i think it would be better if we lived in a world where tigers were vegetarian to save the cruel torment that deers are victims of and women spent less time complaining on their looks. However it doesn't make sense to complain about there being no better world because there could be infinitely possible better worlds. The question you should ask yourself is, has God harmed me by creating me? No i dont think so. By giving me existence God has done something good for me. If God made a better world than this one, it would entail that God would have made a world that doesn't include us. Has God harmed those other better worlds by not creating them? No because they are only possible worlds and God could only possibly harm them, but not actually do so.


Ok anyone wanna explain to me how i can embed a youtube video straight onto my blog please? Anyway Bob Brozman is one of the greatest musicians of our time whome i would pay anything to go and watch live. He loves indian music, blues and plays solely with his heart and ears. Definitely should check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUv5tPXIrrg&feature=related

Dulcinea: Facing fear with music and art

I recently attended Dulcinea’s debut album launch at the Rhino Terrace in Johor Bahru. The remarkable exhibition, left me feeling an excited curiosity, about the potential this band is yet to unleash. The new album is distinctly dissimilar from Asian bands I’ve heard, because of an integration of a vivid artistic stimulus with musical topics revolving fear. Eager to discover more about the marvelous art music fusion, I set out to interview the mastermind behind the birth of Dulcinea’s entity.

Founding member Shine Matthew Thomas (aka Matt), is the lead singer songwriter and guitarist. He has been playing in rock bands right from his high school days. He was a member of grunge band Neve, which made an album in 1997, hard rock band Awkward Orange and various other bands performing multiple gigs. Jason Ng is the keyboardist, sound engineer and programmer for Dulcinea. Current drummer Mohammed Rashid has been playing with Matt for more than 5 years in numerous projects. Guitarist Paul Yong was recruited from an advertisement from an online music forum.

The name Dulcinea, was chosen after reading a book called Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes. The protagonist embarks on a series of adventures in his pursuit of his idea of the most beautiful girl in the world. Although just a figment of his imagination, the hunt turns into an expression of hopeless love and devotion to find this metaphorical character. “Music is our search for something beautiful and our way of understanding this life,” exclaims Matt.

The fruits of Dulcinea’s labor are an 8 track theme album, The Politics of Fear. The album was self-produced, self-financed and took 10 months to make. It is structured such that it starts off with an individual going through a difficult personal struggle. At the end of the journey, the person has a cleansing moment of clarity that the blood, sweat and tears related to his endeavors, were not in vain. He realizes that every trial and tribulation is an opportunity to become a better human being and that he won’t fall, even if the world tries to drag him down. “The album is not about conquering fear, but facing up to it and emotions like regret that come along with it,” explains Matt.

Songwriting contains various thought provoking notions that encourage intellectual stimulation. The album title is derived from a song named Mercury Rising, which is about the detrimental implications of conforming to a government’s expectations. “When you have governments that exert control, on how you live and what you say, it deprives you of thinking for yourself.” Authorities that adopt a divide and conquer policy seem to crave power at the expense of keeping people dumb and afraid. They tend to implement concrete guidelines for their citizens. “When you have well defined instructions that you have to think along, you can’t evolve or grow.” The various concepts discussed throughout the album are supported by industrial rock music.

Darkness Falls is the opening track of the album which is an excellent masterpiece. It addresses the conflicting complexity that arises out of departing from a relationship that one is intimately attached to. This song draws from an eclectic range of musical influences like Skinny Puppy, Porcupine Tree, Meshuggah, Kyuss and Mastodon. The result is a monumental progressive track containing addictive riffs, odd timing signatures, electro tribal beats, head bang groovy heavy metal and a beautiful acoustic section with a poignant psychedelic solo. The song is a breath of fresh air from conventional compositions containing a verse, chorus and verse format. On the first listen, parts of it might seem haphazard and unusual. But upon my second listening, a wave of realization hit me on how the arrangement, lyrics and music are actually quite brilliant.

Artwork that accompanies this album is another enticing element about this band. The band works with 2 artists, Sushi K?n and Nicon Beh from Singapore and Penang respectively. They design and photograph pictures relating to the songs. Matt, who is also the art director, has a background in multimedia art. The incorporation of art into music appears to be a natural choice of his intimate bond with both mediums. “I combine a visual stimulus with a musical one because it’s a package for me. I don’t know whether it’s art in the shadow of music or music in the shadow of art.”

Ratexia is a song that has its own gothic image mixing textures of blood red with streaks of light and patches of darkness. It was conceived while listening to the song. “When I make music, I see colors, words and things that don’t necessarily make sense, but fit the mood of the song in a way that I am able to relate to. That’s how the images and words of Ratexia were constructed,” describes Matt. The charismatic colors and tone of the dark Dulcinea image is a representation of the overall encapsulation of the feel of the album. There is also some fantastic photography work that injects vibrant personality to the music. The impressive assortment of art coincides aptly with the divine album plan.

Live shows are expected to be an engaging spectacle. A 3D cartoon video was created for the song Among the Living, an ambiguous Malaysian toy story of sorts. Projectors are going to be used to screen the video and a collection of images for each of the other songs. “While making the album, I envisioned illustrations that would be used to add value to the experience of the live show. I wanted to portray a unique universe of art and sound,” exclaims Matt. Such techniques have been used famously to overwhelming effect by bands like Pink Floyd. Rashid also informed me of how “the band is not going to focus on the electronic side of the album but concentrate more towards the progressive rock side of the music.” Along with showcasing tracks from the album, the band intends to play at least 2 unreleased songs for their live gigs, indicating what’s to come in the second album.

One way that musicians sustain their musical ambitions, is finding an inimitable voice developed by experimenting widely. The blend of art and music is in itself a rare valuable ingredient of Dulcinea. They evolved from a side project to a gifted organism capable of communicating through crying guitars and ominous portraits. Such selections were perfectly suitable for an album surrounding the chaotic sentiment of fear. The diverse extraction of ingenious components makes me certain that their next project will be drastically different, as the quest for beauty continuously redefines itself.

At the moment, promotional methods are word of mouth and playing live. Dulcinea works with groups such as the Singapore Dark Alternative Movement and I-Band Malaysia. If you want a taste of what Dulcinea’s all about, you can check out their music at www.myspace.com/dulcineatheband. At the site, you can download some of their music for free or book them for a live gig.

Why does God create, the essence of love and a tribute to Mexican Jazz

So an interesting question was raised in my philosophy of religion class last week. If whatever God does is hopelessly flawed, why create at all? Imagine hypothetically if the universe wasn't around. Does that diminish God's goodness or attributes in anyway? Well i doubt it because God is just as good with the universe there with or without the universe. God doesn't need this world to be good. There is no necessity to add to God's perfection by creating our world. If there's any benefit endowed its not on the creator but on the created, being us. Here's what i deem to be a plausible explanation. Now i'm currently struggling to make positive concrete assertions about my knowledge of God that can be made on logical reasons rather than reasoning from a sacred text. I intend to do an elaborate post on this eventually but for now, i'll just draw out one idea which i find to be fascinating. Creators of products tend to have some imitation of themselves in the product created. So think of anything that you've ever generated and whether the above statement is true. Is there an attribute or a quality of yourself that lies in the essence of a product you've created. A simple example would be, whenever you write essays, emails, articles etc, giving your own opinion is in some sense giving the reader some insight as to what your essence or attributes are like. So lets say for argument sake God created me by using my parents as tools for creation. This means that there are some attributes within me that are present in the creator. So for instance if i possessed goodness (which I think has a complicated definition that i wont go into because i havent made up my mind on it), this attribute that i possess would probably be the highest form of excellence in God. God would possess the epitome of goodness. Truthfully i don't know or think i will find the answer in this life for why God has created at all but a plausible explanation to me of why anything in this universe exists at all, is because God has created us out of love. Our world is God's choosing to create it. The only way to know why God chose this world has to be from God through divine revelation. If you do something entirely for the benefit of another, it is an act of love. So how does one defines love? There is plenty of literature on love but since this is my blog, my definition of true love; when you love somebody your ego disintegrates, you become insignificant and the happiness of the person that your in love with is of substantial importance to you. For those of us who are fortunate enough to have loving parents, think of the relationship that your parents have towards you and i think it illustrates my definition better. Or imagine if you have your own child and how you would love them (I'm not defining happiness because that is too subjective).
So maybe God made us out of love and so that we could love God back. You might say this indicates that love means God is needy then. If love entails some amount of neediness, then theres imperfection in the lover. However love doesn't always express incompleteness if your without it. So God could feel loved even if we didn't love God. So to reiterate my point, creation could exist because God loves us and God wants us to love God back.

One last thing i want to make a mention of with regards to freewill. I think its fair to say that we have freewill and we can choose to believe in God or to not believe in God. Imagine if God showed Himself/Herself to us in the sky. The search for truth would be over as to whether God exists or not. Then imagine if someone was to tell you that you must love God and do good things in the world or else you'll go to hell. Think about the purity of your actions from that moment onwards. Everytime you were to do something good or out of love, you would do it because you would be thinking that this action has a means to my end. If i do this good deed i will go to the kingdom of God but if i don't i might go to hell. All your actions in life from then on would be dictated by the knowledge that God exists and wants you to do certain things. However lets say you don't know that God exists and you then do good things. Which case of doing goodness is more noble now? Quick example to make my point a little clearer. Imagine that theres a hungry man at the side of the road and he asks people passing by for food. 2 strangers walk by the hungry man at different times. One is named Tom who is a theist and is conscientious that God is watching all the good and bad things Tom is doing. The second stranger is Andy who is an atheist who does not believe in God at all. Tom gives food to the hungry man because he knows God would have wanted him to have done that. Andy gives food to the hungry man because he feels sorry for him and feeds him out of sympathy. I think Andy's deed is more noble and is of a purer good than that of Tom. I think freewill is closely related to the purity of our intentions. God having given us freewill and not revealing Himself/Herself to us allows us to make a conscience decision as to whether or not we purely want to love the Creator back.


A tribute to Mexican Jazz



I recently went to watch a Mexican jazz band from DF (the capital) named Sacbe at Harry's Bar. The performance was fantastic and i had an interesting conversation about how God and music were connected with the Bass player Enrique Toussaint. I'll post some links as to what the music was like at the bottom of this post along with some random facts i stumbled upon of Sacbe.

I asked enrique if there was anything he could teach me about music that i could take away with me from the short 5 minute conversation we had. Now i've asked this question once before to another Mexican musician i met in a jungle in Palenque (Mexico) and i managed to have a one hour class with that guy. When asking this question i thought to myself, what a stupid question to ask. This guy is never going to have the time to entertain such a poorly defined question. To my delight, his eyes kind of lit up and he said sure. He went on to explain to me that music was not that complicated, told me something about pentatonic scales, the 5 different forms and how mastering the 5 forms was sufficient for being able to improvise with music. Now theres one major problem i have when it comes to improvising that i'm sure a lot of musicians struggle with. Its improvising freely without having to think where the notes are and what scale your in. As easy as it sounds, i find it difficult to play by being dependent solely on your ears and how you feel then and there in the moment. My definition of a skilled musician is one who can hear whatever sound he has in his head and translate that sound straight away on to an instrument. Enrique told me you can't be thinking of the names of notes when your creating something because when you improvise, you just have to let yourself go. Its not as complex as people make it out to be. Music is a gift and its a gift that constantly comes from above. All you are is an interpreter, a vehicle for the gift and ultimately you can make people happy, make people cry and thats what its all about. Its a big responsibility. But if your thinking too much its stopping that thing from happening, that connection with God or however you want to call it. My definition of a virtuoso is someone who can translate the sound instantly, add feeling to the notes and create a connection with the audience. I'm at a point in my life where i am questioning what are the attributes i can positively predicate/ascribe about God. The only thing i do know and believe for sure is that God can communicate with me and i to God through music. I don't have a rational justification for it but i just know that it is true and its great to hear a good musician confirm my theory. We tend to find ourselves affiliated and connected with those who share similar views with us. I believe that the best evidence for any theories that make up your own truth is personal experience.

Sacbe is a jazz trio of the Toussaint virtuosos. Enrique, the bassist, is a self taught musician (he never had a formal education for music). His brother Fernando. the drummer, told me that they started playing when they were 16 in pubs. Strangely enough i felt connected to the band when they played this music because it reminded me of the high quality of jazz music that i came across while i was in Mexico. The pianist, Eugenio, has played with a famous bass player and drummer i happened to watch perform in Mexico named Augustin Bernal and Gabriel Puentes. Its such a delightful coincidence that i should meet someone who has played with someone i've seen perform, at the other end of the world, in Harry's bar. What are the odds of things like that happening?

Anyway im posting 2 links below. One is to hear the brilliant Confluencia track from Augustin Bernal's group Jazz en tres and a recording of Sacbe's performance of sunset at sunset at Harry's bar. If they get inactive and you want to hear them please drop me a comment and i'll make sure it gets activated. Photographs for this post are courtesy of Ms Mamy Goya Oshiro.

Confluencia by Jazz en tres

Sunset at sunset by Sacbe