Comparative View of Jazz and Indian Classical Music

Indian music is the greatest tradition of improvisation in the East. Therefore it is unsurprising that Jazz musicians, which have become the greatest exponents of improvisation in the West, have developed a certain fascination for Indian musicians and vice versa. Coltrane was fascinated by Indian music (even naming his son Ravi after Ravi Shankar). Keith Jarrett returned to improvised music, after a phase of playing entirely Western Classical music, on hearing a concert of Indian Classical music which he claims was "a reminder that what I was doing was not music" (in Carr 1991:157).

Both Jazz and Indian music are commonly described as improvised music but in fact, composition is integral to both arts. Compositions are used mainly as a springboard for improvisation and would probably account for about a tenth of a performance in both traditions. One of the functions of the composition is to define the structure upon which the improvisation is based. The gat is always played at the beginning of the final portion of an exposition of a rag by the soloist and from this, the tabla player is expected to join in. It is not uncommon for the tabla to have not been told what the tal or what tempo is to be used and would be expected to derive this information from the gat which he may not have heard before. If the soloist wishes to change to a new tal or tempo (other than by acceleration) it is signalled by playing a different gat.

The presentation of the two main instruments in jugalbandi (duet) has become common both in India and outside. What happens in jugalbandi is not unlike the organisation of collective improvisation in jazz, in the sense that the musicians come together in the precomposed song or whatever the basis of the piece, and otherwise take it in turns to improvise in a spirit both of cooperation and friendly cooperation (Sorrell 1989:2).

In Jazz, the structure of the improvisation is most usually defined by the `head' which normally comprises a melody and a harmonic structure, but could contain more or less structural information such as changes of feel e.g. from swing to salsa, or changes of tempo or meter. The standard form of a jazz performance would start with the `head' which might be 32 bars long. Then, the musicians would take it in turn to improvise over this cyclic structure. The performance ends with a recapitulation of the `head'.

Improvisations in both musics take place within cyclic frameworks, with the notable exception of `free jazz' which consciously eschews predetermined structures. The ability to learn to use these frameworks to assist and inspire improvisation is really the essence of both art forms. Being able to maintain one's place is the tal is precisely analogous to `keeping the form' in jazz playing. In fact, there are distinct similarities between the Sam (first beat) of the tal and `top of the form', the first beat of repeating structure, in Jazz. The special feature of the Sam is that phrases either start or end on it, reinforcing the notion that the tal is a `circular' structure. Whilst there is no such formalisation in Jazz of the `top of the form', there is no doubt that musicians often use the `top of the form' as the point of minimum release of tension.

The first documented collaboration between Indian and Jazz musicians occurred in 1961 with Ravi Shankar and a group led by the West Coast American saxophonist/flautist Bud Shank. Their album entitled `Improvisitions' only features one track, `Improvisations on the theme music from Pather Pancali, in which Ravi Shankar and the Western musicians play together. The track is remarkable for little else- it is simply Western film music with the sitar playing the melody. However, it is interesting to note that this session, and that of film composer Shankar Jaikishan (1968), were connected the film industry, for Indian film music surely contributes the most considerable corpus of music that combines Indian and Western musics.

However, Ravi Shankar is an important figure with regards to Jazz because it was primarily through his music that John Coltrane and others became aware of Indian music. Tony Scott recorded a track entitled `Portrait of Ravi' on his `Dedications' album, as early as 1957.

Coltrane met Shankar in 1965 after a long period of mutual admiration and letter writing (Thomas 1975:199). Coltrane's name is inextricably linked to the emergence of modal Jazz in 1958 on Miles Davis' album `Milestones' and it is believed that modal Jazz was inspired by Indian music. Indian influence is an important issue in the later music of Coltrane such as the album `Kulu Se Mama' (1965) and also of musicians such as Yusef Lateef and Ornette Coleman.

John Meyer - `Indo-Jazz Fusions'

The first attempts to integrate Jazz and Indian genres occurred in the early sixties by the Calcutta born composer and violinist John Meyer.

In Calcutta, he had a dual musical education, learning Indian music from Sanathan Mukherjee and Western music from Melhi Mehta. He moved to London in 1952 and studied Western Classical violin at the Royal Academy of Music and Western composition from Matyas Seibar. There was quite a lot of interest in his early compositions, which bridged Indian and Western Classical musics. However, about 1959-60, general interest in Meyer's music waned and he experienced great difficulty in obtaining work.

In 1961, he was approached by Dennis Preston of EMI to form and write for a Jazz group comprising Indian and Western musicians. Preston believed that the Jazz world was more receptive to innovation than the Classical, which had rejected his music. Meyer had had no previous experience of Jazz but agreed since he had no other work. It was the social climate, rather than a musical inspiration, which was his primary motive. He was introduced to the Jamaican-born alto saxophonist Joe Harriott, probably the most gifted Jazz player in England of the time and was highly acclaimed for his `free' playing.

The band operated as a `double quintet', using Harriott's regular working Quintet (Harriott, Shake Keane, Pat Smythe, Phil Seamen and Coleridge Goode), and an Indian Quintet (Meyer, Diwan Motihar, Keshav Sathi, Chandrahas Paigankar, Chris Taylor). The sitar player Diwan Motihar was a pupil of Ustad Vilayat Khan.

All the compositions for the band were written by Meyer in `dual notation'; staff notation for the Jazz musicians and Sargam notation for the Indians. Meyer says that the music is strictly based on North Indian rags, which he felt were more accessible to Western audiences than the South Indian counterparts. Meyer explained to me that he had `discovered' that certain rags bore a close resemblance to jazz harmonies. Since Meyer was not a Jazz musician, it is unsurprising that "in terms of the musical materials used Jazz forms are surrogate to Indian (Farrell 1988:200)". He assigned particular scales derived from rags for the jazz musicians to improvise upon and also taught them the pakar or the `catch' of rag. For example, on the track `Mishra Blues', "Meyer constructs a scale which includes all the intervals of the three basic blues chords (Farrell 1988:201):" "The jazz musicians play their solos on their blues structure and the Indians play theirs on the composite raga"

Meyer based the rhythm of the music on South Indian tals, which he felt were more complex and exciting than the North Indian. Meyer experimented extensively with tal structures within the four LP's produced, with virtually every composition using a different tal. Ian Carr discusses an example:

`Purvi Variations' is a very good example of rhythmic fusion and of how John Meyer simplifies the rhythms for the convenience of the Jazz soloists- the piece starts with twelve beats divided 3,2,3,4, a division not natural to Europeans, but when the Jazz solos begin J.Dougan plays a strong 3/4 and the tabla weaves his complex patterns around that basic beat.

This brings to light the dismissive attitude of David Reck who complained of the "pseudo-raga improvisations which usually quickly metamorphosed into the more familiar jazz licks (Reck 1985:95 cited in Farrell 1988.

It is understandable that Reck is scathing of Jazz musicians who are unable to sustain a rag based improvisation but it should also be noted that Indian musicians have considerable difficulty with aspects of Western music such as harmony, and more explicitly, modulation. Since Indian music is based on a never changing tonic drone, Indian musicians are virtually unable to `hear' the new tonic which arises out of modulation, particularly if the modulation is distant. These are exactly the kinds of musical incompatibilities that plague intercultural music.

Whilst Meyer, who is truly musically bi-lingual, has created suitable structures for a successful fusion between Indian music and Jazz, the problem which pervades throughout this music is the lack of unity caused by insufficient co-understanding and communication between the musicians of `each quintet'. For example, the bass resonances of the tabla are consistently obscured by the acoustic bass.

Collin Walcott

In America, the profile of the sitar in Jazz was maintained by Collin Walcott (b. New York 1945; d. Madgeburg, Germany 1984). After graduating from Indiana University in 1967, where his major study was percussion, he travelled to Los Angeles to study sitar with Ravi Shankar and tabla with Alla Rakha, then the most famous tabla player in the West.

The most significant corpus of his output was with the groups Oregon, Codona and his own quartet, despite a prolific career as a sideman for players such as Miles Davis and Egberto Gismonti Walcott was heavily influenced by John Coltrane's Quartet (Cook & Morton 1992)

Walcott, like Meyer, is musically bi-lingual which helps to explain why the Indian and Western aspects of his musics it together far more comfortably than previous experiments. Whilst Mayer acted as a bridge between musicians of two cultures, Walcott, like Coltrane, absorbed the Indian music and assimilated it within his own music. His quartet consisted of other American musicians so that the feeling of empathy between the musicians, which is a pre-requisite of good group improvisation, is maintained.

Walcott created a sitar technique which is not found in Indian music. This involves stopping more than one string to create harmonies, usually thirds. However, the effect of this technique is so limited, that it cannot really considered as anything more substantial than a curiosity.

Nishat Khan

The more recent excursion of the sitar into Jazz is that of the sitar player Nishat Khan who is highly regarded as an Indian Classical player. His first experience of playing with a jazz musician was a trio with the guitarist John McLaughlin who has been collaborating with Indian musicians since the mid-seventies with groups such as Shakti

In the Nineties, Nishat Khan was working on his own Jazz project. He rehearsed with American alto saxophonist Steve Coleman and recorded with a band which consisted of Django Bates (keyboards), Mark Mondesir (electric bass), Martin France (drums), and two drummers from Africa. The group did not perform in public, and the recording was not released.

Andrew Cheshire

In 2006, Andrew Cheshire released Silent Trees Falling, an album comprised solely of electric sitar in a mostly trio setting. Widely regarded as an unheralded master of jazz guitar, Cheshire combined raw jazz improvisation with an eastern flavored vocabulary resulting in a record that captures the spontaneity of jazz coupled with the sonority of the far east.

Comparative View of Jazz and Indian Classical Music

Indian music is the greatest tradition of improvisation in the East. Therefore it is unsurprising that Jazz musicians, which have become the greatest exponents of improvisation in the West, have developed a certain fascination for Indian musicians and vice versa. Coltrane was fascinated by Indian music. Keith Jarrett returned to improvised music, after a phase of playing entirely Western Classical music, on hearing a concert of Indian Classical music which he claims was "a reminder that what I was doing was not music" (in Carr 1991:157). This statement reveals that to Jarrett, who is primarily a Jazz musician, Indian music contains something intrinsic to his conception of music that does not exist in Western Classical music.

Both Jazz and Indian music are commonly described as improvised music but in fact, composition is integral to both arts. Compositions are used mainly as a springboard for improvisation and would probably account for about a tenth of a performance in both traditions. One of the functions of the composition is to define the structure upon which the improvisation is based. The gat is always played at the beginning of the final portion of an exposition of a rag by the soloist and from this, the tabla player is expected to join in. It is not uncommon for the tabla to have not been told what the tal or what tempo is to be used and would be expected to derive this information from the gat which he may not have heard before. If the soloist wishes to change to a new tal or tempo (other than by acceleration) it is signalled by playing a different gat.

The presentation of the two main instruments in jugalbandi (duet) has become common both in India and outside. What happens in Jugalbandi is not unlike the organisation of collective improvisation in jazz, in the sense that the musicians come together in the precomposed song or whatever the basis of the piece, and otherwise take it in turns to improvise in a spirit both of cooperation and friendly cooperation (Sorrell 1989:2).

In Jazz, the structure of the improvisation is most usually defined by the `head' which normally comprises a melody and a harmonic structure, but could contain more or less structural information such as changes of feel e.g. from swing to salsa, or changes of tempo or meter. The standard form of a jazz performance would start with the `head' which might be 32 bars long. Then, the musicians would take it in turn to improvise over this cyclic structure. The performance ends with a recapitulation of the `head'.

Improvisations in both musics take place within cyclic frameworks, with the notable exception of `free jazz' which consciously eschews predetermined structures. The ability to learn to use these frameworks to assist and inspire improvisation is really the essence of both art forms. Being able to maintain one's place is the tal is precisely analogous to `keeping the form' in Jazz playing. In fact, there are distinct similarities between the Sam (first beat) of the tal and `top of the form', the first beat of repeating structure, in Jazz. The special feature of the Sam is that phrases either start or end on it, reinforcing the notion that the tal is a `circular' structure. Whilst there is no such formalisation in Jazz of the `top of the form', there is no doubt that musicians often use the `top of the form' as the point of maximum release of tension.

Discography

This is a chronological catalogue of recordings which have featured the sitar within a jazz (or indo-jazz) context.

Ravi Shankar- `Improvisations'

Ravi Shankar (sitar), Kanai Dutta (tabla, pakhavaj), Modu Mullick (tanpura), Harihar Rao (dholak, tanpura), Bud Shank (flute), Dennis Budimur (guitar), Gary Peacock (bass), Louis Hayes (drums)

Improvisation on the Theme Music from `Pather Pancali' Fire Night Karnataki Raga Rageshri Hollywood, California, 1961 Liberty Records Ltd, London

Ravi Shankar (with Paul Horn)- `Portrait of a Genius'

Ravi Shankar (sitar), Paul Horn (flute, alto sax) 1965 World Pacific,

Joe Harriott and John Meyer Double Quintet- `Indo-Jazz Suite'

Joe Harriott (alto sax), Eddie Blair (trumpet and flugelhorn), Pat Smythe (piano), Rick Laird (bass), Alan Ganley (drums), John Meyer (violin and harpsichord), Diwan Motihar (sitar), Chris Taylor (flute), Keshav Sathe (tabla), Chandrhas Paigankar (tanpura)

Overture Contrasts Raga Megha Raga Gaud-Saranga London, 1966 EMI Records 1966

`Jazz Meets India'

Irene Shweitzer (piano), (bass), (drums), Diwan Motihar (sitar), (tabla), (tanpura) 1967

Joe Harriott and John Meyer Double Quintet- `Indo-Jazz Fusions' Double record set

Joe Harriott (alto sax), Shake Keane (trumpet and flugelhorn), Coleridge Goode (bass), Alan Ganley (drums), John Meyer (violin, harpsichord), Diwan Motihar (sitar), Chandrahas Paigankar (tanpura), Keshav Sathi (tabla), Chris Taylor (flute)

Multani (Meyer) Gana (Meyer) Acka Raga (Meyer) Subject (Meyer/Harriott) London, 1967 Double-Up Duos 1968

Joe Harriott (alto sax), Kenny Wheeler (trumpet, flugelhorn), Pat Smythe (Piano), Coleridge Goode (bass), Jackie Dougan (bass), John Meyer (violin [and harpsichord]), Diwan Motihar (sitar), Chandrahas Paigankar (tanpura), Keshav Sathi (tabla), Chris Taylor (drums)

Raga Piloo (Meyer) Song Before Sunrise (Meyer) Purvi Variations (Meyer) Mishra Blues (Meyer/Smythe) London, 1968 Double-Up Duos 1968

Shankar Jaikishan- `Raga Jazz Style'

Ustad Rais Khan (sitar), Manohari Singh (sax), John Pereira (trumpet), Lucilla (piano), Leslie Godinho (drums), Eddie Travers (bass), Dilip Naik (electric guitar), Anibal Castro (electric guitar), Suman (flute), Ramakant (tabla), Dattaram (assistant), Sebastian D'Souza (arrangement). Music by Shankar Jaikishan.

Raga Todi Raga Bhairav Raga Malkauns Raga Kalavanti Raga Tilak Kamod Raga Miyan Malhav Raga Bairagi Raga Jaijaivanti Raga Mishra Pilu Raga Shiranjani Raga Bhairvi 1968 Gramophone Company of India Ltd

John Meyer- Indo-Jazz Fusions `Etudes'

John Meyer (composer and director of all tracks, violin and harpsichord), Chris Taylor (flute), Ian Homer (trumpet and flugelhorn), Tony Coe (tenor sax and clarinet), Pat Smythe (piano), Coleridge Goode (bass), John Marshall (drums), Diwan Motihar (sitar), Viram Jasani (sitar, tabla, tanpura), Kevan Sathe (table [sic!])

Intro and Rondo Cappricio Serenade Toccata Sarabande London, 1969 Sonnet Records [SNTF63] all titles published by Lupur Music Ltd

Tony Scott- `Homage to Lord Krishna'

Tony Scott (Clarinet), Collin Walcott (sitar) 1969 Verve Records 1969 [68788]

Oregon- `Our First Record'

McCandless (oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, wooden flute), Glen Moore (bass, flute, violin, piano), Ralph Towner (12-string and classical guitars), Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, clarinet, percussion, congas) 1970 Vanguard Records 1970

Miles Davis- `On the Corner'

Miles Davis (trumpet), Collin Walcott (sitar) 1972 Columbia Records 1972

Paul Winter- `Icarus'

Paul Winter, Collin Walcott (sitar) 1972 Epic

Oregon- `Music of Another Present Era'

McCandless (oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, wooden flute), Glen Moore (bass, flute, violin, piano), Ralph Towner (12-string and classical guitars), Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, clarinet, percussion, congas)

1973 Vanguard Records

Oregon- `Distant Hills'

McCandless (oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, wooden flute), Glen Moore (bass, flute, violin, piano), Ralph Towner (12-string and classical guitars), Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, clarinet, percussion, congas)

Aurora Dark Spirit (Towner) Canyon Song Song for a Friend Confession (free improvisation) 1973 Vanguard Records 1974

Collin Walcott- `Cloud Dance'

Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla), John Abercrombie (guitar), Dave Holland (bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums)

Marguerite (Collin Walcott, BMI) Prancing (Collin Walcott, BMI) Night Glider (Collin Walcott, BMI) Scimitar (Collin Walcott/John Abercrombie, BMI) Vadana (Dave Holland, BMI) Eastern Song (Collin Walcott, BMI) Padma (Collin Walcott/ John Abercrombie, BMI) Cloud Dance (Collin Walcott, BMI) Ludwigsburg, W. Germany, March 1975 ECM Records 1976

Oregon- `In Concert'

McCandless (oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, wooden flute), Glen Moore (bass, flute, violin, piano), Ralph Towner (12-string and classical guitars), Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, clarinet, percussion, congas)

Introduction (George Schutz) Become, Seem, Appear (Oregon) Summer Solstice (Towner) UnderTow (McCandless) The Silence of a Candle (Towner) Tryton's Horn (Oregon) Yet to be (Towner) New York, April 8 & 9, 1975 Vanguard Records 1976

Oregon- `Together'

McCandless (oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, wooden flute), Glen Moore (bass, flute, violin, piano), Ralph Towner (12-string and classical guitars), Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, clarinet, percussion, congas) 1976 Vanguard Records 1976

Oregon- `Friends'

McCandless (oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, wooden flute), Glen Moore (bass, flute, violin, piano), Ralph Towner (12-string and classical guitars), Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, clarinet, percussion, congas) 1977 Vanguard Records 1977

Miles Davis- `Get With It'

Miles Davis (trumpet), Sonny Fortune (Alto sax, flute), Carlos Garnett, John Stubblefield (alto sax), Steve Grossman (soprano sax), David Liebman (flute), Wally Chambers (harmonica), Cedric Lawson (piano, organ), Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett (keyboards), Pete Cosey, Cornell Dupree, Dominique Gaumont, Reggie Lucas, John McLaughlin (guitar), Khalil Balakrishna (sitar), Michael Henderson (bass), Billy Cobham, Al Foster, Bernard Purdie (drums), Airto Moreira, Mtume, Badal Roy (percussion), Additional brass and rhythm arrangements by Wade Jarcus and Billy Jackson. New York, 1970-74 Core/Line.

Collin Walcott- `Grazing Dreams'

Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla), John Abercrombie (electric and acoustic guitars, electric mandolin), Don Cherry (Trumpet, wood flute, doussn'gouni), Palle Danielson (bass), Dom Um Romao (berimbau, chica [sic! cuica], tambourine, percussion)

Song of the Morrow (Collin Walcott, Grazing Dreams Music) Gold Sun (Collin Walcott/Don Cherry, Grazing Dreams Music) The Swarm (Collin Walcott, Grazing Dreams Music) Mountain Morning (Group improvisation, Grazing Dreams Music) Jewel Ornament (Don Cherry/John Abercrombie/Collin Walcott,Grazing Dreams Music) Grazing Dreams (Collin Walcott, Grazing Dreams Music) Samba Tala (Don Um Romao/Collin Walcott, Berimbau Music Prod.) Moon Lake (Group Improvisation, Grazing Dreams Music) Oslo, February 1977 ECM Records 1977

Egberto Gismonti- `Sol Do Meio Dia'

Egberto Gismonti (guitar), Collin Walcott (sitar) 1977 ECM Records 1977

Oregon- `Out of the Woods'

McCandless (oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, wooden flute), Glen Moore (bass, flute, violin, piano), Ralph Towner (12-string and classical guitars), Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, clarinet, percussion, congas) 1978 Elektra 1978

Oregon- `Violin'

McCandless (oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, wooden flute), Glen Moore (bass, flute, violin, piano), Ralph Towner (12-string and classical guitars), Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, clarinet, percussion, congas) 1978 Vanguard Records 1978

Collin Walcott/ Don Cherry/ Nana Vasconcelos- `Codona'

Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, hammered dulcimer, Sanza, voice), Don Cherry (trumpet, flutes, doussn'gouni, voice), Nana Vasconcelos (Berimbau, Cuica, Percussion, voice)

Like That of Sky (Walcott) Codona (Cherry/Walcott/Vasconcelos) Colemanwonder a) Race Face (Ornette Coleman) b) Sortie (Ornette Coleman) c) Sir Duke (Stevie Wonder) Mumakata (Walcott) New Light (Walcott) Ludwigsburg, W. Germany, September 1978 ECM Records 1979

Oregon- `Oregon in Performance'

McCandless (oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, wooden flute), Glen Moore (bass, flute, violin, piano), Ralph Towner (12-string and classical guitars), Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, clarinet, percussion, congas) 1979 Elektra 1979

Collin Walcott/ Steve Eliovson- `Dawn Dance'

Collin Walcott (sitar), Steve Eliovson (guitar) January 1981 ECM Records 1981

Collin Walcott/ Don Cherry/ Nana Vasconcelos- `Codona 2'

Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, sanza, tipmani, voice), Don Cherry (trumpet, organ, doussn'gouni, voice), Nana Vasconcelos (berimbau, mluvici bubinek (?), voice)

Que Faser (Nana Vasconcelos) Godumaduma (Traditional African) Malinye (Don Cherry) Drip-Dry (Ornette Coleman) Walking on Eggs (Collin Walcott) Again and Again, Again (Collin Walcott) Ludwigsburg, W. Germany, 1980 ECM Records 1983

Collin Walcott/ Don Cherry/ Nana Vasconcelos- `Codona 3'

Collin Walcott (sitar, hammered dulcimer, sanza, tabla, voice), Don Cherry (trumpet, organ, doussn'gouni, voice), Nana Vasconcelos (berimbau, percussion, voice)

Goshabuchi (Japanese Traditional, Codona Music- ASCAP) Hey Da Ba Doom (Collin Walcott, Grazing Dreams Music- ASCAP) Lullaby (Collin Walcott, Grazing Dreams Music- ASCAP) Trayra Boia (Nana Vasconcelos/ Denise Milan, Nana's Music- BMI) Clicky Clacky (Don Cherry, Eternal River Music- BMI) Inner Organs (Don Cherry, Eternal River Music- BMI) Ludwigsburg, W. Germany, September 1982 ECM Records 1983

Oregon- `Oregon'

McCandless (oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, tin flute, soprano sax), Glen Moore (bass, violin, piano), Ralph Towner (Prophet-5, piano, classical guitar), Collin Walcott (sitar, percussion, tongue drum, bass drum, voice)

The Rapids (Towner) Beacon (Oregon) Taos (Oregon) Beside a Brook (McCandless) Ariana (Moore) There Was No Moon That Night (Oregon) Skyline (Oregon) Impending Bloom (Moore) Ludwigsburg, W. Germany, February 1983 ECM Records 1983,

Oregon- `Crossing'

McCandless (oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, tin flute, soprano sax), Glen Moore (bass, violin, piano), Ralph Towner (Prophet-5, piano, classical guitar), Collin Walcott (sitar, percussion, tongue drum, bass drum, voice)

Ludwigsburg, W. Germany, October 19

Andrew Cheshire- `Silent Trees Falling'

Cheshire (electric sitar), Joe Michaels (bass), Jared Lippi (Drums), Bhooshit Dikshitar (tanpura)

Legend of Osiris (Cheshire, Ellsworth Music -BMI) Beamot (Cheshire, Ellsworth Music -BMI) Parallel Universe (Cheshire, Ellsworth Music -BMI) Chitraratha (Cheshire, Ellsworth Music -BMI) Photosynthesis (Cheshire, Ellsworth Music -BMI) Dervish Dance (Cheshire, Ellsworth Music -BMI) Remember the Malamo (Cheshire, Ellsworth Music -BMI) How to Stuff a Wild Bhairavi (Cheshire, Ellsworth Music -BMI) Silent trees Falling (Cheshire, Ellsworth Music -BMI)

EastJazz Intricate connections, cultural contradictions and coming home: the influence of Indian music in world music genres by Adrienne Redd

Indian-influenced music seemed to explode into western culture when George Harrison of the Beatles studied with Ravi Shankar in the 1960s, but avant-garde musicians and jazz performers had discovered the joy and versatility of classical Indian music long before. World and American music continue to draw heavily from Indian music because it offers potential found nowhere else. Jazz brims with connections and is about picking up themes and improvising on them. Similarly, the few Americans and Indians living in America and playing Indian-influenced fusions are interconnected. Members of this small circle know one another's names and influence one another's work. Warren Senders is one such musician.

With his extravagant handlebar mustache, square embroidered cap, collarless shirt and serious, far away eyes Senders looks like a late-19th century Brit caught in the magnetic field of Asian subcontinent culture. Senders splits his physical life between Cambridge, Massachusetts and Pune, India. And he has given over his soul to Khayal, the vocal style of north Indian classical music, while contributing a bluesy bassline to the ragas he performs with six Indian partners playing violin, bansuri, flute, sitar, guitar, tabla and drums. (A raga is a melodic sequence with a minimum of five notes patterned in a fixed ascending and descending order - the aroha and avaroha.)

Every artist yearns to experience a genre for the first time and to have that intoxicating wave of recognition, of coming home. Senders has a solid background in western music performance, theory and history, having studied four years with a tutor in Cambridge and two at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, but his first reaction to Hindustani music was one of inspiration and passion. "I said, 'God - this is what I've been hearing in my head.'"

He elaborates, "The first piece that really turned me on was a piece of light music for an all-Indian ensemble composed by Ravi Shankar; it featured a vocal interlude performed by Laxmi Shankar. Subsequent to that, the music that excited me beyond all measure was an LP of Bhimsen Joshi performing Raag Marwa." Bhimsen Joshi is arguably the most significant living performer of Hindustani vocal music.

Seeming to allude to Hindu beliefs, Senders says that the first American incarnation of his band, Antigravity, took place from 1979 until 1983. Antigravity included saxophone (Phil Scarff), trombone, guitar, bass (Senders) and two drummers. Senders says, "It was a hot band!" He explained that it then dissolved and reformed, but that the American version of Antigravity is "on the back burner, but I do hope sometime in the next few years to put out a record with that ensemble as well." The current avatar of the band has released a new recording, Boogie for Hanuman (released Fall of 97 on Accurate Records). The CD consists of seven ragas composed by Senders and based on Hindustani religious text. Warren Sender's wife, Vijaya Sundaram, who performed on the first Antigravity CD and on all the cassettes, will also be on the forthcoming CD. She is a sitarist, singer-songwriter and composer who has released several cassettes of her own.

Connections between jazz and Indian music

There has long been a connection between jazz and Indian music. This cross-cultural pollination has lead to recordings, such as Boogie for Hanuman. John McLaughlin, for example, came to prominence as a guitarist with Miles Davis's ensemble, then led an early, and successful, jazz-rock fusion outfit called the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was at the time a devotee of the Indian mystic Sri Chinmoy, which furthered his interest in things Indian. Chick Corea, Stanley Clark, Al DiMeola and Lenny White formed "Return to Forever", which was another highly acclaimed Hindustani-influenced jazz fusion effort.

Northern Indian music, which sustains notes, while southern Indian does not, seems to be more suited to melding with Afro-Caribbean, Brazilian, North American jazz and other influences. Karnatic or southern Indian music is more a part of everyday life in India, while Hindustani or northern Indian music is of the court and of the intelligentsia, perhaps making it more open to variations and experimentation. Another reason that Hindustani music may adapt to and blend with other influences is that Persian influences were grafted onto the rootstock of Hindustani music during the Mughal empire (1526-1857) when Islamic law was not tolerant of praising other than Allah, so the creative energy of the music had to be malleable.

Phil Scarff became interested in playing Hindustani classical music through his work with vocalist, bassist, and composer Senders, playing in Antigravity beginning in 1980. Scarff says, "At that point, Warren [Senders] had been studying Hindustani Sangeet for several years, and he incorporated Indian influences in his compositions, as well as in his instructions for improvisation. As a jazz musician, I was interested in new techniques and ideas for improvising, and the Indian concepts were very intriguing to me. After several years of listening to recordings and attending concerts, I began my formal study of Indian classical music in 1985, first in Boston, and then traveling to Pune, India." Since then, Scarff has made eight more trips to India to continue his music studies. He has performed Indian classical music, both in the context of his Indo-Afro-jazz ensemble Natraj, and in smaller, more "traditional" Indian classical settings.

He says, " Having been involved with Indo-jazz fusion for 17 years now, I can respond to how jazz and Indian classical music blend: Both musics are deep and expressive, and are based on improvisation. Both employ improvisation that can derive from an underlying composition. Concepts from both idioms can increase the musical vocabulary of the musician and composer, and can be used as resources for improvisation and composition."

The late Don Cherry, the trumpet player who performed with saxophonist Ornette Coleman's "harmolodic" bands, explained that the symbiosis between Hindustani music and jazz comes from the fact that to a greater extent than having notes, Indian music has tones - 36 of them to an octave, so that there is a greater potential for playing "between the notes" and creating what is called free jazz.

However, unlike American jazz, or other western music, Indian music is built around the rag or melody, which the individual artist clothes and makes new with improvisation and variation each time the melody is performed. On the liner notes of his album, Ravi Shankar Plays Three Classical Ragas in 1956, the artist explained the very minor role of harmony, saying, "Indian music is modal by nature, and though harmony may be present in its simplest form, it is inherent, rather than deliberate. For the better and finer enjoyment of Indian music, Western audiences should forget about harmony and counterpoint or the mixed tone colors which may be considered the prime essentials of a symphonic or similar work, and relax rather in the rich melody and rhythm, and with the exquisitely subtle inflections through which the atmosphere of a Raga is built up."

Trey Gunn, Warr guitarist and King Crimson member, talks about these necessary inflections in connection with his sixth solo album, The Third Star. He says, "The influence of Indian music in the west has opened as many doors as it has closed. The new sounds, the sophisticated rhythmic structures and the expansive melodic development all point to new areas for the western musical improviser. However, the 'apparent' static nature of Indian music has often 'given permission' to westerners to do 'nothing' as players, and do it badly at that. (Sadly, I am no exception to this observation.)

"Within the particular atmosphere of a raga, we have a lot to learn. A player can deliver all the elements of a particular raga and get the feel entirely wrong. This has become my latest work as a player/composer: how do define, and deliver, the extremely particular feel of particular piece (even when the musical material is virtually identical to another piece.) The Indian musicians have always been masters of this skill.

"On The Third Star, the first obvious connection to Indian music would be through the sounds, then through the rhythms of the recording -- the droning tones, reminiscent of the tamboura, and soothing slow melodies conjuring the introductory alap of a raga. The percussionist, Bob Muller, plays tabla all over the record and his influence on the material is quite considerable. Most notably there are several tihais throughout certain pieces. (A tihai is an Indian rhythmic device, used at the end of phrases.) In addition, many of the pieces are based on asymmetrical rhythms, like seven beats. My hope with these 'odd' rhythms is that they continue to lope along within our western sense of groove without attracting too much attention to themselves. I think, that generally, we have succeeded with this."

Phil Scarff explains what convergence is possible between Indian music and jazz. "Use of tension and resolution is important in creating expression and forward motion in both musics. In Indian music, melodic tension and resolution is created in two primary ways: moving from dissonance to consonance with the drone, and by creating lines that move toward important melodic material central to the raga (chalan).

Rhythmic tension and resolution is created by the use of rhythmic patterns such as tihais, nauhais, and chakradhars, that typically resolve to sam (beat one of the rhythmic cycle). These ideas can also be used in [American] jazz and in Indo-jazz. In jazz, tension and resolution in achieved by harmonic movement; melodic movement, moving from dissonance to consonance against the underlying harmony; and rhythmic activity building into an importance beat in a cycle (this is similar to but less structured than Indian tihais, etc.). Indian classical music and Indo-jazz are very compatible with these melodic and rhythmic ideas; harmonic movement can be applied in Indo-jazz."

Sarod player, George Ruckert says that Indian music blends well with other styles, such as jazz, but stipulates, "The melodic and rhythmic repertoire of Indian music is quite vast. Polyphonic music can give us some of the gifts of the monophonic traditions, but has a hard time with the precision of tuning, emotional content, ornaments, improvised patterns, and lack of harmonic rhythms on Indian music. The "successful" fusions are possible in the light-classical realm, not in the classical, where there is so much to learn before playing it."

Room for originality within a structure is another asset shared by both jazz and (Northern) Indian music. Bhimsen Joshi says, "I listen to (my) old recordings to hear what is lacking so I can improve. When an artist starts at the beginning he always copies his guru, his master. After years and experiences, it is not enough. You must have your own ideas. Remaining true to your gharana's style and to what your guru has taught you, you have to infuse your own personality in your own individual musical style."

Some musicians also note the goofiness and great joyfulness displayed by practitioners of Indian music. This comes from the improvisational paradigm of Indian music (something else it shares with jazz) within which, as Senders says the musicians and particularly the vocalists can, "fail gloriously and succeed even more gloriously." This resonates with Charlie Parker's assertion that "If you want to be a great jazz musician, you have to be ready to be a fool. Senders adds, "The great Indian musicians are great chance takers, but a lot of people are so beholden to tradition that they are afraid to go up on the high board and jump."

Cultural contradictions

A discussion of the broad and indefinable genre of Indo-jazz is also full of cultural contradictions. For example, although, westerners are sometimes questioned in the role of virtuoso practitioners of Indian music, these same westerners often describe a sense of coming home to the music of a completely alien continent and culture. Like Senders, bamboo flute player, Steve Gorn had the experience of returning to his beginnings with Indian music and says, "When I first heard it. This music felt like home to me. People in India tell me I must have lived there in a previous lifetime and that makes sense to me. I have an affinity for western classic but this is the music I can speak through. Even when I play in jazz ensemble, I am basically drawing on the Indian material, although I am reframing it."

Phil Scarff comments, "I have never felt any resentment. However, there certainly is a credibility issue. In my case, it is probably more severe than for most Western musicians because I play Indian classical music on soprano saxophone, which is not an instrument on which Indian classical music is usually performed. This aside, I have felt a lot of enthusiasm and support from the Indian community, both in the US and in India, regarding my playing of Indian classical music, my playing of Indo-jazz, and Natraj's music."

Ruckert, adds, "Resented" is not the word I would use. But the fact is that most people think of me as an outsider in this music...and will opt to accommodate lesser musicians from India as both teachers and performers. Most people, even from India, haven't the vaguest notion of what this tradition is all about . It is the same with blacks and whites in jazz (or rather, used to be). It will change with Indian music, too, as more people hear and learn. Curiously enough, sometimes when I play in Europe I am "resented" for being an American - they can be very suspicious of Americans telling them about India (they do not like the third party sources who should stick to purveying McDonalds', for which they are naturally gifted). My wife is a Kathak (Indian classical) dancer - blond, blue-eyed, and very good at it. She really feels the stigma that is attached to westerners and Indian arts, since she is so visually anomalous to what people expect."

Centrality of voice in Hindustani music

"In the west if you tell someone I'm a musician, they ask, 'What instrument do you play?' And they may ask, 'Do you also sing?' In India, if you say, 'I'm a musician, people ask, 'In what style do you sing?' And they may ask, 'Do you also play an instrument?'"

One contradiction of Indian-influenced music, according to Senders, is that Americans think of Indian music as purely instrumental. In fact, singing, with all of its potential for improvisation, subtlety and personal imprimatur, is central to Indian music.

He says, "The tamber, flute or sitar don't go to the core of the music, which is the human voice. My understanding is that the voice is central and I discovered that if I wanted to learn Indian music, I must first learn to sing. In the west if you tell someone I'm a musician, they ask, 'What instrument do you play?' And they may ask, 'Do you also sing?' In India, if you say, 'I'm a musician, people ask, 'In what style do you sing?' And they may ask, 'Do you also play an instrument?'"

Yet another connection between Hindustani music and jazz may be drawn between Khayal, meaning literally imagination, and scat, improvized nonsense syllables. In Khayal, explains Senders, "There are words that have semantic meaning but are not treated in a meaning-intensive way. Six words may be sung over two minutes of tonal space. The vowels are open and the words are varied. Indians may also improvise on syllables and there are also nonsense songs with meaningless vocal components."

Senders says it is a cultural fluke that Americans perceive Indian music as predominantly instrumental. That may be because of the prominence of the instrumental Indian musican Ravi Shankar, with whom many Americans are familiar. Equally important, however is his brother-in-law, Ali Akbar Kahn. The two were disciples of the same teacher. Khan came to California in 1965, moved the school to Marin County a few years later, and it has operated there ever since. Khan teaches the traditional music to students vocally (all the serious students study vocal music) as well as sarod (his instrument), sitar, violin, flute, guitar, sarangi, and whatever instrument they choose.

Getting below the surface

Classical Indian musicians and performers who blend eastern and western influences study for decades, and seem to resent both dilettante listeners and dabbler musicians. Senders has now been studying Indian classical music for twenty years, and while highly respected, acknowledges that he is a relative youngster and must dedicate himself to further study. Phil Scarff says, "For the typical listener it takes several years of listening to recordings and attending concerts to get below the surface texture of the music. Of course, it depends on the cultural background of the listener. One brought up in India would not need so much time; but one brought up in the West, and generally not exposed to Indian classical music would need significantly more time. I believe that one's exposure to a particular culture and music throughout life, especially early life, plays a major role in one's ability to appreciate a particular type of music.

Ruckert tells his MIT students, "The first four listens through the assigned piece (Western or Eastern, African, or Indian...whatever) are for acquaintance purposes only. Real knowledge of the music comes with the fifth time through and after. Music, especially if it is unfamiliar, takes repeated hearings to become familiar with the idiom, intent, mood, rhythm, length, etc."

Phil Scarff says that the basic trends in appreciation and performance of classical Indian music in the United States are that Indian classical music in the US tends toward shorter concerts and shorter renditions of ragas, compared to performance practice in India. He adds, "There seems to be more audience appreciation of instrumental rather than vocal music in the US. This trend may be working its way into the younger audiences in India, as well. The "flashier" instrumental music seems to have still more appeal in the US."

Senders talks about several landmark albums in Indo-jazz by tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, violinist, L. Shankar, ghatam (clay pot) player, Vikku Vinayakraman and Jody Stecher, who studied in India with rudra-veena player Z.M. Dagar. As is the case for Scarff, "flashy" is not, for him, a complimentary adjective. Senders comments that Shakti, the group that Hussain formed, produced "records [that] by and large have weathered well. He adds, "The music was acoustic, well balanced and highly virtuoso. Its downside was that it was if anything too much a virtuoso high-wire act that showcased more the dazzling technique of the participants than any particular innovations of structure or concept. In fact Shakti's music qua music was very similar structurally to traditional Karnatic (South Indian classical). Some of their pieces were in fact adaptations of traditional Karnatic pieces (for which, curiously enough, John McLaughlin and Shankar took composer credit). They are excellent records for the most part, though heavy on flash and dazzle."

In spite of the work it demands, there seems to be a growing appreciation of Indian and particularly Indian-influenced music. Part of the reason for this is the popularity of Indian cinema and its fusion music, which is relatively well regarded by serious musicians. Classical Indian music itself has survived the rise and fall of empires and perhaps its adaptability and openness to new interpretations will allow it live on, in traditional as well as fresh and risk-taking new forms.  

Boogie for Hanuman

Indian fusions with jazz have always had the tendency towards either the frivolous or the arcane. With few exceptions what gets passed off as Indo-fusion in today's world music bins is either rife with misinformed, new age meanderings and improvisation passing as "Indian influenced" or else it is steeped in complicated patter and ethno-musical jargon that renders it lifeless. Occasionally one lifts itself above the morass and finds a place in the heart of even the most curmudgeonly soul (like mine). Anti-Gravity is such a band.

Anti-Gravity is actually two bands, both led by bassist Warren Senders. One is a U.S. based jazz band of American musicians. The other, the Anti-Gravity of this CD, is Senders and his musical friends in Pune, India. Senders has spent much of his musical life in Pune, carefully studying classical singing styles and learning Indian music and teaching jazz with this formidable cast of musicians. What they have come to over the years is a true meeting of cultures, a real fusion of genuine ideas and love of music that transcends place and time. This is not jazz as Americans know it, not Indian classical or folk music as Indians know it. It's a whole different creature that uses elements of both to come to a common understanding.

Boogie For Hanuman brings us a diverse outlook that has the feel of both Coltrane and Ellington buried somewhere amid the streets of an Indian city. It is crowded and complex, with surprising pitfalls and delightful surprises. "Dark House - Midday" exemplifies Senders world view, as it blends together a number of ragas, played on the bass, with a steadily more chaotic blend of Ajit Soman's flute and Ramakant Paranjpe's violin. As the multiple percussionists (kit drums and tablas) join in, the overwhelming sense of a crowded urban milieu crashes down into a quiet escape, dragged to its conclusion by Senders loopy, bowed bass lines.

Antigravity, the Pune group

The album has more bright moments, particularly the world-fusion of "Weaving Time" with it's underscores of Indonesian and African rhythms. "Boogie For Hanuman" starts out mundane, with an underpinning that sounds almost disco to me but we are treated to a flashy sitar solo by Atul Keskar that sets the stage for better things to come. Perhaps most revealing of all is setting of Abdullah Ibrahim's "Ishmael." The familiar bass and kit drum groove is wrapped with tabla and sinuous violin, adds on some simple, bluesy guitar riffs, some baffling flute that skirts the border between jazz and Pune, and then folds it all together in a classic jazz jam. How they resisted the urge to add a line from "Caravan" in here is beyond me.

Boogie For Hanuman succeeds because in spite of its deep roots in tradition, it meets the music on its own terms, refusing to become either musicological artifact or message-bearing fusion. It exists in its own unique time and space. - CF

Aleksandr Scriabin and Gustav Holst were among the European composers who have been influenced by Indian culture and music. Both were interested in theosophy, a nineteenth-century synthetic religion that brought Indologists, philosophers, quacks and generous society ladies together beneath the all-embracing canopy of Hinduism. Scriabin's ideas about emotion and colour perhaps owe something to the concept of raga, and Holst incorporated some of the hymns of the Rig Veda in his Planets. The French composer Olivier Messiaen admired the melodic contours and ornamentations of Indian music, and developed a rhythmic theory which seems to be inspired by Indian tala or pattern of beats. In his piece Oiseaux exotiques, the percussive passages execute tala as a counterpoint to the music of string and wind instruments.

The modern American composers Henry Cowell and Alan Hovhaness used elements of Indian music in their Madras Symphony and Madras Sonata respectively. Lou Harrison and John Cage also had deep and perceptive Indian musical connections. In his Construction in Metal Cage was inspired by shrutis or microtonalities, and in his Sonatas and Interludes for piano he attempted to express in music the 5that bhavas, the abiding states of emotion which help conjure up the aesthetic response of rasa or flavour.

More recently, La Monte Young and Terry Riley have had a strong connection with India through their guru Pandit Pran Nath, who taught them Hindustani vocal music. In his The WellTimed Piano, Young used raga scales moving in and out of the texture against the continuous drone of the plano. It is also possible to detect in the works of Philip Glass and Steve Reich the hidden fibres of oriental inspiration. john Barham is a Western composer who has used the plano as if it were a santur, or Persian dulcimer.

George Harrison successfully endorsed this effort to introduce unfamiliar Indian music to audiences used to Western pop by removing sonic of the difficulties. The exotic tone of the sitar can be heard in the song Norwegian Wood" on the Beatles' album Rubber Soul (1965) and in "Within You Without You" on Revolver (1966).

Another approach to Indian music was adopted by the jazz trumpeter Don Cherry in his piece Humus, which is based on a series of simple themes, sounds, rhythms and two ragas, although the trumpet is not exactly an ideal instrument for producing the characteristic microtonal glides of Indian music.

Meanwhile, in India the violin and clarinet have long been conspicuous in classical, semi-classical and even some folk music. Although Western classical music has not made any noticeable impact on Indian music, pop and rock have had a strong influence on film music, most of which lacks any authentic identity or organic link with the classical mode.

Although Indian music has assimilated many influences in the past, the mixing process has been gradual, an attempt to find the new without losing the essential characteristics of the old. However, the last two decades have been a heady time for successful Indian performers, who have earned big money and popularity abroad.

Welcome though it is that Indian music has borne such a variety of fruits in the West, great care must be taken to maintain an environment in which it can flourish at home

Indeed, Western theorists term ragas "modal", just as they do the field hollers of 19th-century Black American slaves or the post-1960s innovations injected into jazz by the master trumpeter Miles Davis via his 1959 album Kind of Blue. A musical mode is very simply defined as the vocabulary of a melody; in other words, it selects particular notes that can be used within a scale and identifies those notes among them that have special importance in the melody, including the two most dominant notes. The mode is the skeleton over which the melody acts as flesh. The only difference between jazz and raga modes is that Indian classical music insists on many more restrictions, to the extent of specifying phrases and sequences of notes for use, or even the seasons or time of day or night.

The first Indo-jazz exchanges were touristic in nature—pianist Dave Brubeck, after his immensely successful world tour in 1958, placed Calcutta on the jazz map with his "Calcutta Blues" on the album The Dave Brubeck Quartet, alluding to their stop in the city. Within a couple of years the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane, whose spiritual quest made him receptive to various philosophies, composed an intense piece titled "India", undoubtedly influenced by Miles Davis' modal work (Coltrane had played on Kind of Blue). In 1964 another pianist, Horace Silver, showed interest in Calcutta by including the romantically-flavored "Calcutta Cutie" on his critically well-received album Song for My Father. The touristy phase culminated with Duke Ellington's magnificent Far East Suite (1967), which contained clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton's charming mimicry of a myna on "Bluebird of Delhi" and Harry Carney's brooding tribute to "Agra" on baritone sax.

Yet the first musical amalgam of Indian classical and jazz traditions did not occur in the US. The term Indo-jazz was prophetically coined by the unexpected team of West Indian alto saxophonist Joe Harriott and Calcutta-born Anglo-Indian John Mayer on their mid-sixties LPs Indo-jazz Suite and Indo-jazz Fusions, released in London. Harriott and Mayer (a Calcutta School of Music star who played both violin and sitar) used modes and free jazz in an ambitious large-ensemble format featuring violin, flute, sitar, tabla, tanpura and a jazz combo. On the other side of the Atlantic, arranger and big-band leader Don Ellis, infamous for his elaborate time-signatures such as 19/4 (similar in some respects to South Indian talas), introduced the sitar on his best-selling Electric Bath album, which opened with a track called "Indian Lady".

Another trailblazer was the late Hungarian-born guitarist, Gabor Szabo, who overdubbed sitar on his 1966 LP titled Jazz Raga, containing compositions by him with names such as "Search for Nirvana", "Krishna" and "Ravi" (dedicated to Ravi Shankar). Szabo once remarked, "I feel almost as comfortable with Indian music as with my own music. Perhaps the basic philosophy of life is the same. The Hungarian tribe came originally from Asia." But it was American saxophonist John Handy who first paired with an Indian classical Ustad—Ali Akbar Khan—on the beautiful jugalbandi record Karuna Supreme, issued only in Germany. For several years, Ali Akbar and tabla whiz kid Zakir Hussain formed part of Handy's touring group named Rainbow.

By the late 1960s, of course, potted Indian philosophy had infected American youth culture in the slipstream of the Beatles. The jazz world (though not American rock) followed suit, a few hip musicians making good use of popular catchwords of Indian origin. Reedmen Herbie Mann and Charles Lloyd—campus favourites—both released albums titled Nirvana, Mann's effort proving superior probably on account of pianist Bill Evans' collaboration. In the touristy vein, another of Mann's compositions on it was named "Cashmere"; readers may recall that he visited India a few years ago. Lloyd gave another of his LPs the title Geeta. On a deeper level, one came across such meditative albums as Om by Coltrane (posthumously issued), Journey in Satchidananda by his wife Alice Coltrane (a keyboardist) and Karma by his protege Pharoah Sanders (also a tenor saxophonist), all very densely structured.

One person who single-handedly promoted Indo-jazz is virtuoso British guitarist John McLaughlin, who moved to the US in 1969 and became a disciple of the Bengali mystic Sri Chinmoy. One side of My Goal's Beyond (1971) consisted entirely of group improvisation on ragas. McLaughlin's formation of the Mahavishnu Orchestra revolutionized both jazz and rock, and established that "fusion" had come to stay. Using a twin-necked electric guitar and characteristic swirling patterns often rising to a crescendo, he created a tripartite synthesis of Indian, jazz and rock styles on the powerful and trendsetting albums Inner Mounting Flame and Birds of Fire (1972-73). He encompassed a fourth area by employing the London Symphony Orchestra for the grand-scale project Apocalypse (1974). His compositions, with titles such as "The Dance of Maya" and "Wings of Karma", reflected the Hindu philosophy that inspired him. Delving further into Indian music, he founded the acoustic outfit Shakti with violinist L. Shankar, Zakir Hussain and T. H. Vinayakram (ghatam and mridangam), thereby fusing jazz, Hindusthani and Karnatak idioms. His specially-constructed acoustic guitar had raised frets to approximate the tone of a sitar.

Shakti's fascinating A Handful of Beauty (1977) exemplifies the best of Indo-jazz.

The induction of Indian musicians into regular American jazz bands (Handy's Rainbow was only a loose touring unit) had actually begun in 1970, when Miles Davis -always a pioneer - recruited Khalil Balakrishna to play sitar on a jazz version of David Crosby's love song "Guinnevere". Balakrishna stayed on in Davis' huge agglomeration till 1974, appearing on the texturally-packed albums from Live/Evil to Get up with It, an experimental (some say incoherent) Davis period. Big Fun (1974) finds him playing electric sitar and also adds Badal Roy to the lineup on tabla, as well as Bihari Sharma. Another jazz legend, free jazz pathfinder Ornette Coleman, utilized the vocals of Bombay-based Asha Puthli on an unusual album titled Science Fiction in 1971. Much later on, L Shankar would join hands with several groups, such as McLaughlin's own One Truth Band in 1979, adding electric violin to his repertoire.

The 1970s proved the most fruitful phase in Indo-jazz, as several other American jazzmen fell under the Indian influence. Pianist-composer-arranger Carla Bley, whose poetic magnum opus Escalator over the Hill (1971) spread over three records and drew rave reviews, incorporated on it a melancholy interpretation of All India Radio's theme tune, under the title "A.I.R.". The exceptionally-talented Collin Walcott, a sutdent of Ravi Shankar and Alia Rakha, a Buddhist and a founder-member of the acoustic group Oregon, made his brilliant command over sitar and tabla a fundamental aspect of Oregon's unique and refreshing pastoral sound. On their first record in 1972, he played esraj and mridarigam as well. His premature death in 1984 deprived jazz of a truly independent voice. There was also woodwinds specialist Dave Liebman, a regular visitor to India with his band Lookout Farm, particularly interested in rhythms as on "Satya Dhwani" (from his LP Drum Ode, 1975). Avant-garde trumpeter Don Cherry, who had discovered the musical value of mesmeric mantras, chanted Avalokitesvara om mani padme ham and did a jazz version of Raga Malkauns on his eponymous record in 1976.

The eighties showed other American artistes coming to the forefront of Indo-jazz. Alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano's study of Indian music started in the late sixties on a trip to India and finally found expression in the album Jyothi (1982, on which he plays the nagaswaram), in collaboration with Bangalore's Karnataka College of Percussion featuring R. A. Ramamani. Don Cherry put together the group Codona with Collin Walcott and Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, but it folded after Walcott's death and a promising start. Guitarist Pat Metheny, darling of college audiences, used sitar on his lyrical and acclaimed 1984 release First Circle, while highly-rated Emily Remler, inspired by Ravi Shankar's technique, is said to have "memorized his records" while training on her guitar. Tragically, she too died young a few years ago. Another widely respected experimentalist, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, partnered sitarist Subroto Roy Chowdhury and Shibshankar Ray on tabla for Explorations (1987).

The encounters continue, with no trace of the fading interest that characterized "raga-rock". Increasingly, Indian musicians are taking the initiative in heading Indo-jazz groups of mixed citizenship. Notable among them are the violinist brothers L. Subramaniam and L. Shankar, who lead their own fusion bands. Shankar has released as many as four LPs on the ECM label; the latest, Nobody Told Me (1990), employs Zakir Hussain, Vinayakram and Shankar's wife Caroline (vocals), plus his father and sister. Zakir Hussain himself united McLaughlin, Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek and Hindusthani flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia on a solo album.

Making Music (1988), and then assembled a seven-piece percussion ensemble with Alla Rakha and other musicians from Africa, Cuba and Southeast Asia for The Rhythm Experience (1992). Trilok Gurtu, Bombay-born son of classical vocalist Shobha Gurtu and a member of the new Oregon, recorded Usfret (1989) with input from his mother, Ralph Towner, Don Cherry and L. Shankar; Living Magic (1991) with Garbarek, Vasconcelos, Shanthi Rao (vina) and others; and Crazy Saints (1993) with Metheny, Joe Zawinul of Weather Report and his mother, featuring elements of Western Classical and Karnatak Tillana too. On all three, he played all rhythmic instruments — tabla, drums, congas, percussion. Gurtu says of the new attitude, "We're just trying to say that music is one. It's not West and East anymore; it's gone universal. It's possible to play with anybody, if you are open and you adapt." Another recent endeavour, Ragas and Sagas (1992), involves Garbarek and Fateh Ali Khan, who give their compositions no names, just numbers; accompanying them are Shaukat Hussain (tabla), Nazim Ali Khan (sarangi) and African drummer Manu Katche.

The growing popular attraction worldwide to this kind of fusion is perhaps best indicated by the unprecedented award of a Grammy in 1994 to Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt for his duet album with bottleneck rock guitarist Ry Cooder, A Meeting by the River. Bhatt plays ragas on a special guitar which he has christened the "Mohan Vina"; the record, containing tracks with titles such as "Ganges Delta" uses tabla (played by Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari) as its main rhythmic support.

Clearly, Indo-jazz (or whatever you wish to call it) has come to stay abroad despite the objections of purists. Meanwhile, back home in India, traditional jazz musicians find their audiences decreasing, deserting a once-vibrant nightclub atmosphere for the instant gratification of pop or Hindi movie hits. The commercial neglect of jazz — Indian music companies hardly ever issue the latest and best American jazz discs, leave alone record the few top local jazz combos — fuels this downhill slide, since ordinary Indian listeners thereby have no knowledge of what is happening in international jazz or even Indo-jazz. Virtually none of the recordings discussed in this section are available legitimately in the Indian market. In spite of these formidable obstacles, established names like Braz Gonsalvez (saxophone, since emigrated to Canada), Louis Banks (piano) and Arthur Gracias (guitar) not only soldiered on playing jazz standards in Bombay and Calcutta, but occasionally even forayed into Indo-jazz themselves. Lately, younger bands with promise have formed and managed to release debut cassettes of refreshing original material: Divya's Madras Cafe (CBS, 1987) and Indian Ocean's A Musical Voyage with No Frontiers (HMV, 1993) may point to one new easy-listening direction in which Indian jazz is heading.

The story line in the Beatles' movie Help! (1965) had ersatz Indian associations, and someone had left a sitar on the set for exotic effect. Intrigued by its sight, guitarist George Harrison picked it up and strummed a few notes, starting a love affair that outlasted his human romances. The first sitar sounds in popular Western music probably rang out on the sound track to Help!, in the shape of the Indian instrumentals which producer George Martin included, and the opening bars to the title song. Harrison first plucked sitar on record—just a few brush-strokes—on the haunting "Norwegian Wood" later that year. Soon afterwards, he met Ravi Shankar in London, and asked for formal training in sitar; as he recalls, "It was the first time I had ever really learnt music with a bit of discipline. Then I started to listen to Indian music for the next two years, and barely touched the guitar, except for recordings."

The results are obvious in the Beatles' compositions of that period. On the album Revolver (1966), they introduced tabla for the first time in the sensual "Love You To", one of the earliest occasions on which they gave credit to an accompanist, in this case Anil Bhagwat; and Indian mystical thought made its first inroads on "Tomorrow Never Knows". The second side of the Beatles' magnum opus, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), began with "Within You Without You", where Harrison integrated Indian instrumentation and Hindu philosophy for the first time (by then, he had already visited India once and become a disciple of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi). In December 1967, he actually led an extensive recording session at the HMV Studios in Bombay with local hands, producing the transcendental and now-rare Beatles single titled "The Inner Light", as well as a film sound track, Wonderwall Music (1968), which was of historic importance as the first solo project released by a Beatle.

Wonderwall, a feeble film, has great curiosity value for its muzak of a pioneering variety—a fusion of Indian classical, folk and Western popular, scored in entirety by Harrison. Despite misspelling the unfamiliar names of the Indian session men, it did contain Ashish Khan (sarod), Shiv Kumar Sharma (santur) and Mahapurush Mishra (tabla, pakhavaj) in its orchestra of eleven Indians and seven Englishmen, playing other Indian instruments too: sitar, surbahar, shehnai, tar-shehnai, flute, harmonium, tabla-tarang. Harrison even retained Indian titles for some of the tunes, such as "Guru Vandana", "Gat Kirwani" and "Singing Om"

He once remarked incidentally about the Bombay studios: "there's no soundproofing. So if you listen closely to some of the Indian tracks... you can hear taxis going by. Every time the offices knocked off at 5:30 we had to stop recording because you could just hear everybody stomping down the steps. They only had a big old EMI mono machine.... It was nice enough because you get spoiled working on eight and sixteen tracks."

The Beatles' dalliance with India ended quite abruptly in 1968 when, on a pilgrimage to Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh, they discovered that the Maharishi had apparently been relating to Mia Farrow, in their entourage, on a lower-than-meditational plane. Thoroughly disillusioned, they returned to London, wrote "Sexy Sadie" about him ("You made a fool of everyone") and jettisoned Indian music. Only Harrison remained faithful to Hinduism, refusing to throw out the baby with the bath water. Nevertheless, in their musical epitaph Let It Be (1970), one of the most moving songs is Lennon and McCartney's "Across the Universe", a serene and nostalgic coda with the refrain "Jai Gurudeva". Contrasted with this in the same year is Lennon's solo 45, the cynical "Instant Karma!", which begins, "Instant karma's gonna get you". These represent the two faces of the Beatles' Indian experience

The bandwagon of "raga-rock" set rolling by the Beatles automatically drew a number of passengers. Most were ephemeral imitators who do not deserve mention, but some were among the most respected acts in the British rock business. In 1966, for instance, Brian Jones played a distinctive lead sitar riff on the Rolling Stones' classic number, "Paint It Black". In the heady summer of 1967, Traffic's debut LP contained the hit "Hole in my Shoe", also with sitar strains. Other attempts at tackling fashionable Indian concepts more seriously included, in 1968, another song from a debut album, Jethro Tull's "Dharma for One", and the Moody Blues' deeper dabbling with mandalic mysticism on In Search of the Lost Chord, featuring such songs as "The Word" and "Om". Experiments using Indian instruments also continued, notably the Incredible String Band's avant-garde work on The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (1968), and even Eric Clapton's "I Am yours" (1970) on which he placed the tabla played by Nizami up front, alongside the slide guitar. After the Beatles disintegrated, Harrison, by now an ISKCON devotee, embarked on a solo career that for a while threatened to eclipse those of either Lennon or McCartney. His 3-LP masterpiece All Things Must Pass (1970) amalgamated his belief in maya, karma and moksha, epitomized on the massive international topper "My Sweet Lord" with its Vaishnav chorus, and "Beware of Darkness" with its punch line, "Beware of maya". He insisted that Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan open the legendary Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, to a crowd comprising rock addicts waiting to hear Harrison, Clapton, Bob Dylan and others. When the uninitiated listeners applauded after the duo finished tuning, Ravi Shankar quipped, "If you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you'll enjoy the playing more." The lyrics for the album Living in the Material World (1973) found Harrison totally engrossed in Indian philosophy—the sleeve even had a calendrical colour pullout of Krishna and Arjuna on their chariot—while maintaining excellent musicianship. However, this latter quality began to diminish on Dark Horse (1974), as the Hindu connection became didactically obsessive on such compositions as "Maya Love" and "It Is He (Jai Sri Krishna)" His image, too, had changed: now he liked being addressed as "Hari".

Several other superstars also had ties with Indian religious gurus. The leading British group The Who dedicated Tommy (1969), one of the earliest and most successful rock operas, to Meher Baba, spiritual preceptor of Pete Townshend, the brain behind the band. Townshend later adapted "Parvardigar", Meher Baba's Universal Prayer, into a rarefied hymn on his solo venture Who Came First (1972). Sri Chinmoy counted among his disciples British-born jazz guitarist "Mahavishnu" John McLaughlin (see Section III) and Mexican-born rock guitarist "Devadip" Carlos Santana, whose Caravanserai (1972) contains his finest musical interpretations of Indian themes, such as "Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation". Introverted folk-rocker Cat Stevens, of Greek-Swedish descent, flirted briefly with Buddhism—documented on his sensitive album Buddha and the Chocolate Box (1973)—before converting to Islam and retiring from the music scene. Curiously enough, American rock musicians never got as deeply involved with India. The guitar genius Jimi Hendrix's tongue-in-cheek cover for Axis: Bold as Love (1967), depicting his band as a three-headed Hindu deity, is suggestive of the comparatively superficial interest. Out of a few desultory musical attempts, the heavy-metal pioneers Iron Butterfly marked an uncharacteristic but noteworthy exception by bringing in sitar appropriately on Metamorphosis (1970), for their ecologically-conscious song "Slower than Guns". Later British bands continued to compose the odd commentary or two on things Indian. The art-rock group Procol Harum delivered their visionary "Glimpses of Nirvana" on their 1972 LP, Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. More quizzically, Jethro Tull questioned the whole business of gurus as somewhat fraudulent, punning on the name of the character Kangaroo ("Can-guru") in their concept album A Passion Play the following year, the idea for which may have originated during a 1972 stopover in Bombay. Bandleader Ian Anderson recently admitted that "Something of India's rich, intense and complex ways of life has always found echoes in the music of Jethro Tull over the years." Then with typical bathos, he said that he owes a lot to take-out "chicken tikka masalas, king prawn bhunas, sag aloos and peshwari naans." Perhaps the last big-timers to deal with Indian matters were hard-rock progenitors Led Zeppelin, whose "Kashmir" (Physical Graffiti, 1975) is an intricate and brooding work.

As the bywords of love and peace gradually turned passe, and the Western student radicalism of the sixties and seventies gave way to the student conservatism of the eighties, popular fascination with both Indian spiritualism and music declined. Concomitantly, no major rocker since 1975 has looked India-wards for inspiration, obviously discounting such trivia as Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon" (1983; Boy George eventually became a Hare Krishna). Paradoxically, in the same period, Indians' attraction to rock increased manifold. As for future possibilities, an unusual, obscure agglutination called the Diga Rhythm Band, brainchild of Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and his friend Zakir Hussain, issued an album dedicated to Alia Rakha in 1975 that signalled a turning point in Indo-Western musical relations. One of the earliest examples of what is nowadays termed "World Beat", it consisted of percussion from all over the world — marimba, vibraphone, conga, bongo, talking drum, gong, timbale, tympani, drum, duggi tarang, nal, tar, tabla. On one hand, it pointed towards the improvisatory explorations of Indo-jazz; on the other, to the eclectic rock collaborations of Paul Simon with South African or Brazilian musicians, Peter Gabriel with other African cultures, or finally, in 1991, Hart's splendid sequel, Planet Drum, starring Zakir Hussain and T.H. Vinayakram (ghatam) as well as other international percussionists. The barriers between rock and jazz fade away here; hence the new rubrics, "world beat" and "beyond".

------  Prof. Ananda Lal