Asha Bhonsle and the Kronos Quartet

NPR's Weekend Edition had an interesting interview with Asha Bhonsle and the Kronos Quartet on Sunday. Asha Bhonsle has to be a really interesting singer to work with. For a 50 year career, she was dominated by her sister, Lata Mangeshkar, who always sang for the stars, leaving Asha to often sing for the vamps. But as it turns out, that makes Asha's singing much more varied. This collaboration with the Kronos quartet, singing R.D. Burman songs, sounds fascinating. R.D., of course, is also one of those composers who always was compared to his incredibly talented father, S.D. Burman. Count me as an S.D. fan.

But Asha's songs with R.D. (also her husband) are fun to hear, and for me, very nostalgic. They did their best work together in the 1970s, which in general, was not a great time for Indian film music. But as popular as Bollywood is now getting worldwide, there's a lot of history there.

Swami

Interesting WSJ article about Pandora ...

... a website that makes musical recommendations. Most such sites use a social networking approach, recommending music based on the choices of people who like the same music that you do. Pandora uses a different approach, trying to break music down into it's constituent components (how complex the rhythm or harmonies are, for example), and then figuring that you'd like music that was "similar" in this sense.

The Journal article is subscription-only, so here's a brief excerpt.

Visitors to Pandora's Web site are greeted with an invitation to enter the names of a few songs or artists they like. Pandora then generates a customized "radio station" that plays other songs it believes users will like, based on its scientific analysis. A recent search for songs like the Beatles' early hit "I Want to Hold Your Hand" brought up a steady stream of songs like the Shaggs' "Little Girl" and Del Shannon's "Sue's Gotta Be Mine." A search for "Come Together," which the Beatles recorded in a later, more rock-influenced phase, delivered Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In the Wall, Pt. 2."

Users can click a tab to find out why Pandora has recommended a particular song -- in the case of the Pink Floyd tune, Pandora says it is similar to "Come Together" in that it has "mild rhythmic syncopation, minor key tonality, repetitive melodic phrasing, extensive vamping and vocal harmonies."

Interesting approach, and I wonder how valid it is. I like the approach, but it's not clear to me how valid it is. Do people really who like some songs that are in minor keys really tend to like songs in minor keys?

It's worth some tests. Any feedback welcome.

-s