Vadakanchery Ulsavam (Festival)

Some of you know the middle V in my name stands for Vadakanchery (pronounced Vud-uh-kun-jay-ree), the village in Kerala from where my father grew up (my mother's from the nearby town, and district capital, called Palghat).

Every year, on the day after Dussehra, there's a big festival (Ulsavam) in Vadakanchery, with a procession of elephants and a traditional Kerala musical ensemble called Pancha Vadyam. Gracie, my sister Shyamala, and I were in Vadakanchery last October for the festival, and this video was recorded then (Oct 3, 2006). I made this edited version from that footage.

The procession starts at the temple at the top of the Gramam (Tamil Brahmin village) in Vadakanchery, stops in front of my aunt's house (where this video ends), and then continues on to the second village temple, at the bottom of the hill.

Dussehra, also called Vijaya Dasami in Tamil, is one of India's two major Hindu festivals. The day afterwards is called Eka Dasi, or the "eleventh day after the new moon."

Pancha Vadyam (or "five instruments") is one of Kerala's great folk art forms, called Pancha Vadyam. Featuring three different types of drum, horns, and the conch shell (and the bells that are common in Hindu religious music), it really shows off the great syncopated rhythms of south Indian music.

The video is below, or you can view it on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNuv79As1QY

Nobody In Mind

This is a version of the song by the great blues "shouter" Big Joe Turner (vocals) and Pete Johnson (piano). It's a simple 8-bar blues, but a hard song to get worked out and play with the right groove to it. This is getting close.

The lyrics are kind of strange at the end, but it's a cool song as long as one doesn't take the lyrics too seriously.

Swami

Georgia On My Mind - Updated

It's taken a long time to work out this arrangement of the Hoagy Carmichael song (based on Ray Charles' chord changes). Coming up with an arrangement that worked for solo piano and vocal was hard, but fun. I like this result. Lemme know what you think.

I posted a rehearsal of this earlier, last year. This is much more polished. Still not quite done, as you can see :)

Swami

Amazing Grace

It's always been my favorite Christian hymn, but it wasn't until recently that I learned the history of the song, written by a reformed English slave-trader named John Newton. My daughter's also named Grace, and that makes it an even more special song for me.

I've been working on arranging and learning a version based on Charles Brown's version of this song, from his album "These Blues." It's been almost a year, but I finally got it figured out, and then sat down to record it at Jennifer's last Thursday. Good timing too, since the movie "Amazing Grace" came out Friday, and it's the story of the end of the British slave trade (which ended Feb 23, 200 years ago).

Here's the video of the session. I hope you enjoy it. Do let me know what you think.

Swami

A Little Christmas Music

I've been working on some Christmas songs for a while now. It's been hard to make interesting arrangements of songs that can be sung and played. Here are a couple I just recorded, with my teacher, Jennifer Clevinger's help producing them. Here they are. Hope you enjoy it, and would love your thoughts.

This version of the traditional Christmas song, "Silent Night", is based on a version by Dr. John in his album "Dr. John plays Mac Rebennack" (FYI: Mac Rebennack is Dr. John's real name). It's a tough piece to play and sing, just because there's so much going on, and it's so syncopated.

The other song I recorded is a version of "The Christmas Song," by Mel Torme, but based on the changes in the Nat King Cole version. I sang it in the same key (D-flat) Cole did, which was tough, because it's a hard key to play on the piano. But it's a cool key to sing in: just a tiny bit "sharp" sounding than C.

I realize I still have a long way to go, but it's nice to know one's making progess. :)

UPDATE: Several people tell me the links above didn't work, so I've updated them to use a different service (damn Yahoo! Briefcase). If you can't see the file (and want to :), just email me, and I'll send them to you.

Merry Christmas!
Swami

Jay McShann RIP

Jay McShann died last week, and I haven't had the chance to blog about it yet. He died December 7, which is of course the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and less famously the birthday of Noam Chomsky.

Allmusic.com has a good bio of McShann. For me, I was introduced to his music a few years ago by a colleague, and came to love his silky, ever so slightly out-of-tune voice, and his smooth piano playing that straddles the line between blues and jazz in a unique way. I've worked on a version of his rendition of the Bessie Smith song "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do."

For those that don't know him, here are a couple of my favorite tunes ("Ain't Nobody's Business" and "Trouble In Mind") by McShann, both from his album "Still Jumping the Blues," in which he's accompanied by Duke Robillard on the guitar. Download, and if you enjoy, buy the CD :).

Rehearsal video of "Georgia on My Mind"

I've had a tough few weeks, struggling with some things I've done that have hurt people very close to me. Anyway, I've decided I need to keep some focus on my music as a way to keep things sane. So ...

I've been working on a version of the Hoagy Carmichael song "Georgia on my Mind." The most memorable version of the song, of course, is by Ray Charles. This version is based on that one. The chord changes are quite different from the original Hoagy Carmichael version.

This is a rehearsal video, so of course it's not yet polished. Much more work to do. I'll post an update soon. Let me know what you think :)

Swami

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

In memory of Katrina and New Orleans

It's hard to express all of one's feelings about the devastation of Katrina. Lots of people have written about the human loss, and I'm not sure I have a lot new to add. It's been a week when I've shared everyone's desolation at the thought of all those people dead and abandoned; done my bit to give to charity in the hope it'll help.

But beyond dealing with the human toll will be the rebuilding of a great city. Will we have the political will and the money to do it? And even if it is, will New Orleans be transformed from the messy, chaotic city we know and love into an ultramodern city with million-dollar faux "live-work" lofts and a Starbucks and Jamba Juice at every corner? I hope not. As of now, the French Quarter seems to have been saved, but we don't yet know about many of the wonderful places to eat and hear music - the Maple Leaf Lounge, Mid-City Lanes Rock N'Bowl, the Mermaid Lounge, the Howling Wolf, the Praline Connection, Jacques Imo's.

Anyway, as I was thinking about all this, I put together a list of some of my favorite songs by New Orleans-based artists. Many are about the city as well. Additions/comments welcome. Hope you enjoy listening! Here are the links:

1. Louis Armstrong - I Want a Big Butter and Eggman
2. Cowboy Mouth - You Are the Sunshine
3. Champion Jack Dupree - Angola Blues
4. Louis Armstrong - (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue
5. Fats Domino - The Fat Man
6. Dr John - Goin' Back To New Orleans
7. Henry Butler - Bourbon Street Blues
8. James Booker - Make a Better World
9. James Booker - St. James Infirmary
10. Louis Armstrong - (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue---1
11. Jelly Roll Morton - Ponchartrain
12. Meters - Hey Pocky A-Way
13. Mac Rebennack - Wade in the Water [-]
14. Otra - Con Otra In New Orleans
15. Professor Longhair - Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
16. Tuts Washington - When the Saints Go Marching In
17. Snooks Eaglin - I Went to the Mardi Gras

Swami

TechWeb: "Cell-Phone Tone Crosses Over To Music Best-Seller"

TechWeb reports that a ring tone, "Crazy Frog Axel F," is now at the top of the U.K. charts, with Cold Play's new song "Speed of Sound" next. How likely is it that when the history of music evolution is written, this day is seminal, like the day when the first rock n' roll song topped the charts? Are ringtones the new form of our time, to fit our ever shorter attention spans and the need for catchier, simpler sounds to go with these times?

As you can tell, I'm not a fan of the trend :). I'll post the tune if I can.

Swami

Great Wall Street Journal Article about the Meters

Tuesday's (May 24) edition of the Wall Street Journal has a great article about The Meters ("The Original Meters" as Ziggy always refers to them), and how they set the standard for so much great music that followed, from jam bands like the Radiators and Phish, to rappers like L.L. Cool J and Run-DMC (who sampled their music). Too bad we missed their reunion this year. I saw them in 2000 at the Warfield when they had their last reunion, but the Warfield is a crummy venue, so it wasn't as fun as it should have been. The journal quotes Art Neville as saying, during their reunion performance this year, "We may be a little older and a little fatter, but we're still black and we're still funky!" How true!!!

Since the site is subscription-only, here's an excerpt. (Btw, if you're gonna pay for any subscription content on the web, the Journal is a great choice: great reporting and incredible range of coverage and original content. The only downside is the crummy editorial page, which is full of right wing nutcases).

That the Meters came to be the Lost Tribe of Funk speaks to how music business success can be fleeting, and often band-splintering. In their heyday, they never cracked the charts with the consistency of outfits like Earth, Wind & Fire; their eight-year run was not long enough to earn them the seniority of James Brown or George Clinton. Yet as these more celebrated funk founders attest, the Meters stood out from the rest.

"To us, the only funk band around was the Meters," Mr. Clinton says of his early days in the late '60s, when he was molding the Parliament/Funkadelic family of bands. "Before I got with James Brown, they were like the funkiest cats to ever hit the planet," says bassist Bootsy Collins, whose stints with Messrs. Brown and Clinton preceded his own legendary career. "The Meters were different from other funk groups, because they were more like a band...and the drummer -- good Lord!"

"I first heard the Meters in the early '70s," recalls Earth, Wind & Fire leader Maurice White. "Everybody else was staying right to the beat, but they had a New Orleans flair....They made a really big sound for four guys."

The Meters did what other funk bands of their era could not do: playing a little behind the beat, dropping unexpected spaces into the rhythm that created an altogether surprising, foot-elevating effect. Meters bassist George Porter calls it "our New Orleans 'pocket' -- it was a little more syncopated and probably what made it harder to lock down than [the music of] George Clinton and James and all of those."

Mr. Porter is one of four childhood friends from the same New Orleans neighborhood (keyboardist Art Neville, guitarist Leo Nocentelli and drummer Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste are the others) who banded together in the late '60s, forced to limit the lineup to a simple quartet by the tight confines of the French Quarter bar that hired them. Over a two-year run, the band developed a loose, economic approach that was heavily swayed by the street-parade rhythms peculiar to their hometown, and built from the rhythm up.

Says Mr. Neville, the eldest of the group: "See, when we started out we didn't know anything about music. We just enjoyed playing. But drummers from New Orleans -- there's some kind of little edge there that I can't explain. The drummer was the trick -- Zigaboo."

The drummer prefers to share the credit. "It wasn't really me," says Mr. Modeliste. "The band said 'OK, you lay down this drum thing, and we'll compose the music to fit.' They composed the music to the drumbeats. That was the formula that was successful for us for a long time."

So now you know why this blog is named what it is. :)
Swami

Clayton McMichen

I was listening this morning to a song by Clayton McMichen called "Prohibition Blues." It's an interesting, and surprisingly current song, which might just as well apply to current drug laws as it once did to prohibition. Here's some of the lyrics:

The preacher comes around and gives advice, and then you have to stall
But if he gets to the bottle first, he'll never leave you none at all

I'll tell you brother, and I won't lie, what's the matter in this land
They'll drink it wet, and vote it dry, and hide it if they can

They'll pitch a party and they'll all get drunk, and call it society
But if they catch you with a pint, good morning penitentiary, hey hey hey

I did a little research, and discovered that McMichen was one of the pioneers of the genre we now call "country," playing with fiddle with Jimmy Rodgers. Really interesting stuff.

Check out the song.

Swami

The Library of Congress' Memory Collection

In surfing around trying to find info on mp3 blogging, I found The Library of Congress' American Memory collection. This is quite extraordinary stuff, and will undoubtedly take me a long time to go through and check out. Here's one song from their Voices from The Dust Bowl Collection: Nolan Duncan singing "She'll be Coming Round the Mountain." Lovely stuff, even if I'm the only person who actually likes all this old music :). There's also this version of (the Jimmy Rodger's song?) "Talking Blues" (not the same as the one I'm more familiar with by Bob Marley) by Norman Nelson. Pretty interesting stuff, and not just about dust bowl ballads from the 30s. More to come on this!

Best Moment of Fest '05

So, not that this has anything to do with music, but it was fun when a street guy walking by me said as he passed me, "Rich White Boy!" The only time I've ever been called that!

(The worst moment was losing my wallet, but I found it, so all's well that ends well :)

Swami

Days Three and Four at JazzFest

Saturday night was a really good night of music. I saw Theresa Anderson at the Rock N'Bowl, which was unexpected, but really kind of good, country-rock kind of music. And then, got to see Anders Osborne at the Rock N' Bowl as well (that's who I'd really gone there to see). I had seen him some years ago opening for Dr. John at Tip's Uptown, and I had remembered him as a really good Delta bluesman. He's become a lot more rock-n-roll ish, but it was a really good show. The sousaphone player who he uses instead of a bass player was cool to watch. I wonder how someone can do that: it seems like a tough instrument to play!

After the Rock N' Bowl, went to the Allie Cat above the Blue Nile to see Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes. They're a talented bunch, but didn't make much of an impression on me this night. I did enjoy the band I saw at the Blue Nile, though, who's name I don't know. It was sort of a bluegrass band (Randy said maybe they're a genre called jamgrass), with a ukulele (update: as Randy points out, it was a mandolin :) and guitars. Very fun to watch and they had the crowd going! Saw Li'l Hercules for a little while afterwards at Cafe Brasil to wind up a loooooong night about 7 am :)

Of course I didn't make it to Fest Sunday after all that! Hung out by the river and did a little work during the day. Went to dba for a drink in the evening, and lost my wallet! It was a scary experience, but when I went back, I managed to find it under the chair we were sitting at. oooh! i had to miss a dinner at acme oyster house for it, but it was such a relief, i felt good. that night, i saw otra, my favorite new orleans cuban latin jazz band. it was really good, and relaxing. lot of new musicians on the band (only the band-leading bass player and the nicaraguan conga drummer seem to be the same from last year). After that, we went to see Ziggy's Krewe. He had only Chris, the guitarist, from his usual band here. The rest were local gig musicians. And Leo Nocentelli and Cyril Neville put in guest appearances. It's always great to see Ziggy in New Orleans. He puts on his best show here!

That brought this Fest to an end! Another good year. Sorry it had to end. :(

Days Two and Three at Fest '05

So yesterday (Friday) was a nice, lazy day. Went for a walk along Decatur Street through the quarter and past Jackson Square, and then took the streetcar down St. Charles to the riverbend, where there's a squishy (daiquiri) bar, where we all got squishies and then walked to the Maple Leaf and played the piano. We managed to get into Jacque Imo's for dinner, which was truly amazing. I ate fried chicken, as I do once a year (:), and was amazed how tender and juicy it was! The beets and corn maquechoux were also wonderful. And we had watermelon mojitos, which was a first for me.

Saw Jon Cleary at the Maple Leaf. He's really really good. Short Englishman with a big cowboy hat, but an excellent pianist and band leader. The band is really together, and all the flourishes and crescendoes and transitions always seem to be just right. Lot of Meters covers (yay!), and some very good original music too.

Later, went to the Blue Nile to see Vinyl. They're a really talented bunch. Yesterday Melvin Sparks sat in with them for a long time playing guitar, and it was quite amazing. He had been playing with Karl Denson the previous night, and with my pounding head, I didn't appreciate it at all. But last night, it was great. The band wasn't always with him, and they're not so good at that jazzier style he likes. They're more Afro Cuban and Latin in their style: kind of laid back.

Today was an interesting day at Fest. It had rained all morning, so when we got there about 2 pm, it was muddy and cold and windy. But the Dirty Dozen Brass Band was a good start. They were playing some of their newer, more hip-hoppy stuff, and the crowd wasn't really diggin' it. Then they broke into "Junco Partner," and the whole place came alive, with hands clapping high over heads and people singing along! The slower beat and the second line drum somehow did it for everyone.

Galactic did their usual exceptional and tight show, but for me the highlight was seeing Walter "Wolfman" Washington. He's a showman. Dressed to the nines in a three piece suit and a crimson shirt, and playing a beautiful guitar and doing stunts (like playing with his teeth :). He was quite the character. It wasn't his usual band, so they played a lot of funkier stuff, which was great. The brass section was really good.

More tomorrow!

Day One at Jazz Fest 05!

It was a pretty cool night. Nathan at the Rock N' Bowl was excellent as usual, but I'm not sure why they stuck him downstairs. It's just not as fun as upstairs, and Chris Ardoin who headlined upstairs seemed a bit hip-hoppy for my taste. It's interesting to see zydeco evolve like that, tho. Must be the effect of the club scene, and trying to attract an audience of younger people. Geno Delafose was the warm up band for Chris, and that seems strange. Geno's always headlined at the Rock N' Bowl, and has such a history with this music, from his father and all.

I decided I'm not a huge Karl Denson fan. It was packed at the House of Blues late, full of (almost all) white people bobbing their heads to the music :). But the music itself is really driving, and while the solos are all very virtuosic, it seems to lack some soul, and the beat is a bit too pounding for my taste. Still, an interesting show.

Have to see what tonight brings!

How this all started

Randy and I were discussing the idea the other day of starting a blog about funky music, with the idea of one day soon being "music sherpas" who organized tours for people to cool musical spots. All the names we thought of were taken, so I finally came up with "Behind the Beat." All the posts here will at least (vaguely) be related to music, so enjoy!

Swami