Tunisia: Waking up from the Cold Sleep

In 1991 a young oud player from Tunis recorded an album for the classy German jazz label, ECM.  The album, Barzakh, announced the arrival on the scene of Anouar Brahem, a musician who since that debut has never lowered the quality or beauty or fascinating allure of his art.

In 1991, Tunisia was well on the way toward that all too common state that pertains in all one party states: deadened slumber. The government was setting up theatrical elections in which the President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was returned by ‘overwhelming majorities’ as a sign of his adoring people’s love. Tunisians were compelled to remain quiet and voiceless and submissive.

I don’t know if anyone paid attention to the title of Anouar Brahem's debut album but it is a fascinating choice. Barzakh in Islamic thinking refers to a state of the soul after death not-dissimilar (but not exactly similar, either) to limbo in Catholicism.  Barzakh is that state where the soul of the deceased enters a deep, ‘cold sleep’ and awaits the Day of Final Judgment (qayamat).

At first blush Barzakh seems a bizarre title for an album but when one considers what was happening in Tunisia at the time, perhaps not. That the country was a political mortuary in which its citizens lay inert in an ever-waiting ‘cold sleep’, is now an open secret.

In the last few days the much ‘re-elected’ President Ben Ali has been chased out of Tunisia by his ‘adorning’ people.  The ancient land is vibrating with long-realized hope even as it teeters on the brink of the unknown.  The people, for so long asleep are now wakening. The state of barzakh seems to be ending. The final judgment has arrived for a government that for too long has oppressed those it claims to serve.

Whether Anouar Brahem attaches such political implications to his work is unknown. But given what is transpiring in that country there is no better  moment to share this magnificent masterpiece of modern Tunisia. Brahem is considered one of the most innovative and accomplished contemporary oud masters. Not only has he transformed the Arabic lute into a lead instrument (rather than an accompanying one) his spare playing style is instantly recognizable.

This album is one of my all time favorites, one that never ceases to pleasure the senses.

Track Listing:

1.    Raf Raf

2.    Barzakh

3.    Sadir

4.    Ronda

5.    Hou

6.    Sarandib

7.    Souga

8.    Parfun de Gitane

9.    Bou Naouara

10. Kerkenah

11. La Nuit des Yeux

12. Le Belvedere Asseige

13. Qaf

 Listen here

Notes from the Underground

Talvin Singh

There are many things to love about Britain: long summer evenings at the pub, a culture that adores books, newspapers full of good writing and the Yorkshire Dales, just for starters.

Another admirable feature is the extent to which contemporary Britain is drenched with South Asian culture. Three generations of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigration has not only seen ‘a curry’ knock off fish and chips as the national food but in every sphere of society (media, politics, business and the arts) there has developed a strong hybrid Brit-Asian sub-culture.

When I lived in Oxford in the late ‘90s, the music scene was vibrating with sounds from South Asia. Nitin Sawhney, Asian Dub Foundation, Apache Indian, Fun-Da-Mental and of course, Cornershop were winning the awards and getting massive playtime in the clubs and on the radio. Between 1998 and 2001, Asian-British acts (often, more than one) were shortlisted for Britain’s top music award, The Mercury Prize. In 1999 it was won to great acclaim (and some surprise) by a Punjabi Brit tabla  player named Talvin Singh, for his album Ok.

Singh was born in an east London suburb and at age 15 went to India to study tabla. He returned within a year with a style that his classically trained guru felt was too ‘westernised’. He soon found himself playing with a diverse range of artists, including Madonna, Massive Attack and Sun Ra.  In 1995 he established the Anokha club night at the London night club, The Blue Note, which quickly turned into the premier venue for Asian Brit bands interested in a sound that mixed western electronica and Hindustani instrumentation.  Two years later he was signed to produce a compilation of the acts that played regularly at the club: Anoka: soundz of the Asian Underground.

The album was one of the first of its kind and was instrumental in bringing the whole ‘chill out’ or ‘lounge’ sound into the mainstream.  It also forever associated Singh with a new sub-genre, Asian Underground.

The album is a fine collection of DJ-inspired music as well as an important historical artefact that documents an exciting period in contemporary British popular culture when the Empire truly struck back. Stand-out tracks include Flight IC408 by State of Bengal, Mumbai Theme Tune by a then-unknown (outside of India) A.R Rahman, and Singh’s own 21^st Tabula which showcases his mastery of the tabla.

                        Track Listing:

1.    Jaan by Talvin Singh (featuring Amar)

2.    Flight IC408 by State of Bengal

3.    Kizmet by Lelonek

4.    21^st Tabula by Talvin Singh and Sangat

5.    Shang High Shang High  by Future Soundz of India

6.    Chittagong Chill  by State of Bengal

7.    Mumbai Theme Tune by A.R. Rahman

8.    Distant God by Talvin Singh (featuring Leone)

9.    Heavy Intro by Amar

10. Equation  by Equal 1

11. Spiritual Master Key by Osmani Soundz

12. K-Ascendent by Kingsuk Biswas

Listen here

Carnatic Soul/Jazz

Shankar

Not many months after I discovered Ghazal’s album As Night Falls on the Silk Road (previous post) I found myself dwelling on the Silk Road.  Tajikistan, the poorest of the Soviet Stanley Brothers, was in 1999 emerging from a traumatic civil war. My wife, Yvonne, and I were employed by an American NGO that ran quite a big microcredit and public health program throughout the country. It was one of the most challenging professional assignments I’ve had, dealing with a government of gangsters, unreconstructed Communists and Islamists with names like Rahman Hitler!

We fell in love with the ancient landscape and culture of Central Asia, however, and our visits to Samarkhand, Bukhara and Khojand (all major stops along the Silk Route) will forever remain one of the highlights of our lives.  In our daily lives in Dushanbe (formerly Stalinabad) the capital, there was little to do after hours, however.  The Indian Embassy had an open bar and restaurant as did the UN. If you didn’t drink in those places you did so at home.  The large expatriate community socialized together a lot and one of those whom I developed a friendship with was a jovial Bangladeshi who ran Save the Children’s program.  He, like me, was a fanatic music buff and it was from him that I received the gift I share with you today.

Shankar (Lakshminarayana Shankar) is an Indian classical violinist and vocalist most famous for his mid-70s ‘fusion’ collaborations with the guitar wizard John McLaughlin in their group Shakti. A child prodigy who sang complex Carnatic compositions at age 3 and played drums and violin by age 7, Shankar, developed a passion for bringing together in an aural sangam the Western and Indian (Carnatic, in particular) musical traditions. In addition to his groundbreaking work with McLaughlin, he recorded and performed with the likes of Peter Gabriel, Frank Zappa and a host of pop and rock ‘n roll stars at various points in his career.

This 1989 album Pancha Nadai Pallavi is two extended tracks of what can only be described as Carnatic soul/jazz. Since 1980 Shankar has played a double-necked violin with 5 strings that sound like a cello  and five with the more traditional tone of a violin.  In these pieces (accompanied only by his wife, Caroline, on drone and Zakir Hussain on tabla and Vikku Vinayakram on ghatam) Shankar improvises the most exquisite and plaintive music.  If you wanted virtuosity, look no further than this masterwork.

Here is a review from AMG.

As if playing one violin within the Western art music tradition wasn't difficult enough, the virtuoso L. Shankar has made it his trade to both sing and play a customized double violin within the contexts of Hindustani, Carnatic, Western, and experimental musical sensibilities. On this 1990 ECM release, Pancha Nadai Pallavi, he lays down two tracks, the first without percussion and the second in collaboration with Zakir Hussain on tabla and Vikku Vinayakram on ghatam. Caroline also accompanies the L. Shankar with the drone setting sruthi (a small one-note hand-pumped reed organ) and talam (a pair of small hand cymbals). With the first track L. Shankar performs the ragam "Sankarabharanam" (a ragam is the Carnatic equivalent to the Hindustani raga). For nearly 30 minutes he elegantly articulates an innumerable series of variations on traditional forms, melodies, and rhythms. The double violin allows him to imitate the sounds of a multi-octave string ensemble. On the CD's second cut a serpentine nine and one-half beat rhythmic cycle, the Mahalakshmi Tala, provides the temporal framework for the performance. An original creation by L. Shankar himself, this tala is realized by tabla superstar Zakir Hussain and the celebrated ghatam (clay water pot) player Vikku Vinayakram. Both of these percussive masters draw a myriad of tones and conjure up a fortified stew of rhythmic cadences from their respective instruments. In sum, Shankar's Pancha Nadai Pallavi is a smashing CD that represents virtuosic creativity and experimentation at work in both solo and collaborative contexts.

Track listing:

1.    Ragam: Sankarabharanam

2.    Talam: Mahalakhshmi Tala (9 1/2 beats)

Listen here.

A Bit of Late Night Music

Lady playing kamancheh

There are some records you know you’ll love the first time you lay eyes on them. The one I share in this post is one such. I picked this album up in a second-hand shop in Sarajevo in early 1999. As soon as I saw it I grabbed it. No hesitation. I love ghazals, and the romance of the Silk Road conjured by the title was too much to resist. That this is, in fact, not a collection of ghazals, that most loved of all Hindustani poetic forms didn’t bother me because what it was, was something unexpected and elegant.

Ghazal is the name of a musical collaboration between Iranian/Kurdish kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor and Indian sitar player Shujaat Hussain Khan and tabla player Swapan Chaudhary.  All three musicians are recognized maestros of their instruments with CVs that shine with distinction and achievement. As Night Falls on the Silk Road is their much lauded second album.

What strikes you about the music of Ghazal is how organic it sounds.  The blending of folk and classical elements from both India and Persia doesn’t come across as contrived ‘fusion’ but absolutely true. As if this music was part of an ancient repertoire not recently confected. The playing is superb, understated and controlled and creates the perfect atmosphere. With three master instrumentalists  gathered together in a studio, the risk for gratuitous displays of virtuosity is always high. But Ghazal eludes danger by weaving an understated yet masterful collection of stringed melodies. The tabla sets the foundation and drives the music forward, at times to great peaks of intensity but always in the end is comforted by the forlorn and evocative singing of Shujaat Hussain Khan. Indeed, it is his vocals that are the special ‘something else’ that shifts this album from merely good to genuinely great.

Some have found the overall tone of As Night Falls on the Silk Road a bit moody. I couldn’t disagree more. Whether it is solace you seek or joy, this album, played in its entirety, especially after the sun has disappeared for another day, will not disappoint.

                        Track Listing:

1.     My Eyes, My Heart

2.     Between Dawn and Dawn a New Truth

3.     Snowy Mountains

4.     Traces of the Beloved

Listen here                

Sweet Soul Music from 1980s India: The Amazing Usha Uthup

The second New Year’s treat is the album Blast Off! (1984) by Tamilian diva Usha (Iyer) Uthup. We know much more about Usha then the bands who competed in Simla Beat.  Born into a musical Brahmin family Usha’s start in music was not propitious. Her voice, more husky and dark than what the Indian film world wanted, was labeled non-commercial.  She was kicked out of her first music class.

Usha got her start in many of the same clubs as the bands of Simla Beat fame did. Places like Trincas and Mocambos and the Park Hotel, in Calcutta. (For an interesting history on the early days of Calcutta rock’n roll check out Bhasker Gupta’s article).

Uthup started singing in a small nightclub in Chennai called Nine Gems in the basement of the erstwhile Safire theater complex on Mount Road , when she was 20, wearing a saree and leg calipers. Her performance was so well received that the owner of the nightclub asked her to stay on for a week. After her first night club gig, she began singing in Calcutta at night clubs such as "Talk of the Town" and "Trincas". She met her future husband Uthup in Trincas. After Trincas, her next engagement took her to Delhi where she sang at the Oberoi hotels. By happenstance, a film crew belonging to Navketan unit including Shashi Kapoor visited the nightclub and they offered her a chance to sing movie playback. As a result, she started her Bollywood career with Hare Rama Hare Krishna. Originally, she was supposed to sing Dum Maro Dum along with Asha Bhosle. However, as a result of internal politicking on the part of other singers, she lost that chance but ended up singing an English verse. (Wikipedia)

Usha, who lives in Calcutta, still sings and is loved for her ability to sing, without accent, in seemingly any language.  She’s been and continues to be a significant artist in the musical world of Indian film but has also released a number of albums of pop/soul music in English. Blast Off! was released in 1984.  Other albums followed and I’ve collected a few songs and put them into a second collection called Beautiful Sunday, but make no claims that this is the original track list.

The music on these albums is fun and revealing. Usha sings with a natural fluency and confidence. While the song selection on Blast Off! is enigmatic to say the least, careering from bubble gum (Chewing Gum Lips) to seasonal (Christmas, Merry Christmas) to bizarre (Welcome Test Tube Baby) the musicianship is strong and Usha’s voice very attractive and engaging. Give the lady credit for being able to interpret some dubious material! But packed within this album are some real gems, especially Lucy Was Crucified (echoes of Marianne Faithfull) and a nice slap-bass driven disco number, Someone Switched Me On.

One does wonder who this album was marketed to as many of songs explore a territory (abortion, sex) too challenging for polite middle class Indian listeners, in an era before the internet and satellite TV.  One hint comes from several tracks that could be interpreted as ‘Christian’ in some way (I Went to the Priest; Sinner Come to Me). Those tracks, and one that appeared on the original, Moses Stick, (but not on this collection) are a clear sign that the producers saw there was money to be made out of the English speaking community who were largely Christian. Though her husband is a Kerala Christian, Usha herself has never converted, as far as I know.

On Beautiful Sunday Usha sounds like an Indian Dionne Warwick circa 1968. The collection grooves and lilts with that light sunny southern Cal sound and the material is far more coherent and focused. Usha turns in an outstanding cover of Janice Ian’s angst ridden At Seventeen, as well as several other early 70s hits.

What really stands out throughout this music is the superb session work. The arrangements are tight and the musicians (all Indian) appear to be equally adept at running off jazzy guitar riffs as they are at getting funky or grooving to a reggae beat.  All in all two delightful collections of Indian-English pop music.

Back cover of the original album (1984)

Front Cover of the original album

                        Track Listing:

1.     Chewing Gum Lips

2.     Christmas, Merry Christmas

3.     I Went to the Priest

4.     Lucy Was Crucified

5.     Pressure Cooker of Love

6.     Sinner Come to Me

7.     Someone Switched Me On

8.     Top Me Up

9.     Welcome Test Tube Baby

                        Track Listing:

1.     At Seventeen

2.     Beautiful Sunday

3.     Dance Little Lady

4.     Evergreen

5.     Going Out of My Head

6.     I Believe in Music

7.     I Feel Love

8.     I Would Like to Dance

9.     Ways of Fire

Rockin' the Hillstation: Garage Rock from 1970s India

This post delivers an obscure milestone from the intersection of western garage rock and Indian popular music. We are all familiar with the rock ‘n roll that was written into the scores of hundreds of Indian films. And what a fantastic jangly tango of musical kichidi that is.   But Kalyanji-Anandji, Bappi Lahiri, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, the Burmans were composing and arranging ‘rock’ and jazz for an Indian audience, for those who spoke Hindi or other Indian languages. Their music was unique and though ‘westernised’ it was sufficiently and comfortingly familiar to ears raised on Indian musical scales, rhythms and traditions.

But the albums I share with you in this and the next post are something very different. Western pop music made by Indian artists for audiences familiar with rock n roll, soul and folk. Nothing to do with Bollywood or Indian vernacular languages. This is rock from Bangalore and sweet soul music from Madras. Sung in English with an eye cocked towards California rather than Mumbai.

There were only two ways to get rock ‘n roll in India in the early 1970s:  someone brought in records from overseas or; Radio Ceylon, which broadcast a weekly pop count-down across South Asia. Rock n’ roll bands were virtually non-existent. Restaurants and the more racy clubs in cities like Calcutta and Madras often had combos that played covers of Western pop songs and jazz standards. But bands that took their inspiration from the Stones, Cream, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Doors had tiny audiences and fewer venues to play their music. The very scarcity of this sort of music confirmed its foreignness to most Indians. That the only radio station on which this music was heard, Radio Ceylon, broadcasted from beyond the country’s borders, reinforced the notion this was definitely NOT Indian music.

But obviously the urge to grab a guitar and sing your lungs out was not completely unknown in India. The Indian Tobacco Company in an attempt to sell itself as a ‘Brand Cool’ to a young generation, sponsored a national rock ‘n roll competition, called the Simla Beat. Two albums worth of their efforts have been collected as Simla Beat 70-71.

Little is known of these groups though the Washerman’s Dog is trying to pump a few contacts in the ITC for further nuggets.  Great Bear (featured on CD 1) later evolved into High, which is often claimed to be the pioneer rock ‘n roll outfit of India. Its members were a mix of Anglo-Indians, Parsees and Bengalis.  Check out their FaceBook page. (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=480460015182) 

Velvette Fogg won the competition for I Am So Glad (CD 2) in 1971. Their lead singer, Nandu Bhende, went on to front other groups and sing in Hindi films. That the Indian diaspora in Singapore was involved, as some individuals claim, makes sense as the availability of electric guitars and drum kits was much greater than in India. The sounds on these two amazing collections are classic garage rock.  The musicianship is basic which is not to say poor. Merely appropriate for the occasion. In fact, some cuts sound eerily similar to the early Doors work. Even down to the Hammond B 3. In most cases the playing is quite accomplished with gritty, distorted guitar runs and solid, energetic drumming.  The lyrics and sonic atmosphere on many of the tracks perfectly drugged out and psychedelic. Indeed, some aficionados believe the India connection is a hoax, because the music is simply too good (ref. Voice from the Inner Soul by the Confusions from Madras).  I’ll let you be the judge. But if you have even the slightest interest in Indian popular music and rock ‘n roll, then Simla Beat 70-71 is a definite must have. 

Track Listing CD 1 (1970)

1.     Voice From The Inner Soul. The Confusions

2.     You Can't Beat It. The Dinosaurs

3.     Psychedelia. The X’Lents

4.     Zorba's Dance. Innerlite

5.     Proper Stranger. Genuine Spares

6.     What’s Going On. Genuine Spares

7.     Sinister Purpose. The Dinosaurs

8.     Mist. Great Bear

9.     Born On The Bayou. The X’Lents

10.  Baby Baby Please. Innerlite

Track Listing CD 2 (1971)

1.     Simla Beat Theme. The Fentones

2.     I Am Gonna Erupt. The Eruptions

3.     Until the Dawn. The Fentones

4.     Psychedelic Web. The Brood of Vipers

5.     You Can't Judge a Book. The Eruptions

6.     Aimless Lady. The Hipnotic Eye

7.     The Mod Trade. The Black Beats

8.     Nothing is the Same. The Nomads

9.     Killing Floor. The Hipnotic Eye

10.  Hey Gipsy Girl. The Mini Beats

11.  I Am So Glad. Velvette Fogg

For those of us who grew up in India during the 70s we know how rare and even strange this music is. If anyone has any further information about these bands or similar groups, I’d love to hear from you. 

In the meantime, stay tuned for another wonderfully baffling piece of Indian pop in the Dog’s next post.

Enjoy!

Poster for a HIGH concert in 1975, Calcutta

Velvette Fogg performing in the Simla Beat Competition.

Start the Decade Right

And so we begin another year.  And what better way to take the first few steps than with the assuring orotund vocals of two old favorites?  Before that strange tag ‘alt Country’ was coined and before American imperium let loose a mess of global intractabilities these two records were making people smile. 

Mark C. Halstead is a Melbourne based singer who after years of learning his chops in punk outfits up and down Australia’s east coast, made his one and only album, Before and After Love (1994).  It tickled the fancy of critics but sold miserably. And yet it is as pearly a slice of immaculately delivered urban country music as you’d like to hear.  Self penned songs laced with humor and love sit along side covers, like the Talking Heads Heaven, that add new depths to the original.  You should have this album if for no other reason than to realize that Australia has more to offer Country music than Keith Urban.

Track Listing:

   1.     Whiskers in the Sink

         2.     Welcome Stranger

         3.     Tell Me

         4.     Change Partners

         5.     The Way It Is

         6.     (I Don’t Know How to Say) Goodbye

         7.     Heaven

         8.     Before and After Love

         9.     In Defence of My Heart

        10. Hearts and Diamonds   

        11. Here Comes

Click

Kris Kristofferson’s second album The Silver-Tongued Devil and I (1971) is a nice complement to Before and After Love. Kristofferson’s sawdust voice seems an earlier version of Halstead’s baritone. And though more raw Kristofferson’s lyrics explore territory familiar to the Australian (lost friends, substance abuse, growing up).  Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar who chose to work as a janitor in Nashville in hopes of selling his songs, delivers a mighty collection of songs several of which have become ‘standards’ (Lovin’ Her Was Easier; When I Loved Her) and cult favorites (The Pilgrim-Chapter 33; Epitaph).

Track Listing:

        1.     The Silver-Tongued Devil and I

        2.     Jody and the Kid  

        3.     Billy Dee

        4.     Good Christian Soldier

        5.     Breakdown (A Long Way From Home)

        6.     Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do)

        7.     The Taker

        8.     When I Loved Her

        9.     The Pilgrim-Chapter 33

      10.  Epitaph (Black and Blue)

here