Music?

Are you from Cadet College Petaro

Music must have soul

By: Narendra Kusnur

December 24,2001

Vocalist Kishori Amonkar is impressed with the packaging of her latest album Sampradaya, specially the accompanying booklet. For her, it`s a very special album because it pays tribute to her mother and guru Mogubai Kurdikar, who passed away in February.

The album, recorded at a concert in London last year, has been released by Sony Nad Navras. It contains the morning raags Alhaiya Bilawal and Jeevanpuri, besides a 15-minute composition in Bhairavi.

The singer will be performing at Juhu`s Iskcon Auditorium tomorrow morning (25.12.2001). Three days before the concert, she talks about her music, her mother and her latest project. Excerpts:

In what specific areas did your mother affect your musical thought?

She taught me how to look at this art, and she told me I was not in the field of entertainment. Rather, she told me this is the art where one can find divinity. I look at this art as a path towards peace.

Though you use the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana as your base, what made you imbibe features of other schools?

I have only widened the premises of the Jaipur gharana. As I continued learning, I realised that this art is emotive. Each raag has a feeling, and I tried to bring this out. To bring more soul into my singing, I introduced new elements. Music has to have soul, because that is the real feeling. I also believe in the universality of music. That`s why I would think beyond one gharana. But my base remains the Jaipur gharana.

Your style is characterised by the use of various kinds of taans like bol-taans and akaar-taans. But what do you feel about the practise of singing sargams, which many other musicians follow?

Indian classical music is not a show of technique. It strictly deals with the world of notes. While singing, one should know what notes one is singing without naming them. Does that answer your question?

A lot of classical music has become gimmicky of late. What`s the reason for that?

Many musicians are thinking of technique more than purpose. And to show their technique, they resort to gimmicks. But a certain mood has to be conveyed in each raag, and by getting gimmicky, one can`t convey that mood.

What factors do you keep in mind while choosing a raag for a concert?

It usually takes me 15 or 20 days to get into focus before a concert. But I have to be in the correct frame of mind. The raag is chosen on the basis of the mood I want to portray, because it`s a challenge to express that mood.

At some concerts, you also render raags like Kukubh Bilawal, Hansakankani and Bhinna Shadja, which many contemporary singers don`t present...

They are known raags, and I don`t know why others aren`t singing them too often. I like them because they are very aesthetic.

Why have you been increasingly using a violin in your concerts?

The person who plays the violin (Milind Raikar) is learning from me and is well-versed with my style. Since he knows what I want, I am happy using it.

Finally, there`s been a lot of talk about how to promote classical music among the younger generation. What are your views on this subject?

I wonder why we have reached a stage where we should promote something beautiful, divine and which gives you peace.

Arif:

Don`t forget the Eels` debut, Beautiful Freak. Though it pales somewhat next to the brilliance of Electro-Shock Blues, it is nevertheless an execllent piece of work in its own right.

The Eels album from last year, ElectroShock Blues, was, in my opinion, one of the albums of the decade. Inspired by the suicide of E`s sister, and his mother`s long fight against cancer, the album is still, at the end, an uplifting experience. They experiment with style, flirt with genre, but all along the lyrics are honest and literate. Seriously, for anyone passionate about music, this is a worthy investment.

arif

p.s. some of ian curtis`s lyrics are dead good :-).

Camus-inspired, I think, Iris?

I haven`t listened to the Cure since college. Wasn`t inspired enough to listen to ``Wild Mood Swings`` but I might give the new one a try. I seem to have fallen off the alternative track somewhere along the way and gone the old boring grown-up route... I find myself listening to Asian underground soundz, Sufi-inspired stuff, and various uncool things (the new Sting album, Simply Red, and *gasp * Madonna)...

Help! Next it`ll be blue hair and polyester slacks!

Jonty:

``Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream, she said
The one that makes me laugh, she said``

The best Cure song in existence.

One can only agree with you. Where has all the
good music gone?

Now how about some more good poetry from Arif?

Ras

two of the ``grunge`` rockers are playing on 4th march at the creek club at 7pm....tix available at the gate and aghas.

As far as the tv scene goes, having worked a little bit in the media industry, let me assure you that anything remotely ``new`` has no chance of coming on tv. It took Junoon almost a decade to establish itself.....while other similar bands like the MileStones fizzled out during the same time.

the correct email addy is

syedahmed@cyber.net.pk

Talent is not something we have lacking specially in the Karachi music scene. Though all the up and coming musicians - to name a few - GANDA BANDAS, UNDER TOW.....mostly students in their late teens or early 20`s, heavily influenced by the musicians some of us can relate to as being good. No original stuff though, no beck`s, no radio head`s.

Amir Zaki i admire greatly so, innovative guy.

I was planning to arrange a ``rock`` fest in karachi. Various ``unknown`` bands playing. If anyone has any suggestions or want to work together with me in this venture please email me:

syedahmed@cyber.net.pk.

Regards

for those of you that have realplayer.com...log on to radioX....and then when the channel starts u get an option of tons of other channels from the same company, ranging from a variety of jazz channels to gothic music. One of the few channels on realplayer worth really checking out.

regards and love to all

i have a habit of reading the readers comments before any read any article on chowk, but this i time i jumped straight to the article (so i may be off if the comments have perpetuated any discussions). It seems, and quite sadly so that ``good`` music has been restricted to those that have been exposed to it in a foreign country. Pakistan (as with most Asian countries) is stuck in the bubble gummers phase, and will continue to do so. We have no exposure to good music, FM100 atleast gave most of us some sort of an exposure, albiet to really bad music.

But what is good music and what is bad music ?. I really have no authority to make any judgements, and it always seems a elitist to me, when people in my ``group`` term the backstreet boys, or ricky martin as stupid. Yes i feel sick when i open MTV or channel V. The advent of hispanic music is yet another pop - pop culture that is - and its become cool in may circles, not our fault we just havent experienced anything better.

Forget the spanish pop, the rock bands all sound the same nowadays - and they look the same too. The newer ones that is.

Oh well not point in rambling on, just wanted to write something. Hope Arif someday gets back in the DJ seat.

regards to all

`My mother died today. Or was it yesterday?`

You know, I still haven`t read that book...

Arif, if the lyrics of Bloodflowers are anything to go by, this is definitely the Cure`s swansong. While not as good as either Pornography or Disintigration, it`s still a good album. Definitely better than that aberration that was Wild Mood Swings. Mr Smith can call it a day, and be proud. To the very last, the songs are filled with passion and urgency, pain, regret, nostalgia, hope...he may be going, but he`s raging against the dying of the light.

The Cure may be a better band than Joy Divison were- though nothing the Cure has done has resonated with me the way `Love Will Tear Us Apart` has- but Ian Curtis` suicide has catapulted the band, perhaps unfairly and at the Cure`s expense, into an orbit of untouchable reverance, the way Nirvana became The Greatest Rock Band In The World...Ever! with Kurt Cobain`s self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Not that any band today could complain that Nirvana stole their thunder, every last one of them being pale imitations. Except maybe Screaming Trees, or the Pxies, though the Pixies broke up before Nirvana went huge, and actually helped pave the way for Kurt and Co, and the Trees have always been hindered by Mark Lanegan`s heroin addiction.

Who are TNT? Never heard of `em. Haven`t got any Mogwai albums (yet), but I do have a good few mp3s, mostly live recordings from The Peel Session, and the Evening Session, including a cover of Guns n` Roses` `Don`t Cry.` Great stuff all round. Sonic Youth meet My Bloody Valentine in a sonic orgy of pure bliss.

What about the Eels? Anyone heard of them? Their new single, `Mr E`s Beautiful Day` is going to be the single of the year. (Yes, I know it`s only March, but mark my words, it`s that good.) And the new album promises to be more of the same...can`t wait to get it. I hear the new Wannadies album (they of the `You and Me` from the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack fame) is good, too. The first single is certainly is. Not so sure about the new Smashing Pumpkins, though...

Incidentally, yes, `Killing an Arab` is based on the French existentialist Albert Camus`s novel ``The Outsider`` which is about a frenchman who kills an Arab in French-occupied Algeria. Excellent book.

Since we`re voting for favourite Cure songs, one of mine is Catch, from Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.

``she used to fall down a lot/that girl was always falling again and again/ and i think i sometimes tried to catch her/ but i never even caught her name.``

Junoon... fun to watch live, but I would have a lot more respect for their so-called ``sufi-rock`` credentials if i didn`t know the behind the scenes stories.

arif

The Cure`s new album is supposed to be the third in the trilogy spanning Pornography and Disintegration. I`ve heard one track so far... and that`s got the typical Cure sound. No `Wild Mood Swings` style-switching on this album. Incidentally, I read a major career retrospective with Robert Smith, and it`s striking how much he feels that the early Cure were overshadowed by Joy Division and the whole tragedy of Ian Curtis`s suicide. He also said that this might be the last Cure album, but then he`s said that many-a-times before.

Ummm... anyone heard anything by Mogwai, or TNT? Very interesting `post-rock` stuff... sort-of Philip Glass influenced minimalist compositions with discordant chords coming in and gradually merging into the whole. Great stuff.

arif

Hey guys (Jonty and Bina)...I`m feeling more at home on Chowk than I`d expected. Hearing familiar lyrics, praising similar music...what more could I ask for! So while Chowk is a means to hearing different POVs, it`s good to find similarities.

My all time is Just Like Heaven as well... recorded that for my husband on the first cassette I gave to him. Old faithfuls: In between Days, Lovecats, Charlotte Sometimes, Pics of You, Fascination St., Doing the Unstuck (for crazy moods), Letter to Elise, Strange Attraction (of late).

PS. Anyone know who the poem ``Killing an Arab`` is originally written by?