Respected musician and educator, Marc Rossi, looks at the links between Jazz and Classical Indian Music.
Jazz and Indian classical music—two of the great musical idioms of the world—at first would seem to have little in common. Indian music, with roots going back thousands of years, developed in the courts and temples of India, and now is performed in concert halls around the world.
Jazz, with its diverse beginnings in jam sessions, the black church, night clubs, and even brothels, was forged in the cauldron of 20th century segregated America in such places as New Orleans, Kansas City, and New York, and is now heard as well in concert halls around the world.
Yet when one examines them closely, we see just how much these musics have in common as modes of human expression, paths for spiritual advancement, and in the realm of pure music itself. We then can see just how much Indian music has influenced jazz, and will continue to do so on many levels.
Indian music's influence on jazz is pervasive and longstanding. Its beauty, grace, and unique melodic phrasing has inspired musicians for decades, and its exciting rhythmic language has given percussionists, instrumentalists, and even vocalists new resources upon which they have drawn. Its philosophical underpinnings have allowed many musicians to deepen the spiritual aspect of their music. For many jazz musicians the influences have been personal, at times abstract; informing their musical choices, but not always in a manner overtly apparent to the listener. For a few however, the influence is so strong, it is immediately apparent at every level of their music.
Types of Indian Classical Music
There are two main types of Indian classical music: Hindustani (North Indian), and Carnatic (South Indian). Hindustani is considered more romantic and expressive in nature, and Carnatic is more like classical or baroque. Both systems use ragas (melodies based on scales) and talas (rhythmic cycles), but in different ways. Both systems allow for extended improvisations and dazzling displays of melodic and rhythmic virtuosity. The beginning listener might find them somewhat similar since both systems have a drone accompaniment (like some early Western music), but after a while, one can easily tell the difference.
Hindustani music has always been more popular with the public because of its aesthetic appeal and association with 1960s rock culture.
North Indian music favors simple repeated compositions that serve as vehicles for extended improvisations, while South Indian music is based on a repertoire of extended compositions called Kritis—art songs that are learned note for note. It would be impossible to have a Hindustani performance without improvisation. It is, however, possible to have a Carnatic recital where the songs are performed with little or no improvisation, though more often than not, that is not the case.
Some well known Hindustani musicians include the famous sitarist Ravi Shankar—a true superstar; the late sarodist Ali Akbar Khan, who founded a school for Indian music in Marin County, California; and tabla player Zakir Hussein, who has played with Indian greats and Western musicians, and can be heard in numerous film soundtracks.
Some well known Carnatic musicians include violinist L. Shankar (no relation to Ravi) who has performed with rock singer Peter Gabriel among others, and his brother L. Subrmaniam, who has performed with many Western classical and jazz musicians, including major symphony orchestras, and jazz pianist Herbie Hancock.
Hindustani music has always been more popular with the public because of its aesthetic appeal and association with 1960s rock culture, and the sheer number of performers who play it. Carnatic music, now growing in popularity, has always had a foothold in academia, because it is highly organized and tends to be taught in a more systematic way.
Indian music in the west.
Indian music (Hindustani) was performed in the United States as early as the 1930s by musicians in the dance troupe of Uday Shankar, older brother of Ravi Shankar. Uday and his troupe were based in Paris, but toured the world. Their performances were usually for a small select audience of cognoscenti.
However, sitarist Ravi Shankar is almost single-handedly responsible for popularizing Indian music in the West, in part through his brilliant showmanship and ease performing for Western audiences, and in part because of his association with George Harrison of the Beatles. The Beatles included sitar (and tabla) in some of their songs, most famously the sitar melody in Norwegian Wood, played by Harrison himself, who studied with Shankar in 1966.
By that time Shankar was performing for large audiences in concert halls and at major music festivals, including the famous Monterey (California) pop festival of 1967, and was almost a pop icon himself. The hypnotic buzzing sound of his sitar, rich in overtones, was a natural acoustic ally of the electric guitar sounds of that era.
The highly expressive melodies and extended improvisations played by Shankar and his longtime tabla player Alla Rakha were a good fit with the extended jams of rock groups such as Cream, (who cite Indian music as a direct influence), Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, The Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, and others. Think of the lyrics to Eric Burdon's song Down in Monterey,
...the Grateful Dead, blew everybody's mind. Oh, Ravi Shankar's music made me cry.
Ravi Shankar was a household name to '60s music lovers, and to many, synonymous with Indian music.
This presented something new and exciting for Western popular music audiences, and for serious musicians—a gold mine of new language and beauty. It also reflected the openness of that era, where people were seeking new experiences and expanded consciousness.
Needless to say, drugs and psychedelia played a part in this openness and in looking beyond the ordinary, but only in a superficial manner. This was a purely Western phenomenon of the times, a unique product of rock culture because, in reality, Indian music and drugs are polar opposites. However, Indian music has much in common with yoga and meditation, which also were becoming popular in the West during that era, as ways of expanding one's consciousness.
From the jazz perspective it's important to note that the extended modal improvisations of Miles Davis on his famous "Kind of Blue" recording of 1959, as well as those of saxophonist John Coltrane, composer George Russell, and others, opened up new territory in jazz. These musicians were getting away from the standard jazz repertoire of Tin Pan Alley songs, and exploring playing on the scales themselves via extended improvisations, much the way Indian musicians do.
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