News from Indo-Japanese Music Exchange Association

from T M Hoffman / Indo-Japanese Music Exchange Association

Dear Friends of India and Japan

Please visit our newly constructed website www.ijmea.com for reports and photos etc of recent projects undertaken in both India and Japan with the support of Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan Foundation, Japan Airlines, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, India Center, Air India, American Institute of Indian Studies and others, and with the kind cooperation of Embassies and Consulates of both nations.

We are pleased to report successful completion of our India-Japan Friendship Year tour of South India with four artists from Japan in four co-operative concerts with four exemplary artists of Carnatic music in the four cities of Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi and Thrissur.
Sample media reports:

Tampura meets shakuhachi! New India Press full-page story17 Mar 08

Best of both the worlds - Deccan Herald report 11 Mar 08 Bangalore

and from a recent two-month all-India tour --
charity concert w/eight Carnatic musicians in Visakhapatnam 31 Jan 08
(flyer & news) (review/photo)

Grateful to God, Guru & Gharwalli, I continue to be on the move musically with neither fanfare nor apology, including my Asian music course again this semester at Keio University, also Nada Yoga sessions.

Please note that I will giving programs - performance, lecture-demonstration, lecture, workshop - throughout India again in summer, in USA and Europe in autumn, in Philippines and again India next winter. Please contact me if you are interested.

None of this is off-the-wall haphazard fusion experimentation. Our efforts are recognized by commentary such as 'very significant contribution to tradition in the contemporary world' (pls see the National Network of Education, India interview, in our website).

Best wishes!

Sincerely,
Tim Hoffman
Sangeet Acharya (awarded 12 Feb 08)

T. M. Hoffman, performing artist and ethnomusicologist
BA (USA & Japan), MA (USA), Visharad & Sangeet Acharya (India)
Senior Performing and Creative Artist Fellow - 2006-2008
American Institute of Indian Studies AIIS (USA & India)
Lecturer in Musicology and Linguistics
Keio University & Musashino Academia Musicae (Japan)
Director, Indo-Japanese Music Exchange Association (estab. 1989)
e-mail: tmhoffmus21@yahoo.com
ijmusath@po.wind.ne.jp
www.ijmea.com/ (new complete website, in Japanese & English)

---------(Japanese version)---------

演奏家・教育家・日印音楽交流会代表T M Hoffmanです。アメリカとアジア各国の先生方に深く感謝をしながらアジア音楽の演奏・教育・国際交流活動に努めて忙しくしております。 http://www.ijmea.com/

「日印音楽交流会」（1989年創立）の本客的なwebsite http://www.ijmea.com/ 開設のお知らせです。最近の活動については、そのなかで、インドにての「筝によるインド音楽奏法開発企画」（2006年7月－2008年1月、米国インド学会との協同長期企画）の第三期（200７年12月－2008年2月）および日本より4人の演奏家による3月08日－22日間の「日印交流年」南インド公演旅行（日本外務省と AOTS海外技術者研修協会の後援企画）の写真などもご覧になれます。南インドの神父さんhttp://www.thesingingpriest.com/ との共演などありました。


＜「日印交流年」南インド公演旅行からの新聞記事の例＞
＊“Tampura meets shakuhachi!”
New India Press full-page story on 17 Mar 08 Cochin concert 　
＊“Best of both the worlds” - Deccan Herald 11 Mar 08 Bangalore


＜他の２００８年上旬インドでの新聞記事の例＞
（米国インド学会支援「箏＋ラーガ演奏芸術開発協同企画」第三期の期間中）
日本ケアフィット協会インド支部共催公演
インド最大の知的障害者施設Lebenshilfe Indiaの支援日印協同公演
＊charity concert Visakhapatnam, AP (India) 31 Jan 08
(flyer & news) (review/photo)

そして、2008年2月12日に、インド現地にて全国芸術連盟より敬称Sangeet Acharya「音楽聖人」を豪華な儀式のなかにて授かりました。より忠実に「音道」Nada Yogaに努められる意志になる気掛けともなりました。

何よりも、お元気でのご活躍を願っております。

Sincerely,

T. M. Hoffman　　演奏家（北インド古典声楽、天竺尺八、筝）
http://www.ijmea.com/（企画情報・写真・動画・音楽）

CD: Shastriya Syndicate (Purbayan Chatterjee)

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Shastriya Syndicate

Syndicated (Sense World Music, 2008)

Shastriya Syndicate is Purbayan Chatterjee's project. On the outstanding CD Syndicated (Sense World Music) he has brought together a group of young Indian masters, who are bringing new blood to Indian classical music. The virtuoso musicians fuse the music of North India (HIndistani) and South Inda (Carnatic).

While many Indian artists follow the traditional format of ...

FULL ARTICLE HERE

CD: The Teak Project (Indo-Jazz)

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

The Teak Project (First Hand, 2008)

Second generation Indo-Jazz sitar player Jonathan Mayer is the son of Indo-Jazz pioneer John Maye, which maintains the tradition nicely. The devilish complexity of the music does nothing to detract from its sweetness and serenity.

Justin Quinn is a fleet-fingered guitarist worthy to fill John McLaughlin's sandals.

Tabla-player Neil Craig provides the impetus, and transforms the gentle acoustic music with the serpentine-like beats of the raga.

In short, The Teak Project offers a near-perfect realization of Indo-Jazz, yet hints at further expansion: the floating impressionism of Outnumbered By One recalls the work of Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine. Lovely stuff.

Full story here...

Namgyal Lhamo's Free Tibet tattoo

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

As the struggle for a Free Tibet continues, Netherlands based Tibetan singer Namgyal Lhamo has pushed the cause to the forefront of the artistic community with a music video from her upcoming album 'Highland Supernova' which be released in less than a month from now. A week after Namgyal Lhamo hit the headlines with a cover photo that screamed Free Tibet in the Bangkok Post's magazine "Guru,” the team that was filming the title song "Aalayeah-Highland Supernova" for the new album came up with a concept that has already raised eyebrows across Asia.

The use of a tattoo to convey a global message engraved on Lhamo's back is the cause of the stir. The tattoo, designed by award-winning Tibetan/Bu...

FULL STORY HERE

Mbira

from MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite

Ever since I first heard mbira from Zimbabwe almost 30 years ago (via this record), I've been a lover of that enchanting, delicate and intricate music. It's only recently, however, that many of us who aren't actually players of the mbira could see just how the instrument is played: Holding the mbira, and scales - Lesson One - Two - Three - Four, and more and more. And here are some recommended mbira players and groups with MySpace Music pages worth checking out: Spirit Talk Mbira - Mbira Oracle - Kunzawa Mbira Group - Joel Laviolette.
Special honors to Thomas Mapfumo, who, many years back, took the mbira style and spirit and adapted it to electric guitars, in an inspired and joyous fusion of the ancient and the modern.

This page from All About Jazz reviews the Nonesuch label's releases of Shona mbira music.

This YouTube clip features a tune from another of the Nonesuch releases, The Soul of Mbira, a collection of recordings made by ethnomusicologist and author Paul Berliner. Recommended.

There'll no doubt be plenty of mbira music to be heard at Zimfest 2008, this coming July in Tacoma, Washington.

Finally, here's Dangurangu. For your ears only.

CD: Toumani Diabate - Mande Variations

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Toumani Diabate

The Mande Variations (Nonesuch, 2008)

Son of Sidiki Diabate, one the most celebrated kora players , Toumani Diabate has blazed a career worthy of the Diabate name and legacy of this family of Mande griot musicians from Mali. After twenty years since his first solo and debut recording Kaira and countless collaborations with stellar artists ...

[Full article click here]

Petition: Indigenous Studies For All Australian Students

Indigenous Studies For All Students

Greetings All!!

How the journey between birth and death is experienced is largely dictated by ones perception, with conditioning beginning at a very young age. For too long this conditioning has employed a biased view that has seen the creation of cultural stereotypes and views that achieve nothing more than erode the awareness of our natural interconnectedness.

If you believe it is time to address the imbalance that exists in our perceptions within this world then please take 2 minutes to make a difference.

1. Take 1 minute to sign the following petition to the Australian House of Representatives to legislate to make Indigenous Studies compulsory for all students. http://www.gopetition.com/online/17774.html

2. Take another minute to forward this message to all your friends in your email list.

In Peace!!!


NB. Please note that a hardcopy petition is also being generated so as to be inline with the acceptable standards to be acceptable and presentable to the House as determined by the Standing Committee on Petitions.

Youtube: Queens of Carnatic singing

The intoxicatingly beautiful vocal music of south India

from MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite

Queens of Carnatic singing: Nithyasree Mahadevan: 1, 2 and 3. Sudha Ragunathan: 1, 2, 3 and 4. And the legend of the legends, M.S. Subbulakshmi, in her film appearances from decades past: 1, 2 and 3, and as an elder stateswoman of Carnatic vocal artistry: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Online music promo article

Here's a very interesting article from the NY Times about online promotion of music:

Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog

By CLIVE THOMPSON

Published: May 13, 2007

Jonathan Coulton sat in Gorilla Coffee in Brooklyn, his Apple PowerBook open before him, and began slogging through the day’s e-mail. Coulton is 36 and shaggily handsome. In September 2005, he quit his job as a computer programmer and, with his wife’s guarded blessing, became a full-time singer and songwriter. He set a quixotic goal for himself: for the next year, he would write and record a song each week, posting each one to his blog. “It was a sort of forced-march approach to creativity,” he admitted to me over the sound of the cafe’s cappuccino frothers. He’d always wanted to be a full-time musician, and he figured the only way to prove to himself he could do it was with a drastic challenge. “I learned that it is possible to squeeze a song out of just about anything,” he said. “But it’s not always an easy or pleasant process.” Given the self-imposed time constraints, the “Thing a Week” songs are remarkably good. Coulton tends toward geeky, witty pop tunes: one song, “Tom Cruise Crazy,” is a sympathetic ode to the fame-addled star, while “Code Monkey” is a rocking anthem about dead-end programming jobs. By the middle of last year, his project had attracted a sizable audience. More than 3,000 people, on average, were visiting his site every day, and his most popular songs were being downloaded as many as 500,000 times; he was making what he described as “a reasonable middle-class living” — between $3,000 and $5,000 a month — by selling CDs and digital downloads of his work on iTunes and on his own site.

Read the full article here...

CD: Cheb i Sabbah - Devotion

Devotional Global Electronica

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Cheb i Sabbah

Devotion (Six Degrees, 2008)

One of the masters of global electronica, Cheb i Sabbah, returns to the Indian subcontinent for inspiration with yet another extraordinary CD, his 7th, titled Devotion. Like a good wine, Cheb i Sabbah gets better with time. With the help of Indian and Pakistani musicians he delivers a rich tapestry of South Asian beats and melodies, including Bhajans, Kirtans, Bhangra, Qawwali, Hindu devotional. The seamless integration of electronics with ancient songs and instruments is not as easy as it seems, but ...

CD: Mamak Khadem (Persian)

Forever Seeking Persian Excellence

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Mamak Khadem

Jostojoo Forever Seeking (Banyan Tree Production, 2008)

Most world music fans would easily recognize Mamak Khadem’s voice by her work with the popular Persian ensemble Axiom of Choice, but that would just be a sliver of this songstress’ career. Lending her exquisite voice to movie and television soundtracks like The Peacemaker, Traffic, The Profiler and ...

Bjork in China protests Tibet

Raise your flag!

from MetaFilter by finite

Björk, in Shanghai, on Tibet: Declare Independence! [YouTube]
Bjork's Shanghai surprise: a cry of 'Tibet!' - Bjork's protest a sign of things to come for China - Björk Exposes China's Greatest Weakness - Bjork Shouts Out To Tibet During Shanghai Show - Chinese furious at 'Tibet-independence' Bjork

Shanghai Daily says "Let's hope that Bjork's controversial parting comments do not lessen the likelihood of local music fans enjoying more of these acts in the future" without offering readers any hint as to what the comments were about.

Declare Independence on mefi previously: 1, 2

CD: Songs from a Persian Garden

Delectable Songs From A Persian Garden

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat

Songs From A Persian Garden (KKV/Valley Entertainment, 2007)

Songs From A Persian Garden features a delectable collection of contemporary Persian world music pieces performed live. Singers Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat join forces with Iranian and European musicians to create a seductive and fresh sound that will be app...

Mongolian Overtones

from MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite

In Mongolia, overtone singing (or hoomei, as it's known locally) is mainly a guy thing, but there are exceptions to the rule, for example, the Hoomei Women's Group. More commonly though, women who want to sing do so in an exquisite, soaring style like this and this. Sometimes the men do the hoomei thing while the women do that soaring thing. Then there are those lovely choral arrangements. And then there are those rare moments when the YouTube poster's description of a clip just hits the nail square on the head, as with this one: amazing.
These guys are getting throaty just outside the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

This fellow's really working those upper partials, presented in a clip that also features some glimpses of Mongolian life. Lots of horses.

N. Sengedorj of Mongolia demonstrates khöömei throat-singing.

Here's a cool little combo, with some hoomei going on.

Click here to see Metafilter discussion on the post

Yo-Yo Ma, and the Silk Road Ensemble Return to Japan

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Providence (Rhode Island), USA - The Silk Road Project, a not-for-profit arts and educational organization that connects musicians, composers, artists, and audiences around the world, will send the Silk Road Ensemble and Artistic Director
Yo-Yo Ma on tour to Japan from April 19 through April 27, 2008. The concert tour, presented by the Music Plant Co., Ltd., will include performances and educational activities in Matsumoto City, Nagoya, Tokyo, Osaka and Okayama. American Express is
the lead sponsor of the Silk Road Project in Japan.

Commenting on the upcoming tour, Yo-Yo Ma, acclaimed cellist and founder of the Silk Road Project, stated, "I am delighted to return to Japan with ...

CD: Deepak Ram (jazz bansuri)

Stepping Away From Tradition

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Deepak Ram

Steps (Golden Horn Records GHP 031-2, 2008)

India's bamboo bansuri flute is hardly a jazz instrument, but that doesn't stop South African-born Indian musician from using it to
lead the way on the set of jazz covers and originals that comprise Steps. Ram embraced jazz before Indian music and retained his love for the former even after studying with bansuri master Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.

Armed with the understanding that a certain degree of improvisation is integral to both types of music, he sought to combine
them. There were no doubt some tricky nuances and specifics involved in the task, but Ram pulled it off. The result is this sweetly engaging CD, on which Ram is joined by Vic ...

CD: Between Heaven and Earth Songs of Love and Devotion from India and Pakistan

Enchanted Imaginings of Impossible Journeys

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Razia Aziz

Between Heaven and Earth Songs of Love and Devotion from India and Pakistan ( Arc Music, 2008)

One of the marks of a good CD is the distance the listener can travel on the musical landscape. As luck would have it listeners have a pure pleasure excursion waiting for them with Razia Aziz's Between Heaven and Earth Songs of Love and Devotion from India and Pakistan*. The combination of Razia Aziz's distinctive vocals; Ustad Fida Hussain Khan's rich compositions and accompaniment on the harmonium; master ...

CD/Tour: Toumani Diabate

from mondomix.com World Music. by Mondomix

Twenty years after his international debut release, Toumani Diabaté brings out The Mandé Variations and performs at WOMADelaide on March 7th.

Full story...

Scientific Evidence for Psi

The Scientific Evidence for Psi (is most likely stronger than you think)

from The Multiverse According to Ben by Ben

My goal in this blog is to convince you to read Damien Broderick's book Outside the Gates of Science: Why It's Time for the Paranormal to Come in From the Cold.

Reviewing a host of research done by others over many decades, the book makes a remarkably and excitingly strong case that psi phenomena are worthy of intensive further investigation....

Book: Traveling Spirit Master (Gnawa music)

All About the Gnawa

from World Music Central - Links: Indian Music

Deborah Kapchan has spent years studying the music of the Gnawa and its relationship with the recording industry. Her book Traveling Spirit Master is an wide-ranging excursion into one of the most fascinating trance music genres in the globe. As the subtitle, Moroccan Gnawa Trance and Music in the Global Market Place, implies, Kapchan goes beyond the study of Gnawa music. The book provides details about how Gnawa music has traveled beyond Morocco's borders, into Europe and North America and its economic implications.

France has received millions of Moroccans and, thus, Gnawa music traveled with them. There are numerous French acts that perform some sort of Gna...