sama duo - musings and music

One of the things I did as we were tracking was to test run solo versions of two new oud pieces in front of the Flip cam. I find this helpful to get used to the pieces in a performance or recording setting, and overcome a little 'new material anxiety'. I actually thought, after a couple of nights of trying, that I had a reasonable handle on the material so I did a little editing from the final takes and posted them on you tube.

Here's one of them --- a slow, wistful melody, it's becoming one of our favorites. The Duo version will likely be the closing piece on the new release.

Solo oud piece (slow)



click on the you tube link for the other oud video and other rehearsal/performance clips!

enjoy!

as our myspace is growing quite a bit these days, i thought i'd share some links to some earlier writings... that shed a little light on what we do, how we do it, where we come from:

Towards The Vertical: Chordal Considerations For Indian-based Improvised Music

A Prayer

Message For Youth

I'm often asked, "why Indian music?" Sometimes the question is put in a more probing manner, such as "why do you think you can do this?"

I'll try to address some musical and philosophical aspects on those issues in this post.

In the late 90s I had some nice solo opportunities in Europe based on work using the most abstract modern free jazz and improv techniques within a springboard of *very* traditional flamenco ( pre-Paco, and really pre-soloist - my favorite flamenco players are the early cante accompanists). Very, very disparate traditions, yet the lynchpins I heard connecting them were musical occurrences such as a certain dissonance in the harmonic voicings; the fluidity of tempo; the immense degree of subtle improvisational interplay between guitarist and singer. I was hearing a lot of connective tissue between the two, not parallel bundles but interesting, flexible hinges, joints, angles, sinews, tendons.

I started working with that and then took that idea a bit further, trying to liberate the material from a metric confinement while still keeping rhythm and drive very much a part of it. That distinction between meter and time and rhythm -- all distinct elements in my book -- had been done a lot within the free jazz idiom itself, but hadn't really been applied in a flamenco context.

Conceptually, I'm trying to develop a similar methodology to working with Indian musical material; there's a lot of connective tissue I'm hearing here too. On the sarod and tabla it's voiced in a much more subtle and melodic approach, though I think the electric instrumentation we're exploring will in some ways call for a return to some of my earlier rigour and more overt abstractness (but I think we'll maintain the lyricism of the acoustic setting as well).

Its very nice to be absorbed in the fretless electric, discovering what it can do as a tool to link the methodologies in avant free improv and Indian music.

Thats a long way of saying that I don't think musical fusions have to be terribly closely related to be successful; it may be helpful, but I think the exploration can be quite fertile by looking at where and how things *connect* (and how different musics approach their detail and methodology in developing improvisation -- that improvisational aspect, then as now, is key --), in addition to looking at what parallel streams of commonality there are. Anchor the connecting elements, celebrate the differences. Unity in diversity ( a parallel Sufi concept also).

For me, it's not about trying to be an Indian Classical Musician. I love it, respect it immensely, learn it, learn from it -- but I'm not an ICM, won't ever be, and in truth, it wouldn't interest me musically to completely go that path. I also respect it too much to pretend to do it.

What drives me, what interests me is how this music merges into what I already am.

Somehow, what I'm sensing just as a person and also what I'm hearing musically calls for a certain kind of cultural articulation to complete it. That cultural articulation isn't just limited to the music, either, as I'm driven to be engrossed in many aspects of it - learning the languages (Hindi and Bengali), cooking, absorbing dance, film, reading history and current trends, etc, etc. There's so much more I need to immerse in still, to make the music work, to better integrate myself as a being, I feel. But this is the life process.

And yet, while somehow I'm connected to that culture, that land in this very broad and deep way, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Albert Ayler, Peter Brotzmann, Led Zeppelin are all just as much a part of me and the music I make. To sell either tradition short is dishonest to myself and dishonest to both legacies.

Its my hope that I honor and respect the Indian musical tradition by being *internally* honest with it, folding aspects of it into myself while offering my own traditions to it in return.

I think people sense that, given the feedback we've gotten by people from India and other accomplishments such as the film project.

looking forward to a quickly booked show TONIGHT (Sat Aug 8)in Alb's historic Old Town at:
 KISS Coffee at Patio Escondido
404 San Felipe, just off Mountain Rd
Old Town
Albuquerque, NM 87104 US

 we'll be there from 7 to 9...c ya there!

Main Site  And MySpace Page Changes,  New Release Planned!
A lot of news:

First, we're  in the process of updating the main site , bringing it in line with some of the social networking and music apps we have. It will take some time to integrate it through all the sections of the site, but I'm making progress.

One of the main things that's happening is the consolidation of an email list, which until now has been done manually; I'll be sending out a final manual email to folks we've contacted in the past, but if you're a my space friend, PLEASE sign up on the Reverb Nation email list widget on our my space page


This is all ramping up to, finally, a projected release this fall. With the 'Travel Bug' CD release over 5 years old and not very representative at all of our current focus, it's high time to offer some definitive, well-recorded performances in a cohesive presentation.

There's a lot of great moments on the rehearsal tracks we've uploaded, to be sure. I've always had an 'open source' philosophy, to document and share the process as it goes along, so while the cuts you're hearing now may be representative, what more, what best is possible? Discovering and ultimately sharing that is a big part of what we're doing over the next few months (we don't want to shy away from live work either as we hone it).

Tentative plans are to record during August, select and edit in September, mastering/graphics/production in Sept/October, official release some time early November. We'll be doing a primarily digital only release with comprehensive distribution, with a very limited number of actual physical CDs.

Stay tuned, watch our Twitter for little daily updates, and sign up on our list....

To all our Desi friends , fans and supporters -- have a very happy Friendship Day! thanks for your friendship, connection and support; hope you are all are thriving and happy. Wishing  all of you the very best continued success, across the miles...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Oka4ur726s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO83GttGDq0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yng0hoo_mw

Rehearsals have been going very well,  with the electric material shaping up nicely. We did a couple of gigs last weekend, most notably at the Reptilian Lounge, which was a lot of fun. We also were the guest on the community access channel "WV" talk show - he doersnt seem to have the footage posted yet, but i'll let you know when he does.

We've replaced all the music tracks on  our MySpace page with new material from recent rehearsals. I'm not afraid to share works in progress and documenting the Duo as it evolves, so feel free to check out the current state of the group.

We're planning to record a new CD in the spring, and are in the process of stepping up the performance activity in the area over the next few months as part of  honing the material for the recording project.

Stay tuned!