RFD: Indian music

Emily Wax, The Washington Post's outgoing India bureau chief, looked over the festival's schedule and offered these recommendations. (For complete listings of events, visit kennedy-center.org/india.)

Music

The Manganiyar Seduction

Recently, my husband and I braved New Delhi's thick Saturday night traffic to take our seats on the grounds of the Purana Qila, a Mughal-era fort. We were there to listen to the Manganiyar Seduction, three dozen Muslim musicians, performing a blend of sultry Sufi and Hindu mystic songs in one continuous one-hour piece.

It turned out to be one of the most magical nights of my four years in India. The musicians are stacked in red boxes - four high, nine across - that light up to reveal the players as they perform. As more musicians join in and the music builds, so does the intensity of the light. March 19 and 20.

Dance

Madhavi Mudgal and Alarmel Valli in "Samanvaya: A Coming Together"

They are known as India's divas of dance. Their exquisitely bejeweled faces appear in oil paintings at performance halls across India. While Michael Jackson-style dancing has taken over much of Bollywood, two of India's foremost dancing queens are keeping classical dance relevant and exciting. March 2.

Literature panel

Imagining the City

More than ever, India's youths are abandoning the country's poorer rural areas for the promise of independence and social mobility in cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai. Few people know the innards of an Indian city as well as Suketu Mehta, author of "Maximum City." Mehta and other panelists will share the energizing story of India's urban dreams. March 13.

Film

"Does Gandhi Matter?"

The festival's film series highlights the artists and activists who shaped India's self-image. The documentary "Does Gandhi Matter?" promises to be a provocative exploration of attitudes among present-day Indian youths toward Mahatma Gandhi, India's founding father. Are Gandhi's messages against violence and materialism still relevant as a younger, more urbanized India surges ahead? March 16.

Kaleidoscope

Mapping India's Crafts

For my money, India has the best shopping in the world. Each region produces its own delicious fun. From the North's kitchy renderings of hand-painted Indian trucks to the South's elegant brass oil lamps, all of India's crafts are infused with their own history and meaning. Watch live demonstrations and pick up a funky chachka or a tribal tapestry with a story. Ongoing; ends March 20.

Watched some of Shrinivas and band's set streaming on the K. Ctr. site. Good but slightly more mellow than I hoped for.

I need to get over to the K. Ctr and see the art, eat the food, and see the music and dance going on through the 20th. A few performers are going to NY or touring after this, but many are not.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2011/03/in_concert_u_shrinivas_at_mill.html

Interesting Mark Jenkins take on Shrinivas and the whole Maximum India festival

I need to video stream "Rhythms of Rajasthan" from last night's Kennedy Center Millennium Stage gig

W. Post classical critic not wowed by the results created with tabla player Zakir Hussain and vocalists Shankar Mahadevan and Hariharan playing with the National Symphony Orchestra.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/04/AR2011030400118.html

From the orchestra's point of view, though, the problem with this kind of world-music crossover initiative is that the orchestra ends up sounding nerdy. Although Indian classical music represents a tradition as rich and complex as that of Western classical music, it's not a language the orchestra speaks fluently, and it would take a composer more deeply versed in the language of the symphony orchestra to create an equivalent that worked.

I didn't see this, and I don't know enough about either genre to comment, but maybe someone else who does might want to weigh in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHZJIqZJ5vE

Final weekend of Maximum India. I still have to watch some more of the 1 hour gigs archived on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage portion of their website.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/performance-and-dance/2011/03/18/maximum-indias-final-three-days/#more-43662

This is making me want some tamarind flavored pilaf.

Can you get that where you currently live?

So while I missed a bunch of Maximum India events because of being busy with family, I am going to this:

Saturday offers the first of two sold-out weekend presentations of “The Manganiyar Seduction.” Combining a “Hollywood Squares” look with the visuals of Amsterdam’s red light district windows, this effort places 43 Rajasthan Indian folk and classical players in 36 red-curtained boxed rooms stacked nine across and four high

Wow. That sounds great.

Can you get that where you currently live?

There are some Indian restaurants here, so maybe, but not conveniently. I've hardly tried any of the Indian places here.

The Maginyar Seduction was awesome. The production has previously been to London, Sydney, and New York City, but the 2 DC gigs were the first US ones outside of last November's NY shows.

Spelling--Manganiyar Seduction

Muslim musicians from the Thar desert region of India

Did anyone see that production in London, NYC, Australia, New Zealand or Singapore? I was wowed.

I also liked a smaller group of Rajasthan musicians who did an hour free set earlier in the fest. And I confess to knowing nothing about the Rajasthan area of India and its musicians till this festival.

I guess I'm the only one who saw it. :(

A booking agency just e-mailed me that in 2013 they will be bringing the Manganiyar Seduction to the US for an extended tour. Hopefully they can get visas. They've had hassles everytime from officials sure that these mostly all Suni Muslim musicians are terrorists

I've got some v energising Rajasthani folk records, some good stuff

I just discovered that style and like it

Whoa, iTunes has like 20 Hariharan albums on sale for $5.99 apiece!

Should I get Ghazals or Great Ghazals? I mean the latter seems like it's the greater album but sometimes the originals are best.

Did you decide?

Nope. I really really just want more music with this vibe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeaVRC453M0

Can't figure out which album that's from though!

making a mix for a friend's conference and they've asked for 'lively indian music', i'm thinking something kinda modern and slightly westernised, can anyone recommend me a good compilation of this? (vague, i know!)

I dont know of any comps but if you find one please let me know!

Maybe something like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujnV4bNhnFc&noredirect=1

will do! the mix i'm making is first half indian music going into a 2nd half of 'bloke-rock' which will be a mission to make not sound mental

can someone help me out?

Love: Daler Mehndi, Colonial Cousins, some various Gurbani/Ghazals albums but I still prefer to go more into the pop realm. I feel like there's a ton of good crossover stuff out there but I have no knowledge of this scene.

Basically, looking for more music like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWNGyeeJJqc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rz6JfgCJtk

Can anyone recommend a decent book on North Indian classical music? Looking for cultural history, definition of terms, biographies of notable players, etc.

my knowledge of indian music pretty much beins and ends with sampled material. except for this one album of indian classical that my rad friend brought me back on a cassette tape when he visited india once-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCjf7Nl6dqg
shivkumar+rahul sharma - "wanderlust (ode to nature)" (late 90s?)

If there’s anything in particular you’re looking for this is probably one of the only areas where I may be useful

If you just want Indian/Hindustani classical the India Archive Music label by Lyle Wachovsky is great and totally overlooked — most of the recordings are from like ‘89-‘00 so in some cases the artists are past their prime (there are a ton of Vilayat Khan recordings on this label but he was in his 60s/70s at that point, for example — they’re still really good, though!) but the sound quality is pristine and the liner notes are indispensable in pretty much every case. Apparently Lyle paid these artists really well out of his own pocket, like I want to say 10 grand per session I saw somewhere (no way he recouped that in sales), but he then went broke himself in recent years.