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I got back from my trip to India last week. I'm still kind of recovering from the jet lag, cough and intestinal shock from the trip. It was the most incredible trip I've ever taken. My wife and I saw temples, ashrams, world heritage monuments, holy cities, Sufi durgas, museums, craft markets, and so much more. One thing that was surprising to me about Indians was their view of teachers. When I told people that I was a music teacher they all had the same reaction, great respect. They said that teachers were the closest profession to god, and deserved higher respect than doctors, lawyers or politicians. They recognize that civilization is founded on the work that teachers do and that there is no greater work that one can do. Kind of a different view than how teachers are thought of here in the States.
I posted a ton of my pictures from India on my Facebook page, so here is a link to my India trip photo album.
6 comments:
As an avid reader of your blog it was great to hear about your trip to India. The Facebook photos are amazing, looks like you guys had a really spiritual trip.
What were you impressions of the music? Will this trip be in inspiring any future compositions?
Pavan
Pavan,
This last trip we didn't really get to experience much Indian music. The only live music we saw was a tabla and sitar player at our hotel. I love Indian music and look forward to another trip where I can maybe teach Jazz and study Indian music. Any kind of gig would allow me to write a trip like that off on my taxes. Any ideas? South India would be interesting next time.
It's actually interesting how much Jazz music there is in India and how many good players there are.
I would definitely recommend reading Matt Littlewood's blog at: http://www.Saxindia.blogspot.com/
Also, you may already know about New York player Rudresh Mahanthappa (he's rooted in the South Indian Carnatic style). http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101644613
Yep, South India would be a great starting point, as Carnatic music has a closer relationship to jazz and improvisation (actually it's almost pure maths). There is definitely an interesting connection between jazz and indian music which a lot of greats have explored.
Pavan
It's actually interesting how much Jazz music there is in India and how many good players there are.
I would definitely recommend reading Matt Littlewood's blog at: http://www.Saxindia.blogspot.com/
Also, you may already know about New York player Rudresh Mahanthappa (he's rooted in the South Indian Carnatic style). http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101644613
Yep, South India would be a great starting point, as Carnatic music has a closer relationship to jazz and improvisation (actually it's almost pure maths). There is definitely an interesting connection between jazz and indian music which a lot of greats have explored.
Pavan
Parvan,
Sorry, but the comment moderation is enable because of all the comment spam. I need to approve comments before they are posted.
I have corresponded with Matt Littlewood. I'm a big Aurobindo fan, so I wanted to see what that place was like. I also know Rudy. We met and played together in NYC.
In addition to teachers, Indians hold musicians in high regard as well (at least in theory). I teach Western music in an Indian music school in Boston. One day during a break between classes, while chatting about Western music, I pointed out how American musicians often like to poke fun at each other, and how ubiquitous banjo jokes, trombone jokes, etc, are in the US. The Indian music teachers were shocked. "We would never do such a thing," they said. Finding this hard to believe, I scoured the internet looking for Sitar jokes, tabla jokes, etc. Sure enough, there is nothing to be found.
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