Lost Grateful Dead Show: 'Collectors Are Going to Flip Out'

Lost Grateful Dead Show: 'Collectors Are Going to Flip Out'

     Six months ago, some lost tapes of a Grateful Dead show in 1970 at the Family Dog in San Francisco were discovered among the late Jerry Garcia's belongings.  They were sent to David Lemieux, the bands arcivist.  He was able to confirm that these tapes were among ones not currently known.  The sound quality of the reel is great, even though it spent 43 years in less than optimal storage conditions.  The reel is significant because the band wasn't called the Grateful Dead back then.  They were billed as Mickey Hart and the Heartbeats and Bobby Ace and the Cards from the Bottom of the Deck.  They didn't perform a full set, only an 80-minute acoustic set.  Lemineux describes this as "transitional" time for them.  ""People are going to be pretty shocked by what's to come," [Lemineux} promised."  For Lemineux, as an archivist, this is exciting for him because fans will get to hear something that no one ever knew existed six months ago. "It's very rare, it's unique, and collectors are going to flip out on it," he said.

Miley Cyrus Revisited

Miley Cyrus Bambi Awards

    On Nov 14th, Miley performed "Wrecking Ball" at the Bambi Awards in Germany.  She made the news because in this raw version she was accompanied only by three acoustic guitars and she was wearing clothes.  Yes, she made news because she was wearing clothes.  The music video for this song was extremely controversial as she was nude throughout the video and it was feared she would be wearing something akin to the MTV performance.  When she took the stage she was wearing a neon yellow outfit that only showed a hint of her belly and legs.  And at another event she received award and blatantly took out a joint and smoked it on stage during her award acceptance.  She did not do that at this event.  She won the best International Pop act Bambi.

Bingo Players

Paul Oakenfold Talks EDM

     This is a nice short article from Rolling Stone.  Oakenfold is talking about how the new generation in America is really getting into EDM or Electronic Dance Music.  He talks about his album and how it is hard to stand out because everyone has access to the same sounds.  He mentions that music, for him, is meant to be shared, not just for the individual.  He feels like "America has finally woken up and started to dance...there's nothing wrong with that."  He feels like what has changed is that house music is now pop music.  He mentions some artists like Avicci and Danny Howard are a couple DJs that are catching his eyes.  "I think it's important to give back.  I think it's important to realize that things have changed and embrace the future."

Childhood - Jamta Kya

     This is one of the songs I helped compose and record for the group Jamta Kya a few years ago.  This song is also mentioned in the interview I did with one the band members.  This song is about childhood in general as they each had similar upbringings.  For them, childhood was walking down the street with friends, locking arms and talking about their troubles, frustrations, and dreams.  The beginning was meant to bring you back to a simpler time of sitting around the radio listening to the radio with friends, relaxing outside.  I and the band felt like we were able to accomplish that. This was a very special project for me.  I got to know four amazing Indian guys as well as learn a new culture and a sliver of its music.

     If you haven't noticed, I love covers.  Lindsay Sterling and Pentatonix released this cover last march, and it is amazing.  Pentatonix is an amazing a cappella group that was on the show Sing Off a few years ago.  Lindsay Sterling is an amazing violinist who caters to both the nerds and the pop crowd.  Her musical ability is out of this world and I can listen to her for hours on end.
    I chose this video because it's using human voices and violin to recreate a current pop song as faithfully is amazing.  Also their use of imagery within the video itself was powerful.  With the first thing you see is "everything must end".  It looks as if they are in a town destroyed by an atomic explosion.  A great piece of artistic work.

Fireflies Cover

     I am a huge Owl City fan and I love finding covers of his and other artists songs.  This is an amazing cover.  This video makes me feel like I am in a coffee shop or someones living room listening to someone play.  I could listen to him for hours.  He has other songs that he's covered and they are also extremely well done.  I found this video on YouTube and have since subscribed to his channel.

     For me, I feel like these are authentic acoustic versions of the songs as he plays through the entire song. If the respective artists were to make acoustic versions they would be his versions. His ability to recreate the opening to the Fireflies song while playing both the rhythm and vocal parts at the same time is just fantastic.  He uses other types of guitars in his other videos, including a ukulele and a guitarlele, which is ukulele with six strings tuned in the same tuning as a regular acoustic guitar.

Thai Bluegrass

     I was very amused when I read this article and by the videos shown in class.  It was interesting seeing a style of music, that isn't very mainstream for us, become elevated to the same place as current pop music.  I really enjoyed watching the guys with the cowboy outfits lassoing and gun-slinging as the girls went nuts.  What I also noticed is that they were able to emulate not just the instrumental elements and cowboy imagery, but also the vocal elements.  Being able to add the twang in the right parts and not overdoing it is difficult.  It makes me think of how here we have our different accents and the phrases we use when emulating those accents.

     It was interesting how serious they were at making this music.  Their focus on pronunciation was key to being successful for them.  When the ethnomusicologist commented on her subjects pronunciation, the person stopped singing and the tape was replaced by a different one after that.  This emphasis on pronunciation isn't strange to me.  They fear being misunderstood and being made fun of by fellow Thais and foreigners.  I experienced a similar situation when I was in China.  Many of the students wanted to practice their English, because they felt that if they mispronounced a word, it would change the meaning.  While, for us, that isn't necessarily true, it is for both the Thai and Chinese languages, which are tonal.  This means you can say the same sound, in Mandarin for example, in four different tones and it means four different words.

Tibet-In-Exile

     I loved reading this book.  It gave me a deeper understanding of the Tibet issue and it was interesting learning about their different styles of music and how the influences were causing both good and bad changes.  For me, I would probably side more with the youth as while it is good to preserve the older traditions, at some point you will have to modernize them in order to keep from those traditions being cultural buried by the new influences.  In the interview that I did, my interviewee mentioned how Indian music is an amalgamation of several different cultures of music.  So, too, is American music.  One thing that needs to be mentioned, is that this is not just a case of old people afraid of change, it is that, in many ways, this change does pose a threat to their religious ideals.

     Since rock and roll is all about freedom, the exile community latched onto that with reckless abandon.  The problem lies in that this freedom to do whatever you want implies giving into your desires, which Buddhism teaches that you must eliminate desire to lessen your suffering.  That is a great idea, but to me it seems like their own religiosity is keeping them in exile.  Now, I am not saying they should abandon their beliefs, because that would be almost impossible, but they should at least modernize.  I have always had issues with any kind of monastic life.  To me, completely walling yourself off from the world does no good and prevents you from spreading your ideas.  I've seen this in Christian monasteries.  If we are supposed to be a light to the world, why are we walling ourselves in and hiding?

     That said, I think Tibet-in-exile has a long road ahead of it.  The people really want to be free, but they need to find a good way to do that.  From my perspective, denouncing the violence is good, but if you just sit around and wait, nothing is going to happen.

Interview with Amateur/Professional Musician

A: When did you get interested in music?

J: Growing up, I was always around music. You go to school, you have general assembly where you sing prayer songs. I was raised as a Christian so we used to go to church, there was a lot of singing there and every festival, every event, you have music. Then, there are movies, which had a lot of songs in it. So, I was always around music and there was always a desire to learn music even though I was not able to formally learn music but I did give it a try. I did go to guitar lessons, so there was a little bit of learning. And slowly my real desire to learn music, and to get into music came after I heard this one guy's music, his name is A.R. Rahman. His music was totally different from what was going on at that time. So that really fired my desire to learn music and that was when I was in the seventh grade.

A: So what was it about A.R. Rahman that was different for you?

J: For me, A.R. Rahman's music was different in the sense that he did not stick to one particular genre or one particular style. What he would do was he would interpret different styles of music, different ways of doing it, and what that led to was a product, in terms of songs or music or whatever you want to call it, the product was something you never heard of. Or it would be something like an amalgamation of everything that you've heard. So if I pick some of his songs, listening to him it satisfies my need to listen to jazz; It would be a blend of jazz with Indian folk with Indian classical music then there'll be a Chinese flute inbetween so it was much more vibrant than what was going on at that time. He was really good with technology as well. He would break the rules, he wouldn't stick to one formula of doing music be it in terms of style, in terms of technology. He was willing to experiment. I don't know if I can put him in the category of world music but I always say he belongs to a totally different category, his own category.

A: I definitely think so too. It makes me think of songs like Dil Se Re and how he uses a bunch of different genres. I was listening to a playlist I know I've seen he's done so many different genres and I'm like, “this is interesting”

J: And some of his songs would start as an Indian folk feeling and then it would get into a Western classical arrangement all together and then it would get back to folk and then it'll have some classical elements and much of it was driven by the kind of movies for which he made music. Some of the scenarios and some of the situations required him to blend all of these things together.

[Moving on to Jamta Kya, the band Jose is a part of and that I had the privilege of working on their album with]

A: How did you meet the guys?

J: All four of us were here at Kansas State University we were doing our own separate professional programs and I used to play a little bit of guitar and a little bit of singing and then these other three guys were also interested in singing and a little bit of music. We would every once and a while get together, there would be a guitar lying around, we would pick it up, play some Indian film songs and some songs that we knew from childhood. One fine day, we were thinking, 'Why don't we try composing, writing songs and have a set of songs of our own through which we can express our thought process and what we think of music and what kind of music we relate to. We just wanted to see if it was possible because up until now none of us were into professional singing or composing or anything of that. So, it was an experiment to see if that's possible.

A: What was the first song that you guys wrote?

J: The first song that we wrote was like something that I had in my mind since when I was in my tenth grade. We called it the childhood song. Back when I was in school and I used to play a little bit of guitar there was this simple set of notes that I would always hum. It was na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na [tune to the actual song on the record, the videos of which I will have below]. It was like a kid going to school and a child playing and it was a simple set of notes that sometimes as kids we are doing something very serious and we are engrossed in something and we start humming. It's that kind of a simple thing and I had that in my mind and I started developing it. We discussed with each other how to write the lyrics for it and it just came out because we all had similar childhood experiences. The idea behind the song was to talk about our childhood and we miss our childhood and what we used to do when we were kids and put it together as a song.

A: When we were working on that [song] for the different verses were you guys talking about each of your different childhood's or about childhood in general?

J: It was kind of in general. Growing up in India it was, I think it's a little different from here, because most of us lived in a tightly knit community where I would spend most of my day in my neighbors house playing around, going into the jungle and climbing trees and doing all sorts of fun stuff. And then we would have the special moments, like Divali which was celebrated in India yesterday [November 2^nd]. It's a big festival where we all get together, all the kids, we do fireworks and then eat sweets we get new dresses. And all of these were common experiences for all of us. So we just picked a few things, like celebrating Divali, and walking down the street like four or five childhood friends putting arms on each others shoulders and walking and telling each other their frustrations about school, what happened at home, telling about your dreams, things like that. Se we just thought about some of these experiences that we all had in common and put them in different verses.

A: The name, Jamta Kya, literally means “Will it freeze?” in Hindi. Where did that come from?

J: I went to Nagpur, its like the geographic center of India, to do my bachelors in architecture and jamta kya is like a usage where jamta kya would literally mean “will it freeze?” but then people in Nagpur sometimes used it for “can you do it?” In our college and our friends started using it for everything. As I've talked to you before, if I'm not able to get the door, I would tell my friend, aur, door jamta kya? He would understand that what I am trying to say is 'Can you get the door for me?” If I am thisty, and I don't want to get out of my bed, my friend is sitting I'll ask him pani jamta kya? Which means, “Can you get me a glass of water?” In a way, by naming it Jamta Kya we were trying to say this is an experiment we are doing what do you think? Does it work for you?

A: Part of this I know from working on the project with you guys, but what was it like for you once you realized that we can record these songs?

J: It was a wonderful experience because I did not have any firsthand experience at actually composing, writing, singing, making others sing and recording. I didn't have that experience of collaboration and technically doing it. I knew some of the basic steps, but I didn't know the intricacies at all so while doing this it was a great learning experience because I knew how I learned the pros and cons of collaboration. I learned how the technology works, I learned what limitations I have so it was like a prep course for me. Sometimes it was frustrating like “Oh God, I wish I knew how to do this,” and then somebody would help me like you helped me out in a lot of things. Sometimes I would have something in my head but I am not able to translate it musically and I would be stuck then I'd be looking for examples. Sometimes it was about communication. It was very interesting. So now, I think, the next project I am gonna do, it would be smoother and much easier compared to the last one.

A: What's the kind of music that you really like listening to?

J: That's a question a lot of people have asked me and I never had a concrete answer because I love listening to all sorts of music. Any good set of sounds I don't mind listening to and I can listen to it for hours. I listen to artists ranging from Yanni to A.R. Rahman to some Indian classical singers and musician so there isn't anything particular I'm interested in. I love all sorts of genres. In terms of what is for me Indian music, that also is like a wide range and I think Indian music is very difficult to define because Indian classical music is Indian, Indian folk music is Indian, the kind of pop culture that has emerged with an influence from the West, influence from China, and all sorts of genre, that's distinctly Indian. It's very difficult what I would call Indian music. There's a constant tension between Indian music being objectively Indian subjectively Indian. For example, what I am trying to say here is for me the kind of culture, the kind of experiences I had in India, that's what would lead me to understand Indian music. For a different person, it would be his experiences and his exposure that would lead him to define what is Indian music. Anything that I am able to relate to, that is familiar, is Indian music for me.

A: Here in the US we have our concept of this is what we believe is country music, this what we believe is blues, is there anything in India that they say, “this is this kind of music?”

J: All that I know is that we have this broad classification as Indian classical music and in Indian classical music there are two distinct groups: there is the Hindustani classical music and one is the Carnatic classical music and they have their own differences and when you listen to a piece which is purely Carnatic classical you can say, “This is Carnatic classical.” Sometimes it is defined by the instruments they use like in Hindustani classical music you don't use the Mrdanga you use Dholak and Tabla as the rhythm instrument but in Carnatic classical you use Mridangam a lot, which is a different rhythm instrument. Even other melody instruments like sitar, and nadhaswaram, there are certain instruments you use mostly in for one kind. Then there is a classification which is Indian folk music. Indian folk music is not a monolithic thing because every region has its own type of folk music. If you go to the west its different, if you go to the east, its a little different, the southern part of India that has several styles of folk music, and in fact, even smaller regions, smaller areas, have their own folk tradition. It's just like the way jazz emerged here because western classical was too rigid and there were rules to follow and all of that things. It was similar in India because these Indian classical music was for the elite, it was a structured thing. Folk music was engineered or created by the lower segments of the society and they didn't have any rules they just went with their heart and they did it just the way they felt like. These are some classifications that have been there for a while. But then in modern times you have pop albums that are like influenced from West and your typical Indian experience and in Indian music you blend them and make something that is more edgy and there's technology involved there and then there's Bollywood which is the Indian film industry. They have a lot of music and they use elements from classical music, folk music, Western music, rap... depending on what the film is about depending on what the film demands in term of music. They have created their genre. It's very difficult to define Bollywood style of music but you can differentiate it. So there are these major classifications. If you go deeper there is Punjabi, Sufi, there is a lot of Bhangra Da... there is a range. I'm not even sure if I know all of them.

A: In movies like Slumdog Millonaire, do you identify with any of the things in that movie?

J: The movie itself is set realistically, I don't see a lot of exaggeration but it's basically a movie. I did not ever have to experience that life, living in the slums, but there are a lot of people who live in slums and the whole setting of the movie was in Mumbai, which is a dense, crowded, city. It's one of the biggest metropolitans in the world. Yeah it was very realistically set but there was no way I could personally relate and I don't see it as unrealistic film. I think what they have done is a good job.

A: One of the concepts we are talking about in my class is authenticity. What for you is authentic Indian music?

J: I touched a little bit upon this a little while ago and I was talking about Indian music and what genres exist. There is a constant tension about defining Indian music objectively and subjectively. In a way, a particular product is objectively authentic or not but what's authentic for me might not be authentic necessarily for another fellow Indian. That depends on where I grew up, what kind of music influence me, what kind of music was I exposed to, and what are my lived experiences in India. So it totally depends on that. Say, for example, somebody if they listen to a particular song done by A.R. Rahman, a lot of people might say this is not authentic Indian music because there is a lot of technological element there is a lot of Western influence and beats but Indian tradition, in terms of its architecture, music, literature, it was never locked within the region. There was always influences, there was always infiltrations and that's the beauty about Indian culture, music, literature, architecture, arts, everything. You have something that is local, you have a tradition, a style of doing things that was born in India and that would be influenced when the Mughals came in, the Britishers came in, there was influence from China, so India is very diverse and they sometimes mingle with each other. The latest inflitration is the Western influence of different styles of music so for me as long as a piece of work has some element of Indian music I can relate to that, that takes me back to my culture, that gives me a feeling of “Wow! This reminds me of Divali!” “This reminds me of the time I spent in my school!” That, for me, is authentic. Any piece that can take me to that state of mind.

A: The most interesting thing for me when I listen to Indian music is when I hear the Western influence and sometimes it's kind of strange because it's like I hear stuff that's Western but in a different way. And so it's really, it's been really interesting to kind of experience our music through a different lens.

J: An example I can give is, for Slumdog Millionare, A.R. Rahman had a track called Mausam & Escape. That was for me, I could be wrong in interpreting the way I am going, but that piece, the way it is composed, the most logical way of doing it is a string section and a Hollywood type of arrangement. But what Rahman does is the most prominent instrument used for that track is the sitar which is not a very intuitive choice. For any musician, the first preference would be 'oh lets do a strings arrangement' but he uses sitar in there and the way he uses it completely Indianizes it for me. Even though there is a lot of a strings section in the background, there are peppy beats and stuff, but then, there is a strong thread that shouts out that this is Indian, that there is an Indian element to this. So I would consider that as an authentic Indian music because when I listen to it brings a lot of visuals that are dear to me that for me are typically Indian, that for me I cannot see it anywhere else so I would call that authentic Indian music.

A: Wow! Well that's pretty much all I got. Jose, thanks for hanging out

J: Thank you Austin!

A: That was fun!

J: Same here!

Meet the Music

     On Thursday, November 7th, I attended an event at the Beach Museum of Art titled "Meet the Music." The program was a selection of songs performed by string students from the studio of Cora Cooper. For each performance piece, artwork currently displayed within the museum was chosen as a visual representation of their pieces.  It was a great program, with a variety of composers from different time periods and in one case, an original student composition.  Except for the first performance, the following were accompanied by a collaborative pianist. For this journal entry, I am going to analyze each performance as each had it's own strengths and weaknesses. So, here goes!

     The first performance was a quartet piece.  The piece they performed was the Concerto in D major for Four Violins.  Each movement was played well, with very few intonation problems. Unfortunately, there were also a couple moments where the group got slightly out of sync, but was barely noticeable to most.  Overall, the performance was spot on.

     The second performance was a viola solo piece.  The piece was Fantasie by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.  The violist was spectacular.  Her technique and intonation were spot on.  I definitely noticed that she was 'lost in the moment' as her body movements matched the emotional ups and downs of the piece.

     The third performance was a violin solo piece.  The piece was the Concerto for Violin, Op. 48: Allegro molto e con brio by Dmitri Kabelevsky. I love hearing russian classical music. The emotions evoked by the piece were almost overwhelming. Intonation was good.

    The fourth performance was a viola trio. They performed Intermezzo by Hubert Parry. Each part was done fairly well, one of the violists was the one who performed the solo piece. She was one of the best performers I heard that night. Overall a short, but nice piece.

    The fifth performance was a viola solo. The piece was Six Studies in English Folksong: Lovely on the Water, Spurn Point, The Pride of Kildare by Ralph Vaughn Williams. The technique and tempo was good, but there was a lot of intonation errors. For me, it was a little difficult to listen to.

     The sixth performance was a violin solo. The first piece was a traditional country song called Roxanna's Waltz and the second piece was Manhattan Breakdown, composed by the performer himself. Both pieces were excellent and no sheet music was used. I was really impressed with this performance.

     The final performance was a violin solo. The piece played was Concerto No. 2 in D minor: Allegro moderato by Henri Wieniawski. This performance took the cake. This violinist was outstanding. Her confidence along with her amazing technique and intonation brought tears to my eyes. Even as I am writing this I am still blown away by her performance.

     Honestly, I had no idea how amazing this was going to be. I am so glad I went!