I always tend to look back in time and ask myself , "when did this begin?" "when was the first time it happened" "who was the first person to achieve this?". Do you do that too? Okay No, I dont live in the past all the time. But I think my fascination with history keeps a part of me alive. With that said, everytime I am at an indian classical or world music concert in new york city or san francisco, I am extremely curious about how indian classical music has gotten so popular in the west. Post 1950's western musicians were being open to the indian music concept of horizontal, melodic improvisation methods and the spiritual beliefs that music brought.
In the 1960's, the Beatles made history with their album "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart club band" which had Ravi Shankar influences, Grateful Head drummer Mickey Hart was studying rhythm techniques under tabla maestro Ustad Allah Rakha. In the 70's Mclaughin's Mahavishnu orchestra and Shakti stunned the west with fresh, cross cultural music. In the 90's - 2000's Talvin Singh, Cheb i Sabbah continue to use indian music for western audiences; but, when exactly did this all begin?
I decided to find out. Recently, during my research on this, I stumbled upon a book titled "The Dawn of Indian Music in the West" by Peter Lavezzoli. On a personal note, it is by far the most interesting and informative material on this topic. I tried to gather some information from the book to share with you.
The most popular notion is that the first recording of indian music is of sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan back in 1955 for the album "Morning and Evening Ragas". However it was back in 1910 when Hazrat Inayat Khan, a sufi music veena player, performed at Columbia University. There is no record of what his performance consisted of, but apparently that was one of the first formal performances of indian classical music in the west. For some reason it did not make an impact until Ali Akbar Khan's "Bhairavi" recording in 1955. Hazrat Inayat Khan was a descendant of warrior Tippu Sultan's uncle. His family was traditionally muslim, but he also believed in the Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism. Apparently, he did not create the impact he was hoping for in the west and had artistic frustrations. But he practised sufism to a great extent and spread sufi music and eventually died in 1927. I wish I were a part of the 1910 audience to have witnessed the very first formal performance of indian music here in the west. Sigh. Alright, let me not live in the past.
11 comments:
Now That was an interesting piece of information! I am curious to know which was the 1st fusion.... the confluence of Indian and Western styles, which Ravi Shankar tried in 60s.
Nice post...It might also be very interesting to look at indian influence in England -- that might go back a long time.
Aakarsh: Thanks. I believe it was Menuhin who first introduced "Morning and Evening ragas" to the audience. Not sure if he played then, but he is possibly one of the first western musicians to have collaborated with Shankar. Must be in the 55-56 itself. Will get more info if its there in the book and will keep you posted.
Related to the English and eastern music, yeah that must a long time ago. Baluswami Dikshitar interacted with English Violinists in 1800's. Wonder if there was any collaboration then! Will see if I find anything about this. That is real "past" :)
Nice article, thank you, and a nice discovery to learn about the 1910 recording. There were a number of recordings of world music around that time and sadly many of them are lost or damaged.
Curiously, for reasons I do not understand, Indian music was not as influential on Western music as Caribbean, South American, African, and even South Pacific music through the 1920s-80s. Even the Beatles-Shankar collaboration bore little fusion fruit, though at least there was a growing awareness of Classical Indian music, including Ravi Shankar. We really had to wait until the "Asian Underground" in London in the late 1980s before we saw Indian influences fusing with Western music.
Douglas
WorldFusionRadio.com
I only wish that there was some exact document of Hazrat Inayat Khan's 1910 performance at Columbia, in terms of which raga or ragas he and the other musicians played. Sadly, it is something lost to history. I've tried to imagine what it must have been like to be there when it happened, and it must have been truly stunning.
Menuhin: he did not play on the 1955 album by Ali Akbar Khan, but he was there to introduce Khansahib and Chatur Lal, and to explain the basics of the ragas to the Western audience at the live shows they did, as well as on the album.
Menuhin himself did not actually play Indian music until his duet with Ravi Shankar at the Bath festival in June 25, 1966. The raga they played was Tilang. Soon after this, they would make their first album together, East Meets West. Great stuff.
I am an American on the sufi path of Hazarat Inyat Khan and there was a sufi teacher Murshida Vera Corda who spoke to us about spending her 5th birthday at the concert, the audience applauded when the musicians were tuning, thinking that was the part of the concert. Knowing his son,those of us in the movement do so imagine we can still hear the music
sura gail tala, bloomington indiana
I am an American on the sufi path of Hazarat Inyat Khan and there was a sufi teacher Murshida Vera Corda who spoke to us about spending her 5th birthday at the concert, the audience applauded when the musicians were tuning, thinking that was the part of the concert. Knowing his son,those of us in the movement do so imagine we can still hear the music
sura gail tala, bloomington indiana
Peter: Thanks for the great info. Yes, regarding the first time Menuhin played in 1966 (and how nervous he was!), I read about in the later chapters of the book. This book is amazing!
It is so inspiring to look back on Menuhin's "openness" approach to music and his wonderful collaborations like "Jealousy" and "Tea for two" with Grappelli.
As you said, I wish I were also part of the audience of Hazrat Inayat Khan's performance to witness it.
I performed indian-jazz at Columbia University in 2008. If I had known back then about Khan's first performance at Columbia, it makes me shiver.
Sura: Thank you for your comment. Murshida Vera Corda is indeed very lucky! and you are lucky to have listened the speech. Intriguing!
I can imagine how the tuning must've been mistaken for the actual performance. It happens even these days. Back then, it must've been very very fresh to have known enough to understand the aspects of the performance.
Douglas: I think I understand and agree with you to an extent. The community that was able to appreciate indian music was probably rather small until the beatles, who made the world aware of the sitar, and the hare rama hare krishna movement; and still stayed rather small. Later during the 80's and 90's, the impact was made to the masses as such with the advent of "lounge" music. Is that what you are referring to?
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