The promotion initiative IMC – India meets Classics and it’s media production IMC OnAir (IMCRadio.Net) enjoyed that the great fusion and Rock Jazz guitarist John McLaughlin followed the invitation for a unique BackStageTalk in May 2008. The production goes back to the 1st pre plannings during John’s Hamburg visit in July 2007 with “Remember Shakti” and together with Zakir Hussain (Tabla) for a Dalai Lama charity concert.
dates of broadcasting…
31st January 2013 – 3:00 EST (09:00 pm CET) @ radio multicult.fm (premiere: 2nd January 2010 – 3:00-3:58 pm CET @ Tide Radio) broadcasting calendar | streaming (Internet radio & mobile radio) | podCast
The 58 minutes special “Miles from India” being rebroadcasted on 31st January 2013 @ radio multicult.fm and worldwide as webradio documents the fully talk. (Rec.: The 28 minutes TV special was broadcasted on 7th July 2008 – 08:30 pm (MEST) and showed an extract.)
The BackStage Talk refers to John’s project in India “Floating Point” which was released in April 2008 and his composition of the titel song for the double CD “Miles from India” with world premiere in NewYork on 9th May 2008.
John’s time schedule of his European Concert tour 2008 with his formation “4th dimension” since 9th May “on the road” required to set the interview beside John’s concert on 28th May 2008 in the culture and communication centre FABRIK (Hamburg-Altona), Germany’s most famous hot spot (since 1971) for unique concerts in (Rock) Jazz, Blues, Fusion, Cross over and World Music…
screen splashs out of the TV production shortly documenting the “John McLaughlin Backstage Talk“
Thank’s to all supporters…
CD: Miles from India (2008)
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MILES FROM INDIA concert produced by Yusuf Gandhi and Bob Belden
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Miles From India (Encore Part 1) Montreal July 4, 2009
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Miles From India (Encore Part 2) Montreal July 4, 2009
Mahadev Desai (1892-1942) joined Mahatma Gandhi in 1917 and remained with him till Desai’s death in 1942. I came upon a very interesting account, inMahadev Desai’s diary, of a discussion between Mahatma Gandhi and Dilip Kumar Roy, in the end of January 1924. I reproduce that below.
Dilip, son of the well-known dramatist of Bengal, Dwijendralal Roy, visited Gandhi one evening. He had already earned abroad the reputation of a distinguished Indian singer. He had come in the morning and promised to return in the evening to sing some hymns to Bapu.
It was about 8 p.m. when he came. Dilip had brought his sitar. A good number of listeners had collected in the room. Sitting on a sofa opposite to Gandhiji’s bed he began singing a song of hymn to Krishna.
“O Lord! O Hari! Gopal! my Love!
Call me I pray to Thee above …
The moving sentiment in the hymn, the charming voice of the singer and the listners’ receptive mood filled the place for a while with the earnest loving entreaty made in the song. Everyone was, as it were, wafted to that blissful place and humming the following lines :
“Of hunger, thirst, I won’t complain.
Content with fruit I will remain”.
But even before vibrations of that son had died in our ears, the friend began the well-known song of Meerabai (Hindi Film, 1933), Chakar rakhoji, which thrills with the same ethereal air:
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“Make me Thy servant – the last stain efface
Of selfhood; be my life an offering
In song’s own bliss and bloom’s own loveliness.
For beauty holds a mirror to Thee, O King,
Of Beauty’s ultimate home – Thy Brindaban!
Whose glory in her bowers will I sing.
And accost Thee daily in Thy golden dawn
In every flower, every purlingst realm
In changing forms deciphering the One.
Here, in Thy happy hunt, where dreamers dream
And Yogis strive through Yoga Thee to meet
And all who visit hail Thy summit gleam,
Thy Meera treads but one way Thee to greet:
She prays: “Besiege my heart at midnight hush
And on banks of Love’s blue rill Thy dance repeat.”
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All of us felt as if we ourselves were ‘dancing on Love’s blue rill’ – that was the effect the performance produced. Profound silence prevailed for a while. Dilip then touched a topic and raised a dialogue.
“I feel, Mahatmaji”, he said, “that our beautiful music has been sadly neglected in our schools and colleges.”
“It has – unfortunately”, Bapu agreed, “I have always said so.”
“I am very glad to hear this, Mahatmaji, because, to be frank, I was under the impression that art has no place in the gospel of your austere life. I had often pictured you as a dread saint who was positively against music.”
“Against music – I”! exclaimed Mahatmaji, as though stung. “Well, I know, I know,” he added resignedly, “there are so many superstitions rife about me that it has now become almost impossible for me to overtake those who have been spreading them. As a result, my friends’ only reaction is almost invariably a smile when I claim I am an artist myself.”
“I feel so relieved, Mahatmaji” I laughed, “but may not your asceticism be somewhat responsible for such popular misconceptions? The people would find it difficult to reconcile asceticism with art”.
“But I do maintain that asceticism is the greatest of all arts. And to think that I should be dubbed an enemy to an art like music because I favour asceticism! I, who cannot even conceive of the evolution of India’s religious life without her music! But, indeed, I fail to see anything in much that passes for art in these days. What is needed for the appreciation of any art is to have the heart for it, not any ntimate knowledge of technique or training. Why must my walls be overlaid with pictures, for instance, when they are meant only for sheltering us? I do not need pictures. Nature suffices for my inspiration. Have I not gazed and gazed at the marvellous mystery of the starry vault, hardly ever tiring of that great panorama? Could one conceive of any painting comparable in inspiration to that of the star-tudded sky, the majestic sea, the noble mountains? Beside God’s handiwork does not man’s fade into insignificance?’
Dilip agreed: “Yes, what man in his senses will claim that the artist’s handiwork is even greater than life’s?”
Bapu then rushed on and changing the Gita’s aphorism, “Yoga is skill in action”, he said in effect that skill in action was itself the highest art. “Life must immensely exceed all the arts put together. To me the greatest artist is surely he who lives the finest life. For what is this hot-house art-plant of yours without the life-soul and background of a steady worthy life? What after all does that art amount to which ll the time stultifies life instead of elevating it? No. Art has a place in life, but art is not life. Life, on the contrary, is Art. Art should be subservient to life. It should act as its handmaid, not master. It should be alive to life and the universe.”
The Gandhi Tour is a global music festival created with the intent to arise social change by uniting people through the Universal language of music. This global music events are creating a platform for cultural dialogue relating to all cultures and religions inspired by the life of Mahatma Gandhi with the support of Dr. Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson.
Tobias Huber, founder of the Gandhi Tour lived in India for more than seven years. Inspired by his vision of a huge music event touring around the globe in cause of peace and non-violence, generating the consciousness to enable us to stop global hunger. Tobias with Dr. Arun Gandhi’s blessing created this dynamic musical event to inspire people on the choice of peace and non-violence in life.
The first of many events the Gandhi Tour celebrated Gandhi’s 100 years of Non-violence with Dr. Arun Gandhi at Earthdance 2006. It is there that the Gandhi Tour began its journey in the cultural peace movement of the 21st century.
Gajanan Anant Joshi (30 January 1911 – 28 Jun 1987) was a unique and versatile vocalist and probably the greatest violinist in the field of Hindustanimusic.
Pandit Gajananrao Joshi, also known respectfully and affectionately as Gajaanbuwa Joshi came from a family of musicians. His grandfather Manohar had studied dhrupad and dhamar, and his father Anant (Anant Manohar Joshi was known as Antu-Buwa) was a distinguished khayal singer who had studied under Balakrishnabuwa Ichalkaranjikar.
Gajananbuwa studied gayaki of Gwalior gharana under his father and also under other teachers in whom he found something to learn, and assimilated other styles in his art. His other gurus were Vazebuwa of Gwailor Gharana, Vilyat Hussein Khan from Agra gharana, Bhurji Khan from Jaipur-Atrauli gharana and Pandit Vinayakrao Ghangrekar for “Tabla“
His daughter Malini, sons Manohar, Madhukar and Narayan are also trained musicians. His sons variously took to singing, violin, and tabla.
His grasp was so quick that it is said that Kesarbai Kerkar did not like to have him attend her concerts because he could quickly incorporate her strengths in his own singing.
an extract.)
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