Rāga Junglism

reviewing Alina Bzhezhinska Harpist for Jazzwise
(EFG London Jazz Festival @ Pizza Express Jazz Club)

"Slowing the tempo, their take on Trane’s 'After the Rain' (prefaced with “see, I can still play softly...”) set speech-like sax-harp incantations into a thick mist of cymbals - and the tempo-jumping 'Los Caballos' (‘The Horses’) saw Joel Prime’s clattering stickwork come alive across diverse grooves. The band closed with the much-sampled Alice classic 'Journey in Satchidananda', undulating between elemental order and chaos while summoning late-night colours that belied the early afternoon setting..."

EFG London Jazz Festival: Alina Bzhezhinska Quartet @ Pizza Express Soho Aided by Tony Kofi, the London-based harpist wowed LJF-goers with an intimate, intense set in the heart of Soho

“Ragmala: Literally meaning ‘garland of ragas’, ragmala paintings - which depict the sentiments of different musical forms - were prevalent in North Indian royal palaces from around the 15th century. Typically created in loose-leaf folios of either 36 or 42 paintings, they typically depict scenes of courtship and worship amidst vivid natural-world backdrops, rich with seasonal association and ritual symbology. Arguably, the art form also encompasses temple carvings, such as the 12th-century examples at Kalgi…”

https://ragajunglism.org/tag/ragmalas/

excellent to catch up with steel-string guitar legend Jon Gomm about his imaginative use of ("I want to use mid-song retuning like Jeff Beck uses a whammy bar!")

https://ragajunglism.org/tunings/menu/open-fm/

Open Fm (& Jon Gomm interview!) | C-F-C-F-Ab-C | World of Guitar Tuning | Rāga Junglism Rāga Junglism's World of Tuning | Open Fm (5>7>5>3>4) | A rare, deep-wavering minor species of Open Gm, ideal for haunting inversions and fresh extensions…

featured in Ultimate Guitar - props for helping spreading these peg-twisting fascinations...

Researcher Puts Together List of Alternate Guitar Tunings, It's Available for Free With more to come!

Thanks Guitar World for interviewing me about the 'World of Tuning'! The project was a true joy to put together - a unique, fascinating zone of guitar playing: pushing to fly the flag for open-access, non-commercial, ad-free musicology resources...

"Stuck for ideas? Feeling uninspired? Not sure how to relight your six-string spark? George Howlett's comprehensive collection of global altered tunings is sure to help..."

An intrepid guitar researcher has assembled an exhaustive list of 100 alternate tunings – and he's just getting started Stuck for ideas? Feeling uninspired? Not sure how to relight your six-string spark? George Howlett's comprehensive collection of global altered tunings is sure to help

An intrepid guitar researcher has assembled an exhaustive list of 100 alternate tunings – and he's just getting started Stuck for ideas? Feeling uninspired? Not sure how to relight your six-string spark? George Howlett's comprehensive collection of global altered tunings is sure to help

Hyped to launch my ‘World of Tuning’ project in this month’s The Wire: Adventures In Modern Music (Aug 2022: Unofficial Channels) - demystifying 100+ tunings from around the world, plus resources on oddball instruments, DIY capo-hacks, global microtonality, & more (100% ad-free, zero paywalls).

https://ragajunglism.org/tunings/

recent review just out for Jazzwise: Alina Bzhezhinska Harpist @ Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club (with Tony Kofi Music, Jay Phelps, Vimala Rowe, Mikele MonTolli, Adam Teixeira, & Prime)

"What can jazz – a tradition birthed from the fires of transglobal injustice – seek to offer in such times? Few in the community would claim to have a coherent answer; but summoning up spirits such as these, definitely seems like a good place to start. Bzhezhinska chose to invoke the spectre of Trane with a captivating cover of ‘Alabama’: originally composed to match the cadences of a MLK speech on the 1963 Birmingham church bombing, in which four African American schoolgirls were murdered by the K*K – and now, six decades on, re-explored as ethno-nationalistic civilian bombings continue to loom heavy in the news."

https://www.jazzwise.com/review/article/alina-bzhezhinska-refreshes-the-harp-s-repertoire-for-ronnie-s-debut

Alina Bzhezhinska refreshes the harp’s repertoire for Ronnie’s debut The gifted Ukrainian-born harpist gave an impassioned performance of music from her forthcoming album, Reflections, with her fine band

Recent new toy - fretless flatwound acoustic (somehow £110), like a guitar/double bass lovechild

thanks Julian Walter Photography

Tappa music: romantic outbursts of the Punjabi camel riders - Ragatip

Ragatip article: “Tappa, derived from the folk songs and daily routines of Punjabi camel riders, is famed and feared for its fiendish rhythmic irregularities and rapid, rolling melodic tangles...

Hear how vocalists ‘jolt’ and ‘bounce’ their way through it, with sharp intakes of breath and sudden releases, as if still sitting helplessly atop the creatures themselves...”

https://ragatip.com/tappa-music-romantic-outbursts-of-the-punjabi-camel-riders/

ragatip.com Tappa songs are famed and feared by Indian musicians for their rhythmic irregularities and rapid, rolling tangle.

Global Day of Action for the Amazon – Extinction Rebellion UK

Words of Amazon-derived wisdom from Kurikindi: “As living beings, all people depend on clean water, uncontaminated and nourishing food, sunshine, safety, and some degree of personal comfort in order to survive and to grow. When I observe how people live their lives in the big cities, I question how long can people sustain any sense of wellbeing in a world populated solely with such artificial constructs, and without any understanding that none of this artificial, manufactured world is really sustainable in the long term.

In that respect, the ways of the rainforest peoples probably provide them with a better chance of survival into the distant future. Emotionally too, as I see it, we are better off: we work more closely with one another, we understand that we must depend upon one another, our children are kept close to us, and we are all close to the nature that surrounds us, feeds us, provides us with the materials for shelter, and much more.I perceive our community as a solid, robust structure, resting upon the basic building blocks of life. I therefore fear for people in cities: I see that they are no longer communities, and that many individuals have therefore lost their way. The faster we all move towards this arid, soul-destroying mode of living, the quicker we shall see the demise of our species.”

Londoners - join the XR protests today: March for the Amazon, 4pm, Trafalgar Square to Soho

https://extinctionrebellion.uk/event/global-day-of-action-for-the-amazon/

extinctionrebellion.uk [FIND AN ACTION TO JOIN OR SIGN UP TO MAKE YOUR OWN AT https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/global-day-of-action-for-the-amazon] Unprecedented fires are ravaging the Amazon – more than 74,000 fires this year is an 84% increase over last year’s count. This is an international tragedy and a d...

Bu****it Jobs excerpt: using rhythm games to escape office boredom - Rāga Junglism

tragic news of David Graeber's passing - a truly radical, global thinker, with a wealth of inspiration for any who seek to reimagine themselves and the power relations around them. A good intro talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kikzjTfos0s

was an honour to (briefly) appear in the Bu****it Jobs book, back when I had one myself ( ) - no doubt the book has helped a lot of people find much more in those grey mundanities ...or quit them altogether

ragajunglism.org   “Young people in Europe and North America in particular, but increasingly throughout the world, are being psychologically prepared for useless jobs, trained in how to pretend to work, and then by various means shepherded into jobs that almost nobody really believes serve any meaningful purpose....

Heresy or progress? Electrified instruments in Indian classical music - Ragatip

Ragatip article: "Indian classical music, though ancient in origin, has remained continually adaptable. Recently, more and more artists have 'gone electric' - here we profile the incredible amplified mandolin of Mandolin Srinivas, and Niladri Kumar's electric 'zitar'. Let your ears be the judge!"

https://ragatip.com/heresy-or-progress-electrified-instruments-in-indian-classical-music

ragatip.com Virtually all of today’s ‘acoustic’ instruments arrive to audiences through microphones and powered amplification systems.

Two maps of the 'fretless fretboard' (from my most recent Guitar World lesson: 'How to improvise using nothing but natural harmonics')



https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/the-fretless-fretboard-how-to-improvise-using-nothing-but-natural-harmonics

The fretless fretboard: how to improvise using nothing but natural harmonics

Latest Guitar World lesson: "Natural harmonics, often described as ‘floating’, ‘glistening’, or ‘bell-like’, essentially provide a second, invisible fretboard (...albeit one without any frets, or, for that matter, board).

The seven exercises below help us to build an inner ‘map’ of these hidden notes, allowing us to organize them systematically for improvisation and composition..."

▶ Features: finger tapping, thumb slapping, 'hidden chords', full natural harmonic scales, easy polytonality, Raag Shivranjani, Jaco Pastorius, Jon Gomm, Tommy Emmanuel, Lenny Breau, & more

guitarworld.com Mastering this technique will uncover a world of creative opportunities

Harness Joni Mitchell's acoustic imagination with this primer on dulcimers, altered tunings and cluster chords

Joni lesson for Guitar World: "In a way, she treats the tuning process like a painter's ‘color selection’ - each alteration brings its own tones, shades, and densities. To her, confining yourself to standard tuning is like ignoring all the other paint pots..."

("Nearly every bass player that I tried did the same thing. They would put up a dark picket fence through my music, and I thought, why does it have to go ploddy ploddy ploddy? Finally one guy said to me, ‘Joni, you better play with jazz musicians’...")

JoniMitchellcom Jaco Pastorius

guitarworld.com A deep dive into the singer-songwriter's aptitude for out-there tunings, and how you can incorporate them into your own compositions

Subcontinental sampling: Indian sounds in hip-hop, disco, and beyond - Ragatip

[article 17 in Ragatip:] Indian classical samples: how bhangra took over the American charts via Missy Elliott, and Charanjit Singh’s 'Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat' - early (accidental) acid house

ragatip.com India’s traditional instruments are famed for their vivid, captivating textures. Unsurprisingly, open-minded beatmakers from around the world have long been turning to the Subcontinent in their search for new sounds.  Despite being a pretty regular occurrence nowadays (laptop production has creat...

Wah pedal tricks and techniques: how to expand your creativity with this classic effect

Creative wah pedal use (latest lesson for Guitar World): "Brad Plunkett, though never himself a guitarist, is a bonafide hero of guitar history. As a young electrical engineer in 1966..."

"We turned it on in the lab, and this friend that I worked with played the guitar. I turned the potentiometer and he played a couple licks on the guitar, and we went crazy..."

guitarworld.com Incorporate polyrhythms, vowel patterns, and Hendrix-style licks into your playing

Profile: Dr. Kadri Gopalnath, ‘benevolent ruler’ of the Carnatic saxophone

"Gopalnath became enraptured by the sax as a child after seeing one at his local temple in Mysore. He walked up to the mysterious musician and asked him what he was playing..." [article n.16 in Ragatip]

ragatip.com Dr. Kadri Gopalnath, the pioneer of Carnatic classical saxophone, sadly passed away in October 2019. He had first found his curious calling at the age of eight, becoming enraptured by the sax after...

Tales of the tabla: The Mughal Emperor and the Red Fort Kayda

Ragatip's tabla tales: “Ruthlessly passionate about cultural success, it is said the Emperor summoned the finest masters from across the land, and demanded they face off against each other...”

"But, this competition was no X-Factor. Dozens of tabla players did battle with their drums for days on end, whipping onlookers into a frenzy. Finally, Ustad Kale Khan stepped to the stage..."

[article n.15 in Ragatip]

ragatip.com It is fabled that the great tabla masters of the past could summon divine powers through their drums, captivating even the birds and beasts with their sonic ingenuity. According to one famous tale,...

Profile: Pandit Ram Sahai, fountainhead of the Benares tabla gharana

“Sahai retreated to the jungle with his tabla for two years, practicing, meditating, and listening closely to the sounds of the forest. He gradually conceived a fresh, versatile approach amidst the birds and trees...”

Many thanks to Pandit Sanju Sahai, Ram Sahai's lineal torchbearer, for his generous input [article n.14 in Ragatip]

ragatip.com Pandit Ram Sahai (1780-1826) earned his place in rhythmic history as the foundational master of the now-famous Benares tabla gharana. When he was a young disciple of Ustad Modhu Khan, leader of the...

Rabindrasangeet: the songs of Tagore, a broad-minded Bengali icon

“Western writers, ever-prone to compress Indian phenomena into their own pre-shaped boxes, often describe Tagore as the ‘Indian Shakespeare’ - but the Bard’s interests were positively narrow compared to those of the Subcontinental polymath, who moved between poetry, painting, playwriting, public speaking, and countless other creative forms...”

[article n.13 in Ragatip]

https://www.ragatip.com/posts/3894015

ragatip.com “Don't limit a child to your own learning, for she was born in another time” Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) The songs of Bengali icon Rabindranath Tagore are collectively known as Rabindrasangeet....

Journalistic clarification: I am not in fact claiming that Gretchen Menn (lead guitarist of Zepparella) is a capuchin monkey, despite what Guitar World's auto-placed ad panel may suggest...

Profile: Pandit Anokhelal Mishra’s total tabla dedication

More tales of the tabla: "Though born into poverty, Anokhelal Mishra would eventually rise to be known as Tabla Samrat - the ‘Emperor of Tabla’. Some say his manual talents were first spotted via an obsession with playing marbles as an infant..."

[article n.12 in Ragatip]

ragatip.com Tabla mythology venerates those who cannot be separated from their instrument. It is said that Pandit Samta Prasad practiced so hard that his neighbours could see streams of sweat seeping from bene...

Bring a new dimension to your acoustic playing with this guide to percussive guitar techniques

New Guitar World lesson up: "Societies of the East and West tend to speak of their percussionists as a sort of ‘missing link’ between the civilized human world and the primal physicality of the animal kingdom.

Our fictional drummers often reflect this - 'Animal' from The Muppets, the strange sheep-like creature from the Wine Gums advert, and of course the gorilla in the Cadbury commercial (actually Phil Collins in a suit). And us guitarists, despite being genetically human, are percussionists too..."



https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/bring-a-new-dimension-to-your-acoustic-playing-with-this-guide-to-percussive-guitar-techniques

guitarworld.com How you can better utilize the acoustic guitar's rhythmic capacity

How a teenage Zakir Hussain ended up on the Grateful Dead’s psychedelic ranch

“Zakir’s father Ustad Alla Rakha decided that, for the summer, he would leave the young drummer with all those friendly people at the Grateful Dead’s infamous Novato Ranch - an epicentre for musical hippedom in late-1960s California, and all the colourful paraphernalia that came with it...”

“Here I am on the floor, and I look up and then there’s Jerry Garcia...totally oblivious to this body lying down there, and David Crosby humming...over in the corner there’s Grace Slick screaming away, Carlos [Santana] would show up...and just kind of jam - all these musicians!”.

[article n.11 in Ragatip]

ragatip.com We often forget how many of Indian music’s global stars led an international life from their early days. Ravi Shankar, to give just one example, first came to Europe aged ten, as a dancer in his br...