Babukishan Das great success on AFMM

Babukishan Das, from India, joined Johnny Reinhard and Jon Catler in
an evening of improvisation tonight.

It was a great success, due to Babukishan's wonderful personality,
music and philosophy. Coming from the Sufi Baul tradition
of "ecstasy" experiences, Babukishan had virtually *everybody*
playing small instruments and dancing by the end of the evening!

The idea is that music is something that inspires *joy* and
participation. He especially liked some of Jon Catler's rhythmic
just intonation rock chords... He really "got going" on the drums
during those...

Linda (my wife, who was also dancing) and I were reflecting on our
way home from the concert how different this encouraging philosophy
was from the "Western" way, where only musical professionals
and "experts" are allowed to perform. Otherwise, the quality of the
performance is considered "lessened" rather than "enhanced..."

A refreshing view from Babukishan Das, for sure...

J. Pehrson

hi Joseph,

this reminds me of the Earth Chant sessions we had
at the Sonic Arts Gallery back in 1998. they started
out with everyone sitting on the floor in a circle
and intoning one note in unison. then gradually
each person would start singing or vocalizing anything
they felt at the moment. little by little, people
would pick up the instruments that were lying all
around, and start playing, and by the end it turned
out to be a great free-form group improvisation.

-monz

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:
> Babukishan Das, from India, joined Johnny Reinhard and Jon Catler in
> an evening of improvisation tonight.
>
> It was a great success, due to Babukishan's wonderful personality,
> music and philosophy. Coming from the Sufi Baul tradition
> of "ecstasy" experiences, Babukishan had virtually *everybody*
> playing small instruments and dancing by the end of the evening!
>
> The idea is that music is something that inspires *joy* and
> participation. He especially liked some of Jon Catler's rhythmic
> just intonation rock chords... He really "got going" on the drums
> during those...
>
> Linda (my wife, who was also dancing) and I were reflecting on our
> way home from the concert how different this encouraging philosophy
> was from the "Western" way, where only musical professionals
> and "experts" are allowed to perform. Otherwise, the quality of the
> performance is considered "lessened" rather than "enhanced..."
>
> A refreshing view from Babukishan Das, for sure...
>
> J. Pehrson