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Matthew 18:20

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

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Lee Konitz

Is there are metaphor here for something greater? Something at hand?

Jazz is American’s classical music. It’s a national disgrace that it is so rarely heard, so absent from mainstream culture. Whereas we’ll spend millions on opera, concert halls and theaters, if you want to hear jazz, go to a saloon. It is widely held that the early jazz musicians were primitives, uncouth fellows who couldn’t read music, who played by ear, but who just had that innate ability to play. Nothing could be further from the truth. The vast majority of jazz musicians could and did, read and write music at the highest level and their musical education embraced all forms of music, Western classical, South and Central American, popular music, folk music etc. The one thing they all had in common was that they loved good music, from whatever cultural tradition it came from.

What’s more, jazz initially, was an ensemble music, entirely democratic, each instrument playing with and off the others. Highly American, in fact.

As time went by, ego asserted itself and the era of ‘the solo’ arrived. No more was ensemble playing valued. A trio, say, of piano, bass and druns would accompany the Soloist – the same happened in rock music too, and the public were treated to intermnably long, boring solos that eventually almost killed off the form. Many will be familiar with the story of how John Coltrane asked his then boss, Miles Davis, “Miles, when I get on that bandstand, I just go off into a world of my own. I lose all sense of time. People tell my my solos are too long. How can I make them shorter?” Miles said, but less politiely than this, “Try taking the horn out of your mouth.”

Loren Schoenberg, esteemed director of the National Museum in Harlem, and no mean player of the  tenor horn himself, says that the ensemble playing that the musicians of the past played, was extremely diffiicult to execute and that most modern players would find great difficulty playing it. He says it is technically much more difficult than soloing in front of a backing group. Indeed, he says, this being so, if audiences were more hip to what’s going on, it’d be the ensemble playing they’d applaud, not the solos.

Lee Konitz, a man they should be building statues for now when he’s still alive, and unquestionably one of the all-time great improvising musicians said to me yesterday, “in playing, more and more I feel like eliminating the concept of solo after solo, and the group really responding to each other. In the moment it becomes a compositional music that is great fun to play and sometimes, although it’s hard to evaluate the musical worth, it’s communicable too. Audiences appreciate not having to wade through these endless solos of mediocrity most of the time.” And he says, “To me that’s a revelation I’ve known all these years but somehow, people are willing to try that now, the young people. And I’ve had great fun doing that with young musicians. I’ll play with Brad Mehldau and Charlie Hayden in July and I’m hoping we can do that because they’re great at that, if they’re willing to do that, it’ll take Brad and all of us off the spot, of having to repeat what he’s famous for, playing great solos and things.”

By the way, Lee is playing with these guys at Birdland, for four days from July 20th.

Lee’s touching something profound in my view. Collective playing opens us up more, is spiritually fulfilling and is rewarding equally for the player and the listener. What are we waiting for? Maybe dancing together is about to come back too?

This could be the platform on which live music will enhance our lives and become commonplace once more, that our best musicians should be accorded the stature they deserve.

But I hope and pray, that these Obama years will be the prelude to something beyond our wildest hopes that human evolution will leap forward so that we all live together in peace and harmony, that this Mother Earth becomes a paradise for all God’s creatures, a place where true values are celebrated and where the rich, the greedy, the manipulators take a back seat for at least a few millennium. Their riegn has lasted too long and maybe the ensembe players are about to have a chance.

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An experience is what it is, by definition, beyond words. Of course, we all try to tell our friends about seeing a movie, reading a book, listening to music, but in our hearts we know it doesn’t work. If you’re a man and woman explains to you what it’s like to have a baby, even though you understand all the words, you know, no one has to tell you, that what you’ve got from the explanation is merely a hint here and there, no more, you do not get what it’s like to suffer the pains of actually having a child.

Pity then the poor music journalist, or the guy who gets to review new music releases, or the guy who gets to tell you what a new movie is like – and, it has to be said, some of them rise magnificently to the task. But even, at their brilliant best, what you get as a reader/listener, is a flavor, a hint, a taste, of what’s on offer. And of course, things go awry. I remember reading a review in the Melody Maker, then the prime source of the latest in rock music. It said, if you’re down to your last 37 shillings and 6 pence, rush out and buy the latest album by …..  I was, and I did, and the result was a massive letdown, I barely listened once to the drivel I’d forked out my last two quid for. I can no longer remember the offending artists or the name of the album, but I stuck the Melody Maker review to it to remind me not to do it again.

In those far off, upbeat, positive, upbeat days of the 60s, I was always up for the copy line on a book “this book will change your life”. And sometimes it did. I was desperate for the changes promised and of course, most  were inevitably disappointing, never as great or as massive as I was open to, dying for. Once, in Liverpool, while waiting to get the midnight boat to Belfast, I bought a new book, in hardcover, a massive investment from one who was a paperback man to his bootstraps, a book that  had this promise somewhere in the accompanying puff.  It was Catch 22, and I read it on the overnight sea trip, sitting in the steerage lounge, while my fellow passengers boozed, sang and eventually paid for their pleasures as the boat hit rough water off the Isle of Man. Catch 22 took me to a different place, out of the maelstrom of unpleasantness I was sitting in, Guinness bottles rolling back and forth, moans of sea-sickness and upset stomach, as the ship pitched and turned. I was fairly oblivious to most of it and arrived in Belfast at 6 am the next day, bleary eyed and happy, having read the book from cover to cover in one sitting. Did it change my life? A wee bit.

When the disillusionment of the 70s set in, such advertising ploys were by then seen as merely cynical.  Worse, dodgy gurus appeared, offering profound spiritual change, but who turned out to be more interested in wanting to sleep with their disciples, to bleed them of their money, to sell them spiritual snake oil, or worse, implant in them a malevolent psychic entity subtly disguised as initially pleasurable, something that over time, would do immense psychic harm to their hosts.

In my case, I had to wait many long years for the change I sought. It was in 1990 that I went along to Hammersmith Town Hall and experienced the joy of real Kundalini awakening, that introduction to the divine deep within myself  that changed my life forever, that informed every living, breathing, sentient moment that followed.

I’ve just read an account by my old friend John Noyce, who’s been attending a Health Fair in Melbourne and it set me thinking along these lines. He said, “it’s an interesting challenge to explain meditation in non-technical terms and then help people get into meditation whilst raising their Kundalini, all in just a few minutes – and all to a background of shamanic drumming, Chinese masseurs touting for business. (3 of them got their realisation eventually), etc!  My brief mention of ‘non-reaction’ as a meditation technique seemed to make sense to the first few so I kept using it, together with defining yoga as ‘union with the Creator’ which seemed to focus people’s attention very rapidly.”

For me, I’ve found it better to stop explaining, but to each his own, if it works for you, go for it. But it seems to me that if the object is experience, of helping people who are seeking that profound spiritual happening  of deep meditation, giving them an explanation first will be as helpful as gilding a lily. Why bother? Worse, as soon as you start explaining, they’re bound to start thinking, even if it’s only along the lines of “Do I agree or disagree with what this person is saying?” And if they’re thinking “This guy’s talking trash” or “I just don’t understand this”, then you’ve really got an uphill struggle.

Given these things happen in a busy, noisy place, like a street fair or an indoor Health Fair, and time is of of the essence, now I just say something along the lines of “This is an experience so let’s just try it and if you have any questions by all means ask them when we’ve finished”.

I’d recommend avoiding the sort of thing that happened in a New Age Fair a few years ago. A very correct businessman came on to our stand, sat in a chair and a woman helped raise his Kundalini and get him into deep meditation. He was stunned, hugely impressed by the experience of mental silence. He later said something along the lines of “Wow, that was one of the most amazing experiences of my life”. Instead of just smiling, and either saying nothing or a simple, “Great. I’m really pleased too,” the woman said, “Yes, and just think you’ve spent many lifetimes waiting for this very moment!” The guy looked at her with astonishment and utter incredulity, leaped out his chair, and ran from the stand like an Olympic sprinter doing the 100 meter dash.

Even the stupid can appear wise when they shut up. (Advice I confess, I am not always adept at taking myself).

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Sai Baba seated on a stone

Sai Baba of Shirdi was the tenth incarnation of the Satguru, of Shri Adi Guru Dattatreya. He was born in 1838 and died on October 15th, 1918. He was born a Muslim and he practiced both Musim and Hindu rituals. Many miracles are attributed to him, and he lived simply and quietly.

My brother Sid says, “We used to visit Shirdi when I was a very young man and I’ve gone many times after that. Unfortunately, it is now grossly over-commercialized.  One shudders to think what the great master would think if he were to return there now and see what they’ve created in his name. There are  mysteries too: at my aunts house the photo of Sai Baba gives Bhusma, which is ashes. No one knows where Shri Saibaba came from or even where he is really buried. The tomb in Shirdi is not where he is.!  interesting.”

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Shri Mataji's house in New Jersey

A nightime view of the house Shri Mataji personally designed and had built in New Jersey. The outstanding Lothar Pfeifer supervised the entire project from beginning to end. When the foundations of the house were laid, the vibrations, particularly from the area which was to be Shri Mataji’s bedroom, were quite phenomenal.

The inside of the house is spectacular too, there is a wooden, spiral staircase with hand-carved roses in oak, and many exceptional features. The house was given by Shri Mataji as a gift to the US collective of Sahaja Yogis, along with the ashram and the land at Canajoharie. What blessings and kindness from the Holy Mother to her children.

Just say if you’d like to see more photos and I’ll post them.

dining room

display cabinet

staircase

wood panellingspiral staircase

spiral staircase

spiral staircase

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Shri Mataji in 1979

from Avdhut Pai – a rare photo of Our Dear Mother taken in 1979 in Mumbai ( It was in a flat – 9th floor of a building called Neelambar on Peddar road in Mumbai) wherein the first marriage took place. It was taken by Malcolm Murdoch.

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Crop Circle 2009

does anyone have an interesting explanation? – here’s an article from the UK’s Daily Mail:

May 29th 2009

Just when you thought crop circles were a thing of the past, the first mysterious formation of 2009 has been spotted.

The intricate pattern measuring approximately 60 ft in diameter was spotted on Tuesday in a remote area near Avebury in Wiltshire.

It is made up of two segments of arcs of decreasing size between the concentric inner circles.

The ancient area of Wiltshire close to Silbury Hill, Windmill Hill and the Sanctuary is a hot spot for crop circles.

Photographer Lucy Pringle, who lives near Petersfield, Hampshire, has become something of a national expert on the crop circle phenomenon since being hooked by their mystery in 1990.

She said: ‘In all the hundreds I’ve captured, no two are identical.

‘I look into the scientific aspects of these circles and research the effects of electromagnetic fields on our living systems.’

The mystery of how crop circles are created has never been solved.

Cynics have claimed the patterns are the work of computer scientists using teams of volunteers.

Enlarge

Unbee-lievable: This insect shape appeared in the crops in Milk Hill, Wiltshire in 2004

Mysterious: A rectangular shape was left in crops in East Field, Wiltshire in 2003

However crop circle enthusiasts argue there are not enough hours of darkness in summer to allow them to be completed by humans.

Many people believe the patterns are a message from extra-terrestrial lifeforms.

Another theory is that colossal energy is amassed above the earth in the ionosphere and then zapped towards the ground where it creates the crop circle usually on chalky ground in areas traditionally known for their ‘energy lines’ and mystical past.

In the past the formations have not been limited to just circles.

Shapes include a bee, a rectangle and even a three-dimensional formation.

Last year a crop circle in a barley field near Wroughton in Wiltshire was found by an astrophysicist  to be a pictorial representation of the first ten digits of Pi, one of the most fundamental symbols in mathematics.

Enlarge

From another dimension? A 3D shape appeared in crops in Silbury Hill, Wiltshire in 2007

It all adds up: This crop circle in a barley field near Wroughton in Wiltshire is thought to be a coded version of Pi

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Shankar Ramani

We can all hear that mostly Westerners can’t but I asked Shankar Ramani, who sings in the Karnatic style, and who happens to be one of the best Indian singers currently living in the USA. He said:

Westerners learn and perform their music through discrete notes and not as curvy phrases or modulations.  In Indian music, notes are very important but when it comes to combining them, the curvy phrase or modulation within the tune concerned is focused on rather than constructing the phrase mentally through a combination of the notes that represent them.  Therefore, one can say that Indian classical music is largely analog in nature or a continuous stream of notes of high resolution, whereas Western music is very often a skillful or deft rendition of a combination of notes.  So when Westerners learn and sing Indian music they seem them more as straight lines constructed from the notes, whereas the Indian Classical musician (after the initial learning stage) learns how to render the phrase or tune as an identity of its own – it is also called as “Gamakas”.  One reason why the keyboard is not used in Indian classical music is due to its limitation on being able to produce these waves or curvy phrases.

The way out is for Westerners to re-engineer their basics of music and learn Indian music afresh with this in mind instead of trying to sing Indian music on their existing musical approach or learning.

Secondly, there is a tendency to align towards throaty singing and more rhythmic emphasis and tend to mix impactful music with loud and often very rhythmic music.  You can also find Westerners getting carried away when clapping their hands with rhythmic bhajans which they think is intense devotion, fact is that most often they are only getting excited by the rhythm rather than the nuance of the musical notes touching their hearts.  No doubt they also appreciate soulful stirring music, but it is much easier to get them excited using rhythm.  Whereas, Indian musicians by nature blend a more uniform proportion of rhythm, tonal modulations and nuances and focus is more on melodious modulation more than on fast paced or good rhythmic type of music.  There are of course exceptions on both sides.

Thirdly, the extent of “heart” and “love” in the music that flows is much less in Western men singing music as compared to Indians, although Western women tend to produce this very easily, in many cases more than Indian counterparts – I think this has some correlation to their childhood upbringing and environment that they live in.

A bit of understanding and focus is all this necessary for Westerners to make the switch deftly to Indian music – we have had a few great Indian Classical musicians who were from the West – there was a guy called John Higgins who was a stalwart at South Indian style of Classical music.

It’s worth noting that for the same reasons, Indians try to do too much when they sing Western music – they can’t just sing straight and be true to the Western style.  Nor are they generally suited for the type of voice modulations that is required by music such as Jazz or blues…assuming rock music is sufficiently degenerate enough* that anyone who renders it in whichever way and becomes successful sets a new standard.

Hope this is enlightening.

* Shivalan’s note. When I was a kid, there was a very funny album called A Child’s Garden of Freburg. One of the tracks had Stan Freberg as a New York rock ‘n roll manager, bring in a teenager off the street and poke him with a stick to produce the whoops and hollers of a 50′s rock star.

Jazz musicians sometimes complain  that audiences applaud when they hear a solo when what is being played is often not technically that difficult, but it contains theatrical moments which appeal to the uneducated ear, i.e. a trumpeter will play some implausibly high notes. The audiences tend not to respond to what is really difficult, for example, ensemble playing where say, a piano, bass, drums and saxophone, will combine to play complex musical phrases as if they are one instrument. If there was any justice, it’d be these moments, moments when two plus two really do equal five, that get the applause, not the solos.

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Trigunatma

A program from Colombia, South America, through which 10,000 people have so far taken Self-realization in different locations across the oountry.

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