Three Evening Concerts of Raga Darbari in
the MELA Dream House
La Monte Young, voice
Marian Zazeela, voice
Jung Hee Choi, voice
MELA Foundation Dream House
275 Church Street, 3rd Floor, between Franklin &
White Streets in Tribeca
Saturday Evenings, June 16, 23, and 30, 2012, 9 pm
Limited seating. Advance reservations
recommended.
Following the
Pandit Pran Nath Memorial Tribute Tour 2012
with five sold-out concerts in Berlin,
Karlsruhe and Polling, Bavaria, The Just Alap
Raga Ensemble featuring La Monte Young,
Marian Zazeela, and Jung Hee Choi, accompanied
by Naren Budhkar, will present three concerts
of Raga
Darbari in the contemporary Kirana gharana (style) of North
Indian Classical Music. In
tribute to Pandit Pran Nath on the 16th
anniversary of his passing, the concerts will
take place Saturdays, June 16, 23
and 30, 2012 at 9 pm, in the MELA
Foundation Dream House light
environment, 275 Church Street, 3rd Floor
The Just Alap Ensemble will perform Pandit
Pran Nath's special arrangement of "Hazrat Turkaman",
a traditional vilampit khayal composition set
in Raga Darbari. With deep respect
for Pandit Pran NathÕs arrangement of this great
composition, Young has composed two-part harmony for
the Ôsthayi and for the antara.
Similar to his previous concerts with The Ensemble,
Young introduces drones in two- and three-part
harmony, and even counterpoint in the pre-composition
part of the alap, and, as in his earlier
composition ÒRaga SundaraÓ set in Raga Yaman
Kalyan, the harmony line for these
compositions in Raga Darbari comprises the
introduction of two-part harmony into Indian classical
khayal composition, contributing a new
element to Indian classical music. The
harmony for the Ôsthayi of "Hazrat Turkaman"
is dedicated to Jung Hee Choi and was composed as a
present on her birthday, November 1, 2009; the
harmony for the antara is dedicated to Pandit
Pran Nath and was composed on his 91st
birthday, November 3, 2009.
Young considers The Just Alap Raga Ensemble to be one
of the most significant creations in the development
of his compositional process in that it organically
merges the traditions of Western and Hindustani
classical musics with the knowledge of acoustical
science to embody complementary forms in an
encompassing evolutionary statement. Pandit Pran
Nath has said, "Alap is the essence of
Raga. When the drut [faster tempo]
begins, the Raga is finished." With The
Just Alap Raga Ensemble, Young applies his own
compositional approach to traditional raga
performance, form and technique: a pranam (bow)
of gratitude in reciprocation for the influence on his
music, since the mid-fifties, of the unique, slow,
unmetered timeless alap, and for one of
the most ancient and evolved vocal traditions extant
today. The Ensemble features extended alap
sections, sustained vocal and instrumental drones,
two- and three-part harmony and counterpoint in
just intonation over tamburas.
Young, Zazeela and Choi premiered this ensemble
on August 22, 2002 in a memorial tribute to Ustad
Hafizullah Khan, the Khalifa of the Kirana Gharana and
son of Pandit Pran NathÕs teacher, Ustad Abdul Wahid
Khan Sahib.
Pandit Pran Nath virtually introduced the vocal
tradition of North Indian classical music to the West
in 1970. His 1971 morning performance at Town
Hall, New York City, was the first concert of morning
ragas to be presented in the U.S. Subsequently,
he introduced and elaborated to Western audiences the
concept of performing ragas at the proper time of day
by scheduling entire series of concerts at special
hours. Many students and professional musicians
came to him in America to learn about the vast system
of raga and to improve their musicianship. In
1972, Pran Nath established his own school in New York
City under the direction of his disciples
La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, the Kirana
Center for Indian Classical Music, now a project of
MELA Foundation. Over the years Pran Nath
performed hundreds of concerts in the West, scores of
them in New York City, and in Fall 1993, he
inaugurated the MELA Foundation Dream House with
three Raga Cycle concerts. He
continued to perform here annually during his
remaining years and on May 12 and 17, 1996, his two
concerts of Afternoon and Evening Ragas in
the Dream House were his last public
performances before he passed away on June 13,
1996.
Pran Nath's majestic expositions of the slow alap sections
of ragas combined with his emphasis on
perfect intonation and the clear evocation of mood had
a profound impact on Western contemporary composers
and performers. Following Young and Zazeela,
minimalist music composer Terry Riley became one of
his first American disciples. Fourth-world
trumpeter Jon Hassell, jazz all‑stars Don Cherry and
Lee Konitz, composers Jon Gibson, Yoshimasa Wada, Rhys
Chatham, Michael Harrison and Allaudin Mathieu, Shabda
Kahn, Pir of the Sufi Ruhaniat International,
mathematician and composer Christer Hennix, concept
artist and violinist Henry Flynt, dancer Simone
Forti, and many others took the opportunity to study
with the master.
In The Hindustan Times (2003), Shanta Serbjeet Singh
wrote:
Ò[Young and Zazeela] would create works like the ÒJust
Alap Raga EnsembleÓ which would amaze musicians of the
caliber of Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj or the
Gundecha brothers were they to hear it. In fact
I wish they would hear it and savour their own legacy
of Indian classical music in two new ways, one, by way
of the YoungsÕ immense sadhna and two, by way
of the fact that today the great art of Hindustani Shastriya
sangeet has actually become so much a part
of the world of music. Did not the ancients say:
Vasudeva KumutbhakamÑthe world is a
family? A work like ÒJust Alap Raga EnsembleÓ
actually proves it.Ó
In the 2005 article, ÒTales Of Exemplary Guru Bhakti /
Pran Nath, La Monte Young And Marian Zazeela,Ó
Spic Macay (Society for the Promotion of Indian
Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth) quarterly
magazine "The Eye," it is noted:
ÒHe [Young] is a master of Hindustani classical
music. É La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela,
founders of the MELA Foundation Dream House in New
York are responsible for having single-handedly
introduced vocal Hindustani classical music to
America. In 1970 when they brought renowned
master vocalist Pandit Pran Nath of the Kirana Gharana
to the U.S. and became his first Western disciples,
studying with him for twenty-six years in the
traditional gurukula manner of living
with the guru, Americans and Westerners only had a
nodding acquaintance with Indian music, that too, only
instrumental music through the performing tours of
Pandit Ravi Shankar. Also some introduction to
Indian rhythm techniques through the charismatic
playing of Pandit Chatur Lal, the tabla player who
always accompanied Ravi Shankar through the
sixties. But the deep, unfathomable intricacies
of Khayal Gayaki and of the whole cosmos
of Alap were totally unknown to
them. Indeed, as his many American shishyas,
most of them practicing musicians themselves,
would say later, even unimaginable. É Young and
Zazeela, who taught the Kirana style and performed
with Pandit Pran Nath since 1970 in hundreds of
concerts in India, Iran, Europe and the United States,
have continued their GuruÕs work in the most exemplary
manner. In June 2002, shortly before he died,
Khalifa Hafizullah Khan Sahib, Ustad Wahid Khan
SahibÕs son and a great sarangi master, conferred on
Young the title of Khan Sahib.Ó
American Music, Winter 2009, reviewed the
Ensemble's March 2009 performance at the Guggenheim
Museum: "Later
on, however, the ensemble revealed its most striking
innovation: in another bold deviation from traditional
North Indian monophony, they rendered the composition
in two-part harmony. ...In the context of raga
performance, this harmonization, combined with the
ethereal polytonal quality of Raga Yaman, lent the
ensemble a breathtakingly lush quality with each
return of the refrain."
In his LA Times Blog, critic Mark Swed wrote of the
Ensemble's 2009 performance of the Maha Mrityunjaya
Mantra in Raga Sindh Bhairavi:
"Frankly,
what made me drop everything and fly to New York at
the last minute for the [Merce Cunningham] memorial
was the announcement of the music lineup, which was a
once-in-a-life-time gathering. La Monte Young,
the otherworldly inventor of Minimalism, began the
program singing a welcoming raga with Marian Zazeela
and Jung Hee Choi, which was pure vibratory magic."
Concert admission is $36 / $28 MELA members; seniors;
students with ID. Limited seating.
Advance reservations recommended. For
further information and reservations email mail@melafoundation.org
or visit www.melafoundation.org.
PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE CONCERTS WILL BE
RECORDED LIVE. AIR CONDITIONING WILL NOT BE
USED BECAUSE OF THE NOISE IT PRODUCES ON THE
RECORDINGS. THE CONCERTS IN THE DREAM
HOUSE CAN BE VERY HOT AND HUMID BECAUSE OF THE
LIGHTS. PLEASE DRESS APPROPRIATELY FOR THE
HEAT AND HUMIDITY.
MELA's programs are made possible with public
funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a
State Agency, and generous contributions from
individuals and MELA Members.