Saturday, August 9, 2003 at 9 pm
La Monte Young, voice
Marian Zazeela, voice
Jung Hee Choi, voice
Charles Curtis, cello
Brad Catler, tabla
The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath from the Just Dreams CD
MELA Foundation Dream House
275 Church Street, 3rd Floor,
New York, NY 10013
(Between Franklin & White Streets in Tribeca)
Admission $24. MELA Members, Seniors, Student ID, $18.
Limited seating. Advance reservations recommended.
A Concert of Evening Ragas in the contemporary Kirana Style of
North Indian Classical Music will be performed by La Monte Young and
Marian Zazeela with their raga ensemble Just Alap, in celebration of the
life of Ustad Hafizullah Khan Sahib, on Saturday, August 9th, 2003 at 9 pm, in
the MELA Foundation Dream House light environment, 275 Church Street, 3rd
Floor. Ustad Hafizullah Khan Sahib, sarangi master, Khalifa of the Kirana
Gharana, and only son of Pandit Pran Nath's guru Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan Sahib,
passed away on August 13, 2002 in New Delhi.
La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela will be accompanied by Jung Hee
Choi, voice; Charles Curtis, cello; Brad Catler, tabla; and The Tamburas of
Pandit Pran Nath from the Just Dreams CD (JD001). The program will include
compositions by Pandit Pran Nath and Ustad Hafizullah Khan in Raga Yaman
Kalyan, and a special arrangement and original text by La Monte
Young of a composition in Raga Bhairavi dedicated to Ustad Hafizullah
Khan.
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 ensemble, La Monte 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. Featuring extended alap
sections and sustained vocal drones in just intonation over tamburas, Young and
Zazeela premiered this ensemble on August 22, 2002 in a memorial tribute to
Ustad Hafizullah Khan.
Ustad Hafizullah Khan received the title of Khalifa (hereditary head)
of the Kirana Gharana of North Indian classical music in 1964. Since
1967, he was a senior artist at All India Radio, Delhi with the highest rating.
He received the Swami Haridas Sangeet Samelan Sur Mani Award in 1972, and
performed at most of the major music festivals in India. In 1975, 1989 and 1990,
Hafizullah Khan Sahib toured Europe. On his second U.S. tour, MELA Foundation
was honored to present his exquisitely serene and deeply contemplative music on
June 13, 2002, when he gave his first and only New York performance in the MELA Dream
House in a memorial tribute to Pandit Pran Nath.
La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela helped bring renowned master
vocalist Pandit Pran Nath to the U.S. and became his first Western disciples,
studying with him for twenty-six years in the traditional gurukul manner
of living with the guru. Young and Zazeela have taught the Kirana style and
performed with Pandit Pran Nath since 1970 in hundreds of concerts in India,
Iran, Europe and the United States. In June 2002, Young was conferred the title
of Khan Sahib by Khalifa Hafizullah Khan Sahib.
Pandit Pran Nath, who passed away on June 13, 1996, 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. He performed frequently
in New York City and in 1972, established his own school under the direction of
La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, the Kirana Center for Indian
Classical Music, now a project of MELA Foundation. In Fall 1993, Pran Nath
inaugurated the MELA Foundation Dream House with three Raga Cycle concerts
and continued to perform here annually during his lifetime.
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. In
addition to 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, Sufi Pir Shabda Kahn,
mathematician and composer Christer Hennix, concept artist and violinist Henry
Flynt, dancer Simone Forti, and many others took advantage of the opportunity to
study with the master.
MELA's programs are made possible with public funds from the New York State
Council on the Arts, a State Agency.
MELA Foundation, Inc.
275 Church Street
New York, NY 10013
212-925-8270
www.melafoundation.org
mail@melafoundation.org