Concert by Just Alap Ensemble in the MELA Dream House |
Saturday, November 1, 2003 at 9 pm |
Pandit Pran Nath 85th Birthday Memorial Tribute |
La
Monte Young, voice
Marian
Zazeela, voice
Jung
Hee Choi, voice
Rose Okada, sarangiCharles Curtis, celloBrad
Catler, tabla
The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath from the Just Dreams CD
|
Just Alap Raga Ensemble, Photo Jung Hee Choi 2003 |
MELA Foundation Dream House275 Church Street, 3rd Floor, Between Franklin & White Streets in TribecaSaturday, November 1, 2003, 9 pmAdmission $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 a memorial tribute honoring Pandit Pran Nath on his 85th birthday, Saturday, November 1, at 9 pm in the MELA Foundation Dream House light environment, 275 Church Street, 3rd Floor. PLEASE NOTE: The Dream House will be closed on Saturday, November 1st because of the scheduled concert.
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, the Khalifa of the Kirana Gharana and son of Pandit Pran Nath’s teacher, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan Sahib.
La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela will be accompanied by Jung Hee Choi, voice, Rose Okada, sarangi, Charles Curtis, cello, Brad Catler, tabla, and The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath from the Just Dreams CD. The program will include compositions by Pandit Pran Nath in Raga Yaman Kalyan, and also by Young in Raga Sindh Bhairavi. 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 gurukula manner
of living with the guru. Young
and Zazeela have taught the Kirana style and performed with Pandit Pran
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. Admission is $24 / $18 MELA members, seniors and students with ID. Limited seating. Advance reservations recommended. For further information email mail@melafoundation.org or visit www.melafoundation.org or call 212-925-8270. MELA's programs are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. |