In his early career, Ravi Shankar wrote many soundtracks for legendary Bengali film director Satyajit Ray including PATHER PANCHALI.
He also wrote several bollywood soundtracks like the one below starring Hema Malini as Mirabai.
Here is a wonderful video of him performing with his daughter Anoushka who he toured with for many years in his late career.
Richmond mourns the loss of a great guitar Maestro
This article appeared in yesterday's Richmond Times Dispatch - it's a tribute to Carlos Pozzi, who taught classical guitar in Richmond public schools for 30 years (he lived a full life despite having to undergo 3 kidney transplants in his lifetime).
He was my first and favorite guitar teacher and a mentor to me in many ways and I will miss him alot. Like many of his students, music has been central in my life ever since I began taking lessons from him.
He inspired so many young people over the years so the mark he left on this world cannot be measured.
The memorial service for Carlos Pozzi was held last Sunday at the Richmond Friends Meeting House and his family, friends, and colleagues all gathered to remember him.
Mr. Pozzi's spirit and legacy will live on through the many students he taught - some who have gone on to become guitar teachers themselves, and others who have applied the wisdom he shared in other ways.
Ive had these up online for a while but I keep forgetting to post them here. Ive been so busy lately.. really need to blog more often! here are the latest podcasts from the past month or so....
MUSIC USED IN SOME OF THIS YEAR'S BIGGEST FASHION SHOWS
I'll be DJing for the TEEN STYLIN' event at the VMFA next month so I put this blog post together for the fashion show participants to give them a sample of the type of musical selections the big fashion designers are choosing these days. (Actually, the music I'll be playing will be mostly chosen by the designers themselves. So this blog post is meant to help the designers start thinking about what sort of music they want to use in their show. )
NOTE: most of the links below are from 2012.... still cool stuff, but a year old now... so here's a few links to this year's music runway selections:
Normally, I would recommend that you DONT choose obvious Pop Songs -- but in this show, Jean Paul Gaultier seems to be doing an all out TRIBUTE to 80s Pop Icons... Nice!
And here’s a web page of a professional music service that apparently provides a lot of music mixes for various fashion shows.You can click through to see the sort of
variety of sounds they use for different fashion styles.
and here's a blog entry by a creative director / show stylist on "how to pick music for your fashion show"
NOTE: The list of brands and designers, as well as many of the song titles, came from this wonderful article in VOGUE from August - however, in that article, none of the actual video was included - so you couldnt see how the music and the movement of the models interacted. Also, the Vogue article is completely dependent on the reader having Spotify installed (not a bad program at all actually), and some songs played during the show were not listed in their article at all. So I did a quite a bit of extra research (basically, surfing around through the comments in the videos) to "expand" the wonderful article Vogue published last August.
This month, like previous years, I'm hosting a HINDI HALLOWEEN DANCE PARTY called...... BOLLOWEEN NIGHT which takes place on Friday Oct. 12, 2012 at Cous Cous - 900 W Franklin Street in Richmond VA, USA.
I'd also like to share an amazing series of blog posts from the blog Full2Faltu which contains everything you ever wanted to know about all the classic Hindi Horror films and Thriller movies Each blog entry (1-5 focus on Hindi films 6&7 are non Hindi) contains plot summaries of the greatest (aka worst) Hindi Horror films of all time... enjoy!!
And if you're really feeling inspired.. get yourself a copy of this awesome compilation that came out last year on Finders Keepers records called "Bollywood Blood Bath"
Listen to If Music Could Talk LIVE every Sunday on WRIR from 7-9pm EST
or click the ~*~Podcasts~*~ link at the top of this page to catch older podcasts
Bollywood Dance + Film Party at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art
I was honored to provide some of the music at the opening reception for "Maharaja: The Splendors of India's Great Kings" exhibit at the VMFA when it openened this past May (runs through August).. so I'm even more excited to be doing this special Bollywood inspired event in the VMFA's marble hall in August!
"Bollywood Dance + Film Party" Fri, Aug 3 | 6–8 pm in the VMFA's Marble Hall
Admission free, open to the public
Bollywood Dance + Film Party celebrates the rhythms and melodies of Indian cinema,
commonly known as Bollywood, and features both recent and classic Hindi and Punjabi
(Bhangra) hits, as well as those in Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. Dance to the pulsing beat supplied by DJ Carlito as flashing images of Bollywood’s greatest films play on the big screen.
This First Fridays event is a special collaboration between VMFA’s Performing Arts Department and Adult Programs Department to celebrate the exhibition Maharaja: The Splendors of India’s Great Kings.
Carl Hamm, aka DJ Carlito, has been bringing the colorful hits of India’s most popular films to Richmond for several years. Maharaja: The Splendor of India’s Great Kings is organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Additional
support has been provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Fred T. and Roddy P. Tattersall, and an Anonymous Donor. The Banner Exhibition Program at VMFA is made possible by the Julia Louise Reynolds Fund."
Manunggal Wardaya interviews the founding members of Dara Puspita - Lies Adji Rachman, and Titiek Adji Rachman
(2 above photos (courtesy of Manunggal Waraya) - Titiek Adji Rachman - lead singer/guitarist of Dara Puspita)
(Lies Adji Rachman -rhythm guitarist of Dara Puspita - photocourtesy of Manunggal Waraya)
Anyone who has ever heard the electrified psych sounds of 60s Indonesian girl-group Dara Puspita (flower girls) will be exited to see these recently filmed interviews with Titiek Adji Rachman (lead singer/guitarist) and her sister Lies Adji Rachman ( rhythm guitarist). They were the two original founding members of the group - originally called "Irama Puspita".
Although the interviews are entirely in Bahasa Indonesia (At the beginning of the interview, Lies Adji Rachman says "I'm gonna do this in Bahasa Indonesia not English ok? thanks..") it's still wonderful to see the wonderful expressions on their faces, and to hear them speak.
The interviews are in the style of a conversation (two Indonesians living in the Netherlands - one a rock legend, and the other a young reporter). Manunggal K. Wardaya, who lives in the Netherlands, conducted the interviews. He also recently wrote a retrospective article about Dara Puspita for Rolling Stone Indonesia. He was in close communication with their tour manager, the late Mr Handiyanto, until he passed away this past March. Apparently Mr. Handiyanto gave him access to hundreds of their photos - photos which have since appeared all over the internet (as well as in the Dara Puspita release by Sublime Frequencies).
(Above: Lies Adji Rachman, second from left, seen on Dara Puspita's debut LP on Mesra records. Her sister, Titiek, is third from Left.)
Dara Puspita (the flower girls) is one of my all time favorite pop-psych Indonesian groups from the 60s and 70s. They also happen to be nearly everyone else's favorite group - judging by the high prices their original records have sold for. But no wonder.. they were way ahead of their time.. proto-punk one might call them. And they were excellent musicians... they could sing.. the music was intense, rhythmic, dangerous!! and they were dangerously beautiful. After becoming hugely popular in their native Indonesia, Dara Puspita went on to do extensive European tours in the 60s and 70s and gathered a huge fan base in France and the Netherlands- where Lies Adji Rachman, and Titiek Adji Rachman live today.
Filmmaker and Media Scholar Manunggal K. Wardaya had the opportunity to sit down with Lies Adji Rachman and her sister Titiek, and interview them. This was certainly a rare opportunity to capture some of their memories from those colorful days on video.
Manunggal shared these interviews with me this morning via youtube link.
He had told me about the footage last month, but wasn't ready to show them publicly yet.. so
I had to wait! And finally, here they are...
Thank you to Manunggal K. Wardaya for sharing these excellent interviews.. I'm really glad you're doing this inportant documentary work.
Interview with Lies Adji Rachman (in Bahasa Indonesia) by Manunggal K. Wardaya
Interview with Titiek Adji Rachman (in Bahasa Indonesia) by Manunggal K. Wardaya