Hello, everyone! It’s great to be here and I’d like to thank Geoffrey for the opportunity to blog on this site. I’m so happy to find such a vibrant community of flute enthusiasts gathered in one virtual place. Let me begin by introducing myself.
I’ve been a musician all of my life, but my journey with the bansuri flute began in 1997 while I was attending Berklee College of Music. Despite my lack of technical ability as a flute player in those early days, I felt deeply that there was a special quality to this instrument, as the intensity of my musical experience was greater than it ever was on the guitar, on which I had a fairly well-developed skill set. How then could I not follow and see where that would lead? I was referred to Steve Gorn for lessons and after graduation, I moved to upstate New York to learn with him. This was followed by two trips to India to study with the great Pandit Raghunath Seth in Mumbai. Both have been inspired teachers, mentors, and friends whose guidance has been invaluable to my growth as a musician and more importantly as a human being. In 2006, I was awarded a fellowship from the American Institute for Indian Studies, which brought me back to India three more times in successive years to study. On my most recent journey, I was staying in the house of Pandit Vikash Maharaj, a great sarod player, and received intensive training from him. It was a great challenge to try and adapt sarod music to the bansuri, one which really helped me improve my technique and expand my concept of what was possible on the instrument (a potential future blog topic, perhaps?). When I’m not traveling, I make my home in Brooklyn, New York, where I work as a freelance musician.
New York City is a place of incredible cultural diversity. What is so interesting is that all kinds of cross-cultural collaborations are taking place here every day. The concept of musical fusion is as old as civilization itself. Throughout history, musical ideas have traveled with merchants, soldiers, nomads, and immigrants to new places where they have combined with native forms to produce new idioms. Indeed, North Indian Classical music itself is the product of a meeting between indigenous Indian music with the music of Muslim invaders. This clash of cultures resulted not only in a new musical style but new instruments as well. Innovation is at the heart of the tradition. In America, Jazz, often cited as “America’s classical music”, is similarly a result of the combination of European harmony and instruments with African rhythms. In today’s ever-shrinking world, characterized by cross-cultural connections on a scale never before seen in history, new combinations and musical forms are inevitable. The ancient and noble bansuri has arrived in modern-day New York. How can we help move it forward in the service of music? This is the line of thinking that inspires me to be creative and push the limits of my art. My opinion is that a solid grounding in traditional training is the best starting point for creativity with any instrument, but to innovate, one must be willing to question the assumptions inherent in any traditional style and conduct experiments, gather data, and draw conclusions about what works. I also believe that it is our duty as musicians to show by example that the way of peace is one of open-mindedness, appreciation, respect, tolerance, compassion, and forgiveness.
As I sat last night thinking about what to write on the blog a few things came to mind. I’d like to share some thoughts about bansuri playing techniques and the wider music scene in general, but I’d also like to hear from the members of this site and engage in a dialog about what you’d like to hear from me. The more interactive it gets, the better it will be for everyone.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more!
Alright everyone–brace yourselves!
The new Flute Portal will be coming online this next week. This will be the “beta” version, so you might encounter the odd glitch here and there, but to run them all to ground we really need the membership to make use of the site (push buttons, kick tires, poke around in the cupboards…mix metaphors? Hmmmmm…..).
For all of the members who have created an Artist Page on the existing site, you will have to do it all over again on the new site….BUT, it will be much easier! The new interface is simple and intuitive, so you should be up and running in no time. And don’t forget, we have video embedding as well for all of you YouTubers and Vimeo-ers.
Shortly after the launch we’ll be adding in the subscription feature for those who are interested, and this means FREE FLUTES!! Yes, the old prize giveaway will be online again with many a tasty treat for the subscribers, plus extra bonuses that we will be providing along the way. I’ll do a mail out to the membership to let everyone know when the automated subscription function is active.
We’ll try to make the transition as seamless as possible, but at some point (possibly the middle of the night) the site will be offline for a bit while we load the new site and connect it up with the forums.
So stand by!
My last post left off with us descending into the Sacred Valley, but I forgot to share the second half of our trip to the llama farm. It was a demonstration of local weavers that had come from all the surrounding areas to show turistas like us how they weave and their traditional dress. So in Part 4 of my Peru Journals we visit with them and then take a look at Inca Pisac, a prehispanic Inca city in the Sacred Valley where I bought my first musical instrument on the trip, a Quena
Terraces of Pisac
Holding my new Quena and the guy I bought it from
Again I’ve included a video clip and since I can’t get them to play here I’ve posted this to my blog.
Read Peru part 4
If you’ve missed the first three parts here are their links
Part 1: “Journey to Peru”
Part 2: “Lost in Translation”
Part 3: “Flight of the (Silver) Condor”
osiyo
I thought some of you might be interested in hearing a bit about the work process as we begin a new project.
We are planning to head into the studio in January to start our first full band project since “Dancing The Full Moon”. Maybe I should say “a studio” since we are visiting a few right now to decide on the right space. I do still prefer a larger studio, especially for tracking the rhythm section. We can get good isolation for tracking, a better choice of mics than I can afford to have on hand at home and a good engineer so we can focus on making music instead of worrying about tech issues, etc. Beyond those basics, we want a place where we feel comfortable, the sound in the rooms is good for the instruments involved and we get along easily with the engineer. It also helps if the price is right…
Most of the tunes are in lead sheet and we’ve been trying out several of them in our recent gigs. I find it saves a lot of studio time (therefore money) if we’ve tried out as much of the material as possible live before we get in the studio. We know what is working, hopefully have changed what isn’t working and the band seems more comfy. This one has a lot of vocals for Janice, so she and I have spent a lot of time trying out different keys for tunes and getting the feels just right. I’ve been doing most of the writing, but Janice has contributed some strong lyrics for one song and a beautiful melody for another. Lenny Stevens will be producing, has already had some great ideas for arrangements and, of course, his guitar work is always stellar.
Some recommended listening… Allula label has a series of world music recordings called “Origins”. Their on location recording of music from the Garifuna people (now living in Honduras) is a fascinating blend of Arawak, African and European influences. Of special interest for us as wind players is their use of conch shell trumpets. Title of the CD is “Lita Ariran” (Black Turtle)
I’ve also been listening to Joseph Fire Crow’s “Red Beads” a lot this week. Don’t know how I missed this one when it came out. To my ear, it seems to be one of Joe’s most personal efforts. It’s very intimate and the playing and singing are quite moving. Check out the track “Two Voices” for a beautiful use of drone flute. Note the way Joe will sometimes overblow the drone and sometimes get off the drone altogether. It’s on an F instrument. Even if you don’t have an F drone, try imitating the main melody on any F flute for a good lesson in melodic structure and ornamentation.
For a bigger challenge, check out the last track on the disc, “I Walk With You”. It’s a sung track, but since our flutes are really an extension of our voices, try to imitate the song on N.A. flute. If you are comfortable with upper register and an alternate fingering, a D flute works very well. On a lot a flutes, you will need to half-hole finger hole #5 (counting top down) to get the highest note to sound “in tune”.
good journeys
Ron
After three full days in Lima, a large, bustling, urban city, we finally head into the heart of the Inca world and the Peruvian Quechua culture, Cuzco. To get there we got on a 737 operated by the Peruvian airline LAN. Actually LAN is a Chilean airline company but they are based in Lima.
The entire time we were in Lima the skies were overcast from the coastal fog produced by the Humboldt Current. As the jet climbed higher into the sky we soon broke through the cloud cover, riding above a solid desert of clouds, punctuated to the east by the peaks of the Andes mountains. The Andes are the longest exposed mountain range in the world, at 4,300 miles in length, extending from the southern end of Chile to the norther part of Peru. The average height is 13,000 feet!
In my last post I talked about the first days of my journey to Peru. In this post we’ll look at the city of Lima in more depth. Since this post has some video and there seems to be a problem with posting video on the portal I’ve posted it on my Blog.
HOW DID I GET HERE?
This past July I got a chance to travel to a place I’ve wanted to visit since I was young. Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Inca. Perched high in the cloud forest in the Andes it was abandoned before the Spanish arrived in 1532. They never found it. Except for the locals, it was unknown until 1911 when Hiram Bingham, with the help of local guides and farmers “discovered” the city for the western world. As a youngster I encountered images of Machu Picchu. To my young mind it seemed like an ancient castle in the sky. It has stayed on my list of places to visit during my lifetime since.
The chance to visit Peru happened quickly. The subject came up just eight weeks before the trip actually took place. We thought about it for another two weeks, made the decision to go and then six weeks later we arrived at LAX, tickets in hand, bound for Peru. Our destinations: Lima, Cuzco, the Sacred Valley of the Tambo and Machu Picchu.
Although I went to see Machu Picchu, what I found was a vibrant culture. Full of color, music, dramatic history, prehispanic ruins, cold foggy coastlines and clear mountain skies. For me, Peru was a land of extremes.
When we left Los Angeles in late July it was summer. Peru however, being in the southern hemisphere, was obviously having winter. The weather looked similar to LA’s winters. Cool days but with colder nights than we get here in LA. So we boarded the plane dressed for cool weather. On our way we had to switch planes, with a one hour layover in San Salvador, El Salvador, where we were greeted by hot humide weather. It felt like 100˚ and the thick air hit you like a wall. As we were wearing long sleeves and fleece jackets it was very uncomfortable.
Lush tropical jungle surrounded the airport, like a rain forest. But despite a hard search we could not find water for sale anywhere in the terminal. The heat droned on.
I’m sure El Salvador is a wonderful country, I love Pupusas, so I know the food is great, but we were happy to be on our way and escape the humid heat of the tropics. As our plane climbed skyward the classic cone of the San Salvador volcano, or Quetzaltepec, hovered in the distance. We headed southeast. The sun slipped below the horizon.
LIMA
when we landed in Lima at 8:30 local time it was dark, cold, and cloudy. Lima is a big city. Like all big cities there were people everywhere and cars zigging in and out of traffic. The taxi ride from the airport to the district of Mira Flores took about 40 minutes. The streets were busy and full of people. American business reared their heads in the form of McDonald, Starbucks, KFC, TGI Fridays and from the UK was there with Burger King. It’s always somewhat of a disappointment to travel somewhere and find exactly what you left behind.
Peruvian Starbucks
We were surprised to find that gambling is legal in Lima and we drove past many gaudy casinos. As we got closer to our hotel in the Mira Flores district, the streets got quieter and quieter. A light drizzle began to fall. For Lima this is a major “rain” event. The city, although right on the Pacific coast, is in a desert and receives only 1/4″ of rain on average each year.
We arrived at our hotel, checked in our room, and then checked out some local stores, an upscale market and had a nice quiet dinner nearby. The next day we explored further.
MIRAFLORES
The first place we visited was Kennedy park in Miraflores. It was named after JFK, our 35th president. The “city” of Lima is made up of several towns, of which Lima is just one of the. Miraflores is another. It has it’s own city government.
Kennedy Park
Next to the park was a church. My understanding is that Peru is 80% Catholic, but I get the sense that there is a strong practice of the older indigenous religions that predate the Spanish. Very much so in the highlands.
Church near Kennedy Park
Detail of church
As we left the area on Kennedy Park we spied one of the few cats we saw in Peru, sleeping on a grate next to the church.
The next place we went to was the Artist’s District of Miraflores. This was an area of several blocks that had little malls full of small shops, or stalls selling everything from textiles to jewelery, art, silver pieces and even musical instrument. We had been told that most of the stuff was not of the best quality, and it was recommended that we wait until we get to the highlands for better stuff. So I didn’t buy the long belt shaker I saw hanging from the ceiling of one stall. I never saw another one the rest of the trip am and still bummed that I passed on getting that one.
The inside a mall in the Artist’s District
Outside the Artist’s District
THE PACIFIC COAST
The building in Miraflores were all painted in pale pastels, adding a bright counterpoint to the gray skies that constantly hung over the city. The clouds were dreary in general, but more so once we walked down to the coast. From Kennedy park it took about 20 minutes to walk to the coast. Lima sits on the Pacific Ocean, but is in the same time zone as New York City.
Lima-Miraflores sits on the Pacific Ocean
In Miraflores there is a new “American” style mall called Lancomar which over looks the ocean. While there were some local stores, many of them were U.S. chains. Nevertheless the view from the mall was very nice.
View from the Lancomar Mall
There were lots of locals at the mall and in the strip of parkland that extended along the top of the cliffs next to the ocean. For a price you could go Para-gliding in the constant breeze that swept the coast up the cliffs. Not a price I would pay…
Para-gliding
Next to Lancomar was Lover’s Park which was dominated by a huge statue of a couple wrapped in embrace.
“Get a room!”
For me the highlight of the park was the tile benches that snaked along the sides. Done in a style reminiscent of the work of Gaudi, there were quotes about love set in the tile mosaic.
In my next post about Peru we visit two local markets, including a fish market right on the coast. Things get lost in translation, but it’s all good. Plus I break out the video camera…
By Steve Conway
Between the first beat of a drum on Thursday and the last trill of the flute solo on Sunday morning there was a whole lot of jamming going on … and more. A group of 40 dedicated and talented flute players gathered at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church (which looks, feels, and sounds like a mediaeval castle) to sharpen, perfect, and expand their musical performance. Sometimes musicians played one-on-one with one of the 15 student-facilitators who received three days of special training prior to the main event which was billed as Flute Haven Native Flute School. Other times each musician played solo for the group. However, during the coup de theatre each musician transformed into the individual cells of a single musical organism possessing heart, brain, and nervous system …that filled the halls with fantastic symphonies of sound.
Leading the fray was Clint Goss, the man I refer to as the Chief Inspirationist. Clint led, coaxed, lured, and nudged us to reach new levels of performance with improvisation, different musical modes, instilling a sense of rhythm, and introducing new advanced playing techniques that allowed all of us to test the limits of our individual impossibility. (This is based upon the notion that you know you have achieved the possible only by challenging the impossible). Vera Shanof was the wagon master who looked after keeping this musical organism moving along smoothly. In addition to the facilitators mentioned above, there were three major track leaders.
Ron Kravitz led the percussion sessions and provided rhythm backup during group sessions. Eric Miller provided guitar backup and managed recording duties. Finally, Lynn Miller, who majors in laugh therapy (my opinion), led the vocal sessions.
From my point-of-view the sessions are best described as an astonishing collection of activities comprising a musical short course jam-packed with the unexpected, inspiring, that was both physically and emotionally demanding. The very first activity, on Thursday evening in the main hall, began with the mob totally engaged in beating a lively rhythm on the drums and ended with the majority of the attendees locked into an almost frenzied state of dancing, twirling, chanting, and waving arms until they simply ran out of energy. This, according to the Chief Inspirationist, is called warm ups and there certainly were no cool people by the end of the sessions. I’m certain it took several hours for everyone to wind down enough to get some sleep. For a few, the nerves continued to jingle, jangle and twang the night away.
Solos offered every person the opportunity to incorporate some new licks into their improv repertoire or simply to play as the spirit moved them. They’d put out their sound and there it was! No wrong notes was the rule and nobody heard any. We also were able to play with percussion and string accompaniment and, for some, new, exotic instruments such as the Hang and the Shruti box.
A person would be hard put to declare that one track was best and another left something to be desired. Some tracks were just plain fun – like the wonderful warm-ups; others were intellectually challenging, for me at least. I suppose that would include all of the different scales presented. In total, Flute Haven was physically and emotionally strenuous, illuminating, and inspiring. That said, I have to admit to having a favorite experience.
On Saturday morning Erik Miller led a track that was fun, richly enjoyable, and a total surprise. If two people play together it’s a duet and four people make a quartet, then I guess there must be a term for 40 musicians, but I couldn’t find it. So I settled for bunchet, in this case a large group of people playing music together. Erik took his bunch of musicians and divided them into three groups. All groups vocalized and also played flutes. One played A minor flute, one E minor, and one D minor. Each group was assigned only three notes to sing or play–first, third, and fifth, not necessarily in that order. So there you have it, there were three groups, three pitches, and three notes. With Erik’s leadership and accompaniment on guitar and a total of one hour of time, the musical result was simply extraordinary. Heavenly, actually.
There was no audience. The players resonated and entrained to the beat of their own music, the beautiful harmonics, and the pure simplicity of the sound. Every cell of this musical body danced to the same beautiful, melodic, and muted softness as their creations washed across the room and the people in gentle waves. At the end of this impromptu recital many of the musicians, including yours truly, wore a look of wonderment on his or her face. “WOW” was a common exclamation. There were 14 tracks of which this was only one.
The Wagon Master, Vera Shanof and her able staff of helpers, planned and caused the attendees and facilitators to execute a very ambitious track schedule. On Friday there were eight sessions and six on Saturday with each session running between one hour and an hour and a quarter. All were pretty demanding, none were a breeze. But despite the hectic schedule, our musical organism carried on through the evenings and into late hours with jam sessions providing entertainment for ourselves and a respectable crowd of local party goers. On Friday night we commandeered the stage at Steel City Coffee House and Saturday evening at Pickering Creek Inn. Anyone who wanted to perform could and most did. The owners and managers of these establishment willingly gave over the entertainment duties to Flute Haven and offered fulltime employment. I’m sure the city of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania will long remember the weekend the fluties came to town and all the crazy people playing.
Well, Native Heritage Month is off and running. A couple of workshops at an area college last week, a concert (with Janice Torres and Lenny Stevens along) last Thursday night, Caledon Arts & Wine Festival over the weekend, presentations at two area military bases this week and a Native Cultural event coming this weekend.
Visiting military bases is always a special time, maybe more so this year with the events at Fort Hood and because I now have two nephews serving, one on active duty with the Navy Reserves and one just finishing basic training with the Army.
At concerts, people often ask about the lyrics to “Warrior Song” (from the Dancing the Full Moon project). Since this is Veterans Day, I’ll take the opportunity to share a bit about it.
The lyrics and tune came in a series of dreams while I was visiting by Dad in Ohio over the holidays some years back. I wasn’t really looking to write this kind of song, but when things show up in dreams, it’s best to pay attention. Each verse honors a different generation of veterans, including individuals from my family. The first verse is for World War II era vets, including my Dad’s older brother who served with the Marines in the Pacific Theater (and earned two Purple Hearts), his older sister, who served with the WACs and her husband (Ojibwa descent) who served with the Navy in the European Theater. The second verse honors Vietnam era vets, including my step-father who had two tours of duty there. The third verse honors those currently serving, including Laurie Piestewa, the first Native American woman killed in action over seas (of course many of our dear women died defending their home lands over the past five hundred years), and now, of course, my two nephews. The remaining verse calls all of them home to do the work needed here.
Throughout the song, the question returns, “How do you earn your feather now?” The traditional way of the warrior has largely been replaced by modern mechanized mass killing. I remember hearing a member of one of the western tribes describe his People’s traditional requirements for earning “War Chief” honors. I am probably forgetting some things, but they included actions like “leading a successful war party and returning all of your men safely”; “stealing your enemies weapon”; “stealing your enemies horse”; etc. I was deeply struck by the fact that it was entirely possible to earn full war honors without killing or even harming another person. The traditional way of the warrior for most of us Native folks seems to have been more about individual courage and resourcefulness and less about simply killing as many of the enemy as possible to impose your will upon them. Although always ready, of course, to defend the community from immediate dangers.
The English complained that American Indians did not know how to make war properly, because we would “fight” all day and hardly anyone would get killed. Sometimes no one would get killed. Unfortunately, I think we’ve learned all too well in the mean time. I sometimes think that being on a continual war footing for five hundred years as a matter of survival has changed our understanding of the traditional warrior’s path. And not necessarily for the better. The great Cuban singer Campay Segundo is quoted as saying that “until more people carry guitars than carry guns, the world will not change”. Carrying flutes would help, too. For me, what is inexcusable these days is that our returning vets often have so much trouble getting the medical, psychological and spiritual help they need to transition back into society.
To any vets reading this, a heart felt thanks for the service and sacrifices you and your families have given. This song is for you.
On the music side (since this is supposed to be a music blog), a grinding roots/blues rock seemed to be the right feel for this song. It was originally in e minor. We recorded it in Eb minor to get it into a more comfy range for Janice and now usually do it even lower in concert. D minor is happier for the guitar, lets Janice stay in her power house range and gives the whole song a darker, more powerful vibe.
OK - see ya next week.
Ron Warren
Hello friends,
Well, the launch of the new Flute Portal is immanent. We’ve been beta-testing for a bit, and in a couple of more weeks we’ll be looking to put the new site online.
One of the features of the new Flute Portal will be expanded opportunities for advertisers within the flute community. Are you a flute maker? An accessory maker? Do you teach workshops? Musician with music to sell?
If so, then you might choose to advertise on the Flute Portal. I’m putting together an advertisiers “package” which will give the details of what will be available, approximate costs, etc.
Also: We will be accepting voluntary subscriptions to the site for those who wish to show their support. As mentioned before, subscriptions are not necessary to access the site–it remains free and public. However, subscriptions will bring some nice “extras”, including the chance to participate in our monthly prize drawing! Remember the monthly raffle? Well, it has been recast in a “legal” form and will be available exclusively to subscribers as part of their benefits.
Attention merchants: Would you like to promote your business beyond a simple ad? A cross-promotional concept is being developed that will be of benefit to participating merchants and will also provide some of the “extras” for those who subscribe to the site. A summary of this offer is available upon request.
I’m compiling an e-mail list of interested merchants to whom I’ll provide the information packets as soon as they are complete. If you would like to receive this information, just send an e-mail to admin@fluteportal.com and put “merchant info” in the subject line.