Orissi Dance Music: An Ancient Performance from Orissa

This is another stellar release in the JVC (Japan Victor Corporation) World Sounds series with great music, generally called Odissi, from the eastern state of Orisha in India that accompanies a form of classical dance that, as the liners note, "is known for the sculpture-like poses of the dancers" and which was said to be influenced by temple sculptures.  

It is added that this form of dance and music began with temple prayers with maharis, or young women who danced for the gods while residing in the religious edifices.  In later times, however, the performance of orissi took place in courts and at festivals, but, despite the location changes, the components remained intact.

While the music here is by those from Orisha, the notes remark that the use of raga melody and tala rhythms originated with the Karnatic tradition of South India, though elements also come from the state of Bengal to the north.  The five instruments include the pakhawaj, a dual-headed drum; the violin, the bansuri, or flute; the manjiri, or gong; and the harmonium, while there are also male and female vocals.

The pieces consist of two pallavi, in which "a simple rhythm gradually grows in complexity" and "the vocal line forming the melody consists entire of meaningless syllables," which, to this listener, means that the voice is one of the instruments.  The third tune, a dashaavatara is a hymn from the Gita Govinda and concerns a description of ten incarnations of the god Vishnu.  Yami He, or "To Whom Shall I Go?" also is taken from that ancient work and is about a female shepherd waiting for the arrival of the god Krishna.  Lastly, Yahi Madhava ("Go Over There") reflects the shepherd reprimanding the god after arriving following an assignation with another woman.

Being a massive country within a subcontinent, India has a remarkable diversity in its music and the Orissi Dance Music recorded here in 1986, with the troupe performing at a JVC studio in Tokyo, is representative of a merging of styles from adjoining areas of the Orisha state.  The performances are exquisite, including the singing as well as the instrumental playing and the sound quality is stellar.  Multiple listening is a treat because it is both an aural excursion to eastern India, but also time traveling through a tradition dating back many centuries.

The Monkey King: The World of Peking Opera

35 years ago, the acquisition through a coupon in a music magazine of a CD sampler from the World Sounds series of the JVC (Japan Victor Company) label was an important step in learning more about world music.  One of the pieces of which only a snipped was included was "The Monkey King," a work of what was known as Peking opera from China.  It was not until recently that the entire recording, from The Chinese Academy of Peking Opera and recorded in September 1979 at the Kokuritsu Gekijo Hall in Tokyo was purchased.  Though it took many years for that to happen, it was well worth the wait.

As the liner notes observe, Peking opera involves dance, music and theatrical presentation comprised of four aspects, including chang (song), nian (rhythmically spoken lines), zuo (using body movements and costume) and da (martial arts acrobatic movement).  So, an inherent problem with a recording like this (and perhaps not dissimilar to any Western opera) is that only half of the performance can be understood and appreciated.  But, what a half!

The amazing instrumental performance consists of wind and string instruments, percussion and vocals from the Academy, which was formed in 1951, just two years after the Communist takeover of China led by Mao Tze-Tung.  For the recording, there were nearly 50 actors and 17 musicians and the first two tracks is from a tale is based on a hero of Records of the Western Regions, a book by the 7th century scholar Xuanzhang, who traveled to India and brought Buddhism back to his country.

Track three is "Autumn River," a pantomime comedy that is derived from a scene in The Jade Hairpin, which is a story of 12th century China, while the last piece is "The Parting of Bawang and the Princess," written by an early 20th century Peking Opera figure who drew from Han and Ming dynasties classics.  What would likely be the toughest part to relate to is the vocalizing, which might seem shrill and tuneless to Western ears, but there is great charm and excellent harmonizing with the instrumentation, as well as beautiful control in the singing and speaking.  The playing of the instruments is just stellar and fascinating, particularly in the interludes between the vocals and this album is a stunning and highly entertaining experience of historic Chinese music.

Carlos Hernández Chávez and Los Trovadores: Songs of México (I)

This 1994 JVC World Sounds release has the note on the back tray that "this disc is perfect for novice Mexican music listeners" and that certainly applies to this one.  The trio of principal vocalist Carlos Hernández Chávez, who was a founder of Los Trovadores in 1947 and died in November 2024, second vocalist Jesús de la Rosa, who joined in 1976, and third vocalist Luis Miranda, who became part of the group two years before that, are excellent musicians and made a remarkable record.

There are a few pieces with which we novices are generally familiar, including "Cielito Lindo," "La Malagueña," and "Besame Mucho," but the album is filled with great songs like "La Zandunga," "La Bikina," "Perfidia," the humorous "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás," and the combination of "El Reloj" and "Amor."  It isn't just the great solo singing and harmonizing, but the acoustic guitar work is also excellent, beyond the very high quality of the songwriting.

The liner notes remark that "although the genre of the Mexican vocal trio enjoyed great popularity outside Mexico during the 1950s and 60s," but with rock becoming very popular, "it somewhat disappeared."  Yet, it continued, "although these songs retreated into the background, there has never been any danger that such a vocal tradition nurtured over many long years would ever disappear."  

Let us hope so, especially as in current circumstances with so much dehumanization of immigrants, a great many of them Mexican, taking place, because there is so much to admire and enjoy about Mexican culture, including its musical history and traditions.  This first edition of the Songs of México may have been geared toward novices like this blogger, but it is also a potent reminder of the beauty and quality of this genre of the vocal trio.

Music of Polynesia II: Tuamotu, Austral Islands

This excellent release from the JVC World Sounds series from Japan includes 20 pieces, all but three from the Tuamotu Islands and the remainder from the Austral Islands, both in the broad archipelago of French Polynesia and collectively comprising fewer than 16,000 residents.  These people are increasingly affected by climate change in terms of such threats as ocean warming and acidification and sea level rise and who knows what will happen to them and their culture as conditions continue to worsen.

This makes recordings like this all the more valuable as documentation of the rich and fascinating musical heritage of the Tuamotu and Austral societies.  Recorded between 1977 and 1990, these pieces reflect a wide range of songs pertaining to aspects of everyday life and are a potent reminder of how music in much of the world is not professionalized and distanced from those practices and rituals.

The core of this music is the beautiful harmonies and melodies of small choral groups, often sung a capella and otherwise accompanied by hand claps and some instruments, including guitars and like ones, while dancing is an important component to the performances of many of the tunes.  As a part-Hawaiian, this listener readily hears comparisons to music from that part of Polynesia, taking in commonalities and appreciating the differences.

Fundamentally, there is a gorgeous expression of the musical cultures of these remote Pacific Ocean societies and the songs here actually serve, especially at this moment, as a soothing tonic in the face of so much tension and turmoil in the world.  Anyone seeking a similar treatment and is open to the experience is well-advised to seek this or other recordings of Polynesian music and will not be disappointed.

Raajeswari Padmanabhan: Music of the Veena II

Music is generally a male-dominated profession worldwide, but this remarkable album, released in 1989 by JVC as part of its World Sound series, is an example of a woman master musician in the Carnatic tradition of South India, Raajeswati Padmanabhan (1939-2008), performing on the veena, said in the brief English portion of the liners to be the oldest (other sources suggest among the oldest) of instruments in the sub-continent.

A large plucked string instrument with the large curved resonator on the right side of the performer and the tuning box at the left.  The notes point out that, of the seven strings, four are above the frets, while the other are open and serve to provide drones as well as the indicate the bears of the tala, rhythm, utilized in a piece.  

The liners also offer that "the main attraction of the veena is the meditative atmosphere which its sound evokes" because of ongoing droning, the use of microtones and "subtle melodic inflections."  It adds that "listeners experience moments of ecstasy when the highly individual and unique sound of the veena is handled by a master of improvisation within the format of a raga."  

The masterful playing is expressed through four pieces, with the first being a brief, by Indian standards, six-minute one, and the second twice as long.  The fuller experience of the raga is found, however, in the last two pieces, with running times of 23 and 24 minutes.  While Padmanabhan performs on the featured instrument, her daughter Shreevidhya Chandramouli provides a drone but also duets with her mother, while Tanjore Upendran plays the mridangam drum.  Given the horrible surge in COVID-19 cases in India, there is an especially poignant context listening to this amazing music now.

Music of the Shi People: Songs Accompanied by Likembe

Ever since an early introduction to "world music" came through the mail order in 1990 of a sampler CD from the JVC World Sounds series, it has been great when the opportunity to pick up a disc from this hard-to-find series has presented itself.  This recording in what was then known as Zaire and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a fascinating example of music at its most fundamental level and came about apparently by accident.

Tsutomu Oohashi was traveling in summer 1983 to the Ituri forest of that nation to record the remarkable music of the Mbuti pygmies, but, when he got to Lwiro and went to the Institut de Recherche Scientifique, he came across a quartet of mjisicians who played the likembe, or thumb piano, percussion instruments, and sang.  In his liners, he wrote that "I was astonished at the resemblance of their music to the authentic blues style practised in the United States between the 1920s and the 1950s . . . this was truly the world of the blues" and that the only difference was the use of the likembe as opposed to the guitar.  Oohashi claimed "I felt I had discovered the original source of the blues."

Others suggest that American blues was connected to west Africa and the griots singing and playing the kora and in the work of musicians of the vast savanna regions of the continent.  Oohashi suggests that "the great racial diversity of the peoples of Africa and their complex interrelationships" created a complex cultural mix and that the Shi people of Lwiro were "in the heart of the African continent" and their music reflected elements from many parts of it.  He was particularly taken with the distinctive vocal qualities of Rhulinobo Elige, who sang "with exquisite refinement" and Joker Shamavu "whose voice rings out like a wind across the savanna."

For this listener, enjoying the music of this quartet is based on its own terms, though any connection to the blues is interesting enough to ponder, as sometimes the most powerful performances are those at an elemental level: vocals, a predominant instrument, and supplementary and complementary percussion.  The Music of the Shi People is an immersive experience in central African sounds and it does feel like the music comes from ancient origins.

Music of the Bansuri: A Flute of Rajasthan

As noted here before, when, in 1990, world music became a prime area of interest, the JVC World Sounds sampler ordered from a magazine ad was a true eye-opener, revealing not just an enormous range of music from all over the planet, but an exposure to a wider world beyond the miniscule one experienced day-to-day.  Not much later, the purchase of Venu, a Rykodisc World 360 release from the amazing Hariprasad Chaurasia, who is still with us at age 82, was the first hearing of the bansuri, a bamboo flute with tremendous expressiveness, and his prodigious technique was a wonder to behold.

This album, recorded in New Delhi in June 1989, from the JVC series features the brothers Rajendra and Ajay Prasanna, whose father Raghunath was a legendary performer on both the bansuri and the shehnai, this latter often described as somewhat akin to an oboe.  The two tracks here include the "Poorbi Dhun," a folk song running over 17 minutes, followed by the "Raga Marwa, a tour-de-force of some 36 minutes duration with the usual gradual development leading to a powerful and dramatic conclusion.  Rajendra plays on the left channel and Ajay on the right and their playing is gorgeous, in synchronicity, in trading phrases and in soloing.  They are accompanied by Ratan Prasanna (another brother?) on the tabla and Onkar Nath on the tambura and enhanced by the delicate plucked string tones of the surimandle and these performances are excellent throughout.