"His Holiness Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji "

[49410enrique]

i thought this might be an appropriate place to give some highlight to a really cool improv concert video. it isnot my own upload and i have yet to really develop my own skills to really contribute my own recordings right now (soon though!).

still i wanted to contribute something  cool to this board. i hope you all enjoy this, it is certainly different and i would not have thought of this when i think of indian improvisation music (though indian classical is traditionally improvised, it isn't usually done in sucha  'western' fashion)

https://vimeo.com/30802443

[Derek]

Wow, this is really cool! Thanks for posting this! 

[ted]

Yes, thanks for this very interesting link Enrique. With all improvisation, come to think of it all music, I prefer to listen to the sound alone without benefit of visual effects, stage presence or a priori associations. It's one reason I don't like concerts or recitals and haven't attended one for over forty years. Taken that way, purely as an abstract improvisation, it has much charm. Would I have thought of ragas had I heard it that way ? Obviously I'll never know now, but frankly I doubt it; parts of it perhaps. The degree to which an improvisation successfully imitates any traditional form is a clever performing trick but is pretty much irrelevant to me these days.

All that aside, the simple purity of intention and tangible delight in each tone shone through in a rather special way. In fact, I listen to quite a bit of Indian music, and sometimes like to think I use raga effects in certain cells of my improvisation. But I am very much an outsider looking in, and he is an insider looking out - so to speak.