Jazz Raaga Fusion

2006-04-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

The word fusion in the right perspective is very ambiguous. Music is not a chemical compound so you can blend them to find a new substance .But there are some common areas where they can go side by side .But to identify those areas you need to study both forms of music for years .

Both Indian Ragas and Jazz provides tremendous freedom to improvise though inside the parameters of the structure, feel and temperament of the song .In both form of music we improvise based on a song or theme.

Indian music emphasis is more on taal and in Jazz in as the improvisation follows the chordal sequence popularly known as "chorus".

In the 1950's and 1960's, avant-garde artists began to borrow distinctly Indian elements for some of their compositions. LaMonte Young was one such innovator, as was Terry Riley, who studied Northern Indian (Hindustani) vocal techniques with Pandit Pran Nath. Phillip Glass also began to incorporate Indian rhythmic elements in his music around this time.

It was also during this period that jazz artists, in particular John Coltrane, began to draw some of their influence from such elements of Indian music as the raga form (see Edward Strickland's excellent article, What Coltrane Wanted, for more on Coltrane's links to Indian music).

It wasn't until the latter 1960's that classical Indian music found its way into the mainstream of Western music, when the Beatles' George Harrison popularized the sitar. It has since pollinated every imaginable aspect of Western music, including bluegrass, rock and roll, jazz, and (most recently) hip-hop.

Form Classical Indian performances are based around the concept of raga, which is somewhat difficult to describe in brief. A raga is not a composition per se, but rather consists of a particular combination which includes one or more recognizable melody lines, a distinct scale (which may differ in the ascending and descending), and a particular tal (rhythm cycle). Ragas, like symphonies, consist of movements, although these movements are not separated by pauses in playing. A raga usually commences with an alap, a slow section described as having an "improvised rhythm," and gradually unfolds through other such sections with a growing complexity and (generally) increase in tempo. Unlike a symphony, a raga is not composed note-for note; rather, the scale, the rhythm cycle, and the melody serve as guidelines within which improvisation is a significant element.

Our music based on Raga but treatment are entirely different .Even taalas are used differently .Both Noth Indian and South Indian taalas are used extensibly in our composition.

Jazz influence helped us to place the main structure of the composition in a 8 or 16 bar chorus or chordal sequence.

Please try our sample music and record your views and send the feedback to us which will help us great deal to grow more.

Point of convergence

2006-04-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

Jazz is a form of music where based on the theme there is plenty of freedom to improvise .In rendition of Raaga musicians improvise using notes of the Raaga which may for the purpose of discussion be referred as scale and various of rhythmic structure .

So point of convergence is there -Both these kinds of music improvisation is primarily based on the theme or song and ultimately come back to the main song after improvising for a fixed number of cycles of bars Basic thing is to improvise as freely as possible but at the same time not going beyond the boundaries of theme which might not be essence of the music .

In jazz various harmonic notes are used and even the chromatic notes are used very frequently but in Raaga this freedom is available but then there are different kinds freedom . Freedom in creating various moods and melodic variations. Various Rhythmic structure are also used in rendition Raaga .

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