Al compas del mundo – program #29 5-26-22

 Al compas del mundo – program #29, 5-26-22

Music from Southeast Asia and IndiaFriend Jim Haas is on the air. Our valued Moon Traveller correspondent shares here his latest list of playings. 

Here is link to more about it. 

Get right with music, mundo!

The universal touchstone of vocal emotion sounds out in the Balinese Monkey Chant. This strange (to Western ears) musical tradition has piqued the interest of many an outsider: witness troupes of Burning Man participants working up their own Ketjak. This is schizophonic non-assimilative appropriation according to one scholar. Funny, I never thought of it that way. Too many anonymous performers in this mix to identify exactly who and when, but still, it is apparent a farfisa organ out of the 1960’s from anywhere on earth is a sound that delights.

Wasn’t John “the drone” Cale born in Myanmar?

01 The Son of P.M. - Klong Yao (Thailand)

02 anonymous - Molam Tai Country Groove from Isan (Thailand)

03 Alunan Suara Gamelan - Ini Sungguh Indah (Indonesia)

04 Ros Sereysothea and Dara Jamchan - Kone Oksok Nas Pa (We're Very Bored, Dad) (Cambodia)

05 Dengue Fever - Master Kong Nai (Cambodia-USA)

06 anonymous (Indonesia)

07 Johnny Guitar - Lao Kratob Mai (Thailand)

08 anonymous - Astronomia (Malaysia)

09 Lagu Minang Samsimar - Indang Pariaman (Indonesia)

10 folk ensemble - Ketjak (Balinese Monkey Chant) (Indonesia)

11 Akshara Music Ensemble - Mohana Blues (India)

12 Asha Bhosle - Bol Naadan Dil (India)

13 vidyA - Paavanaguru (India-USA)

14 Shailendra Singh - Saanp Se Badhke (India)

15 O S Arun - Saakshat Para Brahma (India)

16 TransGlobal Underground with Natacha Atlas - Monter Au Ciel (India-England-Egypt)

THE INTREPID REPORTER FILES

Hi this is Harvard Codicil! Tonight we are looking at some amazing sounds - actually, hearing them. From Sumatra and beyond. Some of these musicians took pictures of the black hole, well before NASA. They were just courteous enough not to give it a name or number. Let's speak with the musical curator. 

HC: Jim, where did you find Folk and Pop Sounds of Sumatra Vo. 1 - or did it find you?! What can you tell us about that?

JH: Where else but on YouTube. You gotta do some deep drilling, but it’s all there, folks. Glittering nuggets #334,647,550 in popularity but deserving of a push. If you look, you shall find. Just follow your nose. 

HC: A question arises as one partakes of The Son of P.M. by the Klong Yao players. Does that have anything to do with movies? Also, was that a Tarzan yell I heard?

JH: I think you’ve already discovered that The Son of P.M. is the name of the group, not the song title. Apparently they were an offshoot of Sumatran rock ‘n roll forerunners P.M. Tarzan was filmed in India and Hollywood back lots (Tarzana, CA), not Sumatra. Remember the “African” tigers? No such beast. 

HC: Balinese Monkey chants - where do those come from?

JH: It’s a reenactment of a battle scene in the Ramayana, an epic Sanskrit poem of the Southeast Asian region. It is a “spectacle during which over a hundred male performers wearing checked waist cloths, chanting “cak!,” gesture boldly with their arms to act out the tale in which the monkey-like Vanara aids Prince Rama in his fight against evil King Ravana.” So let us all chant “cak!” and drive the evil out. 

HC: Well, I hear the cabbage fields of Wind Point singing, and I am going to get on my pony and ride. Thank you, curator al mundo musicale. Til next time this is Harvard Codicil! Reminding the World to Get Right with World Music!