Namaste, friends, and welcome to the ONE RAGA MySpace page :)
"The Dawn of Indian Music in the West--Bhairavi" is my book, published by Continuum in 2006 and available in stores or on Amazon by clicking HERE , which tells the story of how the music of India journeyed West and forever changed the face of rock, jazz, electronica, and Western culture, creating ONE RAGA and a path to peace in the process.
Included in the book are in-depth discussions with Ravi Shankar (who wrote the Foreword), Ali Akbar Khan (perhaps his most extensive interview to date), Zakir Hussain, Mickey Hart, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, Philip Glass, John McLaughlin, Zubin Mehta, Terry Riley, Bill Laswell, Anoushka Shankar, Cheb i Sabbah, and others.
From Ravi Shankar's Foreword: "It is amazing to see the dedication and amount of hard work Peter has gone through in creating this book. Readers will be rewarded with much information--hitherto unknown."
About the subtitle of the book: "Bhairavi" is the name of a popular dawn/morning raga performed in India, and "Bhairavi" was the first raga ever recorded on an LP, by Ali Akbar Khan in 1955, now available on Khan's Then and Now CD. It was truly the "dawn" of Indian classical music in the West, with spoken-word introductions by violinist Yehudi Menuhin, one of the great Western classical musicians of all time, who had discovered Indian raga on a visit to Delhi in 1952, where he met sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. These two would go on to record and perform together on many occasions. Modern music and culture would never be the same.
Four years in the making, "The Dawn of Indian Music in the West" was a fascinating and enlightening undertaking for me, a 400-plus-page history that weaves all the different strands of this story into one colorful tapestry. Rock pioneers such as the Beatles, Grateful Dead, Byrds, and many others were profoundly impacted by the music and spirituality of India, as were modern jazz icons such as John Coltrane and John McLaughlin, and electronic minimalist composers Philip Glass (shown in the main profile picture here) and Terry Riley, both of whom appear in this book.
Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain collaborated with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart in bands like Planet Drum and the Diga Rhythm Band. Zakir Hussain also joined with the hugely innovative guitarist John McLaughlin in the Indian-jazz fusion group Shakti. Looking back on history, McLaughlin, Hussain, and Hart all discuss their work inside this book.
Today, trance/electronica has asserted its strong Indian influence as well, from Bill Laswell's Tabla Beat Science (also featuring Zakir Hussain), to DJ Cheb i Sabbah, Talvin Singh, Karsh Kale, MIDIval PunditZ, and Anoushka Shankar's groundbreaking Grammy-nominated 2005 album Rise. The result is an emerging global raga of many colors and dialects. Modern music as we know it, from the Beatles to post-modern jazz to jambands to drum'n'bass, would not have evolved as it did without the ancient voice of the sacred OM, the Indian practice of Nada Yoga, the Yoga of sound and music.
The artists I had the privilege of interviewing in this book all tell their own stories of how the sacred tradition of Indian music has impacted their lives. One of the main questions explored by myself and the artists in the book is how Indian music can play a role in the search for world peace, as Hindus, Muslims, and Westerners unite in the creation of ONE RAGA. Truly, it is the peaceful and inherently spiritual quality of Indian music that has been the inspiration for these artists, as well as for my own writing of this book.
Enjoy the book samples posted in the blog section above, as well as the posted song, pics, and videos, all of which I will change on a regular basis, to keep this space fresh and rewarding for all my visiting friends.
All YouTube videos are posted here solely for the non-commercial purpose of providing entertainment and education.
All photographs were provided to me courtesy of the Ali Akbar Khan Archive and Ravi Shankar Archive, and by the otherwise credited photographers.
Namaskar, Peter.
WINNER of the 2007 ARSC AWARD for EXCELLENCE in HISTORICAL RECORDED SOUND RESEARCH, awarded by ARSC: Association for Recorded Sound Collections.
REVIEWS
"Peter Lavezzoli's "The Dawn of Indian Music in the West: Bhairavi" is a superbly written, astonishingly comprehensive, and deeply important book...a must-read for anyone interested in how classical Indian musical forms were embraced by Western audiences. Every time I pick up this book, I learn something new about music I've loved for years, from Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" to Collin Walcott's "Cloud Dance" to Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." Lavezzoli's prose style is top-drawer -- conversational and obviously passionate about its subject, yet also highly learned and insightfully critical -- which makes the book a real pleasure to read. One of the finest books of the year, and one of the best music books I've read in a decade."--Steve Silberman, Wired Magazine
"When reading this book, you really feel you are being guided by someone with a highly developed intuitive feel for integrity and truth in music, as Lavezzoli himself is a musician who is concerned with "the connection between musical and spiritual expression." In this book, historical narratives are interspersed with interviews with the leading musicians in Western and Indian music. These interviews are not your average magazine interviews, however, as the central concern of Lavezzoli is always wisdom, and his questions are always subtle and searching."--Kate Wharton, Straight No Chaser.
“Peter Lavezzoli’s study is a gloriously detailed explanation of Hindustani classical music. It takes some education for untrained ears to learn how to listen to Indian classical music, and Lavezzoli does a great job of explaining concepts like raga and tala…. the music is dissected with scholarly precision while the cosmic implication are also investigated thoroughly.â€- Brian J. Bowe, harpmagazine.com, September/ October 2006
"No matter how much you may think you know, Lavezzoli has new information for you, arguing quite convincingly that Indian music has deeply influenced both American and European music for over half a century. The result is a long and engrossing read, full of remarkable anecdotes and thoughtful discussions with some of the most important creative people in many different Indian and Western musical domains. Lavezzoli shows us who was first, where they did it, and how things developed from there.'--Teed Rockwell, India Currents.
"One of the book's strengths is that it embraces the whole footprint of Indian music...Lavezzoli is sure-footed in his discussions of music theory and practice, and the interviews with key figures, reproduced...in conversation format are useful resources...This book does fill a noticeable gap on the shelves of university and public libraries for serious Indian music enthusiasts.'
Oliver Craske, Times of London, 27th October 2006
'Lavezzoli… presents an excellent overview of the style of Hindustani, or North Indian, classical music. He presents minutely detailed transcriptions of his interviews, all with insightful commentary, of the principal Indian and Western musicians who have been the prime movers behind the presentation and appreciation of Indian music in the West. Almost a reference book in its dense coverage, this book is nevertheless highly readable and entertaining... Summing Up: Highly recommended.- CHOICE February 2007
'[a] compendious and fascinating book...It is impossible to do justice to the scope of Lavezzoli's findings in a short review: suffice to say that whether you want to know exactly how the John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain's Shakti came about, or to follow the Ravi Shankar-Frank Zappa-Peter Gabriel trail, everything you need to know is here in abundance.' ~ Michael Church, Songlines
'Lavezzoli's focus is sharp and, without a shadow of a doubt, the finest treatment of what most of Jazzwise's readers would understand by dawn in the context...The heart of the book is a series of marvellous, illuminating Q&A interviews...The only real problem I had with this book was continually going back and re-reading sections instead of reviewing it! High, high praise indeed.'
~ Ken Hunt, Jazzwise, Feb 07
TO ORDER, click HERE
