July 22, 2007
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Tabla Bols - Zakir Hussain and Allah Rakha
Hello my friends,
Drumming, living, vegging, ebaying, etc. etc. etc (echoed in the tone of voice used by Yul Brenner as the King of Siam), but the writing hole has been pretty dry, except for a draft poem I started a few minutes ago after being up all night reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling all the software. I was smart enough to see this one coming and had set up an account with www.mozy.com, to download and backup/store everything (boy, do I love mozy) and am reloading all the data I would have otherwise lost as I write.
I keep coming back to the tabla and bols, it fascinates me, the speaker of 7 languages, and the second youtube clip, of the father and son duo, Allah Rakha and Zakir Hussain before the Allah Rakha's death in 2000, I find thrilling.
As is often the case, poking around on the wobbly eventually coughed up something rather helpful in understanding more of what one is listening to. To wit-
"The tablas consist of two separate drums, the "Bayan" (bigger for bass) and "Dayan" (small, higher pitches). The bayan is usually played with the left hand and the dayan with the right. The bayan is responsible for low booming sounds and deeper slap sounds and 'modulation' where the pitch is continuously varied. The dayan gives a wide range of taps, slaps, tones and other percussive effects. There are two basic classes of techniques: dry and ringing. Dry strokes do not have a particular pitch associated with them, while ringing ones have a definite pitch or tone. Dry tones are typically made by having the hand or fingers strike and "stick" to the drum head to damp out vibration. Ringing tones typically strike and pull back quickly to allow the drum head to vibrate freely." //web.mit.edu/cjoye/www/music/tabla/
This vid is the marvelous Ravi Shankar explaining tabla bol with Allah Rakha demonstrating - truly a film for all time. (If I had been Nora Jones's mother, pre-Nora, I don't think I would have said no to Ravi myself......)
No two ways about it, Zakir Hussain is transported while he's playing this rag with his father.
love you,
pearlbamboo
Comments (2)
Haven't had a chance to listen yet but knowing you it will be amazing! Right now I am spending a few moments going around and saying hello to my old Xanga friends. I am back now after a long hiatus. Came over here just to say hello... ::hugs:: Hope all has been well with you!
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