The Tony Schwartz Music Exchange Tape

In the mid-to-late 1970s, I lived in group houses with a broad assortment of interesting people. One of them was Seth Deitch, who had as part of his vast array of stuff an assortment of reel-to-reel tapes inherited from his father, the brilliant animator Gene Deitch.

Eventually we acquired a reel-to-reel machine and began the process of dubbing all these tapes onto cassette. They were in poor condition, so this amounted to a rescue operation.

Some of the material was old jazz, some of it was old radio commercials; one reel contained a set of 1949 performances by John Lee Hooker that many years later got released as “Jack Of Diamonds.”

And one reel held this extraordinary document:

Tony Schwartz, master of electronic media, created more than 20,000 radio and television spots for products, political candidates and non-profit public interest groups. Featured on programs by Bill Moyers, Phil Donahue and Sixty Minutes, among others, Schwartz has been described as a “media guru,” a “media genius” and a “media muscleman.” The tobacco industry even voluntarily stopped their advertising on radio and television after Schwartz’s produced the first anti-smoking ad to ever appear (children dressing in their parents’ clothing, in front of a mirror). The American Cancer Society credits this ad, and others that followed, with the tobacco industry’s decision to go off the air, rather than compete with Schwartz’s ad campaign.

Born in midtown Manhattan in 1923, a graduate of Peekskill High School (1941) and Pratt Institute (1944), Tony Schwartz had a unique philosophy of work: He only worked on projects that interested him, for whatever they could afford to pay.

{snip}

For many years he was a Visiting Electronic professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, teaching physicians how to use media to deal with public health problems. He also taught at New York University and Columbia and Emerson colleges. Because Schwartz was unable to travel distances, he delivered all out of town talks remotely. Schwartz was a frequent lecturer at universities and conferences, and gave presentations on six of the seven continents (not Antarctica). He was awarded honorary doctorates from John Jay, Emerson and Stonehill Colleges.

{snip}

“Documenting life in sound and pictures” is something Tony Schwartz begin in 1945, when he bought his first Webcor wire recorder and began to record the people and sounds around him. From this hobby developed one of the world’s largest and most diverse collections of voices, both prominent and unknown, street sounds and music, a collection that resulted in nineteen phonograph albums for Folkways and Columbia Records.

Link

During the 1950s, Tony Schwartz sent this recording out into the world, presumably under an early version of a Creative Commons license.

While I was already getting interested in what was then called “Ethnic Music,” this recording was something completely different — dozens of different songs from all over the planet, each introduced by the same voice. I must have listened to the Tony Schwartz Exchange Tape a couple of hundred times over the next few years, but time marched on and the dubbed version of the Tony Tape came to rest in my collection alongside hundreds of other cassettes. In the early 2000s I duplicated it onto a CD, where it continued to lie dormant.

I bumped into Tony Schwartz’ name a few times on various Folkways lps, but never learned much about the man until I started listening to the Kitchen Sisters’ wonderful “Lost And Found Sound” series — and then I had a delightful shock of recognition. Give this audio portrait a listen.

Anyhow, I’ve been transferring all my sound files to my computer, and this one finally had its turn…and I says to myself, says I, “Well, this certainly deserves to be out in the world.”

Here you go, world.

Mimi Rabson Quartet: Violins Against Climate Change, April 22, 2011

Mimi Rabson appeared with her group, including Nick Grondin on guitar, Dave Clark on bass, and Ricardo Monzon on drums. They played an absolutely terrific set. Listen and enjoy:

“The Next Vehicle” (The beginning of this piece was cut off — sorry!)

“Billie’s Bounce” (Nick Grondin arrangement)

“Heal I-Self”

“Marking Time”

“Because I Can”

“Ska Circus”

“Archnophobia” — Composition: Dave Clark

“Why’d Ya Do It?”

===========================================

This music was performed to benefit 350.org. Please consider donating some money to them if you have enjoyed listening. Just click on the photo.

V. R. Athavale

V.R. Athavale – born December 20, 1918. A khyaliya of Agra gharana, he learned with Pt. V.N. Patwardhan and Ustad Vilayat Hussein Khan, and was known as a teacher and author (a biography of Pt. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar). These recordings are from an All India Radio broadcast.

Raga Dhanashri

Raga Lalit Pancham

Raga Bhupali Todi



Raga Bahaduri Todi

Raga Lachari Todi

Raga Hussaini Todi

Raga Samant Sarang

Pune Concert, August 20, 2011

This concert was arranged by Chaitanya Kunte, the extraordinary musicologist, composer and harmonium virtuoso.

It was a pleasant and unusual experience to have two melodic accompanists — Chaitanyaji on harmonium and Eeshan Devasthali (my Guruji’s grandson) on violin. Milind Pote provided the rock-solid and very sympathetic tabla sangat.

Ragas:

Shyam Kalyan
Puriya Dhanashri
Tilak Kamod
Kafi
Bhairavi

Here’s the concert, embedded as a single playlist:

Nasik Concert, August 19, 2011

Finally getting around to uploading and embedding the concerts from last summer’s trip to India. Here is the concert from Nasik embedded as a single playlist, leading off with Puriya Kalyan, and including Mian ki Malhar, Kafi tappa, Tilak Kamod, Khamaj, Pahadi and Bhairavi.

I greatly enjoyed this evening. Nitin Ware’s accompaniment was extremely solid, and Dyaneshwar Sonawane gave very supportive sangat on harmonium.

Note the cascade of inaccuracies in the news clipping. I began studying khyal in 1977, went to India first in 1985. I never studied with Nana Joshi, who was my Guru’s first teacher. Etc., etc., etc.

I’m grateful to Asmita Sevekare and her father for arranging this program. With luck I’ll go back there again next year.

This review is remarkable for its near-complete inaccuracy!

27 Feb 2012, 3:20pm
India Indian music music:
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  • 78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Ravi Shankar Needs No Introduction

    Raga Hemant

    “Bengali Kirtan”

    I will be posting more 78s in the next couple of days.

    Strings Against Climate Change: Durga Krishnan’s Set

    I am finally getting it together to post the videos from last fall’s Climate Concert. The sound from the video camera was cruddy, so I had to replace it with the recording from my digital recorder. This took more time than I had anticipated — no excuse, of course, but an explanation, anyway.

    Here’s Durga Krishnan’s wonderful set, with Gaurishankar Chandrashekhar on mridangam.

    Mahaganapathim Manasa Smarami – Raga – Nattai – Tala – Chathusra Ekam, Composer – Muthuswami Dikshitar

    Steve Elman reviewed the concert in ArtsFuse, and wrote this:

    Durga Krishnan’s performance was a rich and satisfying introduction to the veena, perfectly assembled and marvelously executed. Her improvisations were structured as beautifully as Sonny Rollins saxophone solos, with motifs introduced casually, then brought back over and over for cumulative effect. And Gaurishankar Chandrashekar’s mrindangam solo showed off some very impressive chops.
    Link

    Needu Charanamule – Raga Simhendra Madhyamam, Tala – Misra Chapu, Composer – St. Thyagaraja

    The Boston Globe’s Andrew Gilbert interviewed Durga before the concert and included her thoughts in his article:

    Durga Krishnan, another tireless educator who has collaborated widely with jazz musicians, is also committed to working across genres. Performing in a duo with Gaurishankar Chandrashekhar, an expert on mridangam (a two-headed drum), she’s presenting a set of heavily improvised Carnatic music on the veena, a plucked lute that plays an essential role in the classical South Indian tradition. Eager to participate in Playing for the Planet, she feels that environmental consciousness is inextricably linked to her music.

    “I belong to the Hindu religion where we worship the five elements of nature as god,’’ Krishnan says. “One of the pieces we’ll be performing is from a group of compositions that are prayers to these five elements. There’s a deep connection between the kind of music that I perform and nature. It’s very important to do whatever we can.’’

    Link

    Raghuvamsasudha – Raga – Kathanakuthuhalam, Tala – Adi, Composer – Patnam Subramanya Iyer.

    The Meticulous Art of “Sujan” — Pandit Shrikrishna Narayan Ratanjankar

    Ratanjankar’s influence as a teacher is widely felt both in the work of singers like K.G. Ginde, S.C.R. Bhatt, and Dinkar Kaikini — and in the institutions of music education in contemporary India. His own singing reflected his considerable erudition and deep scholarship. These recordings are from an A.I.R. Special Programme.


    Raga Yamani Bilawal


    Raga Basant Mukhari

    Pandit Shrikrishna Narayan Ratanjankar was an able and talented singer as well as an excellent and experienced music teacher. his songs were disciplined and entertaining. His singing style was classical and without any mistake.

    Ratanjankar was born on December 31, 1890 in Bombay . He learnt music from the famous Pndit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande and Ustad faiouz Khan. In 1926, he did graduation from Bombay University . Later he became the Principal of Bhatkande Sangeet Vidyapeeth and held this post till 1928.

    He was a singer of Dhrupad and Khayaal of Agra Gharana. He wrote many books related to music that included ‘Taan Sangrah’, ‘Sangeet Shiksha’, ‘Abhinava Geet Majnani’. In 1957, he was honoured with the title of Bhushan by the Indian government for his contribution to art and culture. In 1963, he was chosen a fellow of Sangeet Natak Academy . He died on February 14, 1974 .

    Link


    Raga Sampurna Bageshri


    Raga Vibhaas (Marwa Thaat)


    Raga Adana (Lakshan Geet)

    Shrikrishna Narayan Ratanjankar `Sujan` occupied a pre-eminent position in the spectacular developments in the field of Hindustani music in the 20th century. A foremost disciple of Chatur Pandit Bhatkhande and a ganda-bandh shagird of the great Ustad Faiyaz Khan, Ratanjankar was an excellent performer, a learned scholar and a great guru with a number of accomplished disciples. His ascetic simplicity, his dedication to and personal sacrifice for the propagation of classical music are legendary.
    Born in Bombay on January 1, 1900, Ratanjankar first trained under Pt. Krishnam Bhat of Karwar and then under Pt. Anant Manohar Joshi (Antu Bua). However, it was the influence of Pt. Bhatkhande which shaped his career and life for the next sixty years. In 1917, with a scholarship by Baroda State, Bhatkhande placed Ratanjankar under the tutelage of the legendary vocalist, Ustad Faiyaz Khan.
    Besides being a graduate and a polished musician, he was already a profound scholar in music when in his early 20s. By common consent, Ratanjankar was regarded as the leading musicologist of his generation, and the indisputable successor of Bhatkhande as a supreme authority on historical and musicological questions. Ratanjankar went on to become professor and subsequently, Principal of Marris College of Music, founded by Bhatkhande. During his tenure, Marris College came to be regarded as a place of pilgrimage by most famous Hindustani musicians. He remained committed to Bhatkhande`s Music College through difficult times, even parting with his salary to pay the other staff members whenever there was a financial crunch. Later, when Indira Kala Sangeet University was inaugurated in Khairagarh (Madhya Pradesh), Ratanjankar was appointed Vice-Chancellor. He was also associated with AIR as the chairman of the Music Auditions Board.

    Link


    Raga Mian Ki Sarang


    Raga Kedar Bahar

    Decades ago, when Pt. Ratanjankar was known with affection and respect as “Anna Saheb” among his colleagues, friends and followers, and his voice was in excellent form, he could have chosen the more paying and exciting life of a practical musician. But, such was his reverence and loyalty to the memory of his Guru, that he chose to follow the latter’s footsteps, to continue the work of training generations of musicians and music teachers, and to work in every possible way for the propagation of classical music. So dedicated was he to his ideals, that he stuck on steadfastly to the Principalship of the Bhatkhande Music College, Lucknow, through three long decades when emoluments were meagre, and sometimes, not forthcoming at all! Leaving his family in Bombay, Srikrishna Ratanjankar spent the best years of his life cooped up in a small room next to his equally small office-cum-class room in the college. It would not be an exaggeration to say that but for the enormous personal sacrifices that he made, this music college would not have survived the years of poverty and emerged as such a reputed institution today. While personal tragedies assailed his life repeatedly, this small, frail, man continued to live like a true Karma Yogi, imparting music to students and scholars who flocked to him from all parts of India, and Ceylon, writing scholarly articles on music for various journals, seminars and radio-talks, and enriching our music with a prolific number of masterly compositions such as Khayals, Lakshanageets, Taranas and Bhajans (in Hindi and Sanskrit). An erudite scholar in music, he remained an eager student and research-scholar till the end.

    Born on the first dawn of this century in a middle-class Maharashtrian family of Bombay, Srikrishna’s father (an officer in the C.I.D.) had a deep and discriminating interest in music. Therefore, he was able to have the good fortune of receiving excellent training in the art under the most efficient masters available. At the age of 7, young Srikrishna was put under the training of Pt. Krishnam Bhat of Karwar (a pupil of Kale Khan of Patiala Gharana) whose method of teaching was so thorough that in 2 years of (nothing but) scale exercises, the boy’s “swar-jnan” was perfected. His next teacher was Pt. Anant Manohar Joshi (a pupil of Balakrishna Buwa). It was about this time that Srikrishna’s family came into contact with Pt. Bhatkhande Ji. The latter was so deeply impressed by the boy’s talent and zeal, that the Chaturpandit predicted that with proper training, he would not only become a great musician, but also a pioneer in the rejuvenation and popularization of Hindustani classical music.

    Link


    Raga Ramdasi Malhar


    Raga Jaitshri

    Until I compiled this page it had escaped my notice that Ratanjankar was for a time a student of Antubuwa Joshi. My own guru Devasthalibua had learned briefly with Antubuwa many decades later, at the behest of his son Gajananbua Joshi.

    6 Feb 2012, 9:34pm
    India Indian music music vocalists:
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  • Bhendi Bazaar Gharana…

    …the “fourth generation,” as represented here by Pt. Shivkumar Shukla.

    Khyal in Raga Shahana Kanada:

    The Bhendi Bazar Gharana has a history of over 150 years. It was established around 1870 by the three brothers, Chajju Khan, Nazir Khan and Khadim Hussain Khan who had come to settle in Mumbai from Muradabad in Uttar Pradesh. They had trained under their father, Ustad Dilawar Hussain Khan. In order to expand the field of their knowledge, they took training in Dhrupad from Ustad Inayat Khan of the Dagar Parampara. They settled in a then prosperous area of Mumbai called Bhendi Bazar ( It was located behind the Fort area of Mumbai and was called ‘Behind the Bazar’ which later became Bhendi Bazar).

    There they formed their own singing style which came to be widely appreciated and acclaimed. They were called ‘’Bhendi Bazarwalle’’ and the Gharana or Gayaki became the Bhendi Bazar Gharana. This Gharana has many an illustrious name to its credit. Anjani Bai Malpekar, Ustad Aman Ali Khan, Pt Shiv Kumar Shukla, Pt T. D Janorikar to name but a few. This Gharana has flourished and enriched our music over time with its unique features and specialties alongside the other well-known Gharanas of Khayal music.

    Link

    Sargam composition Raga Kafi:

    Though not the most popular or widely-known of gharanas, the Bhendi Bazaar style make a conspicuous impact on North Indian classical music during the first half of the 20th century through the efforts of its most gifted exponent, Ustad Aman Ali Khan. His ancestors, Chhaju and Nazir Khan, originally trained in the Rampur-Sahaswan style, migrated from Uttar Pradesh in the turn of the 19th century and settled down in the Bhendi Bazaar area in Bombay. A modest and reticent man, Aman Ali was not only a fine singer, but also a composer par excellence. One of his best-loved compositions is the swingy bandish Laagi lagan pati sajan sangh (structured along the lines of Dikshitar`s kriti, Vatapi ganapathim bhaje) in Hamsadhvani, later popularised by Ustad Amir Khan. His popularity in Western India was so vast that Lata Mangeshkar had learnt under him for a while. Ustad Amir Khan picked up the subtleties of this gayaki from his father, Shamir Khan, who had learnt under Chhaju Khan and Nazir Khan, and later from Aman Ali himself.

    Aman Ali was strongly influenced by certain aspects of Karnatic music, especially the rendering of complex note patterns (swaraprasthas) in aesthetically agreeable ways. He, along with Abdul Karim Khan, was largely responsible for popularising the use of sargams during raaga elaboration. During the time of Partition, he migrated to Pakistan leaving behind a few dedicated disciples like Anjanibai Malpekar, Shivkumar Shukla, Ramesh Nadkarni and T.D. Janorikar to continue his legacy. Suhasini Koratkar is a well-known contemporary exponent of this style.

    Some of the identifiable aspects of this gharana are:

    Use of merukhand method of singing notes and note combinations. The singers incorporate the complex merukhand permutations into their raaga elaboration.

    Use of aesthetic ornaments imported from the Karnatic system like brukas (short, swift and razor-sharp executions of melodic ideas during raaga elaboration) and sargams with great aesthetic feeling and finesse.

    Particular stress on the proper articulation and enunciation of the words of the bandish. Many of Aman Ali’s compositions possess much literary quality, demanding a great deal of vocal dexterity and sensitivity to bring forth their beauty.

    Preference for singing in the medium tempo.

    Link

    Raga Motaki: