Woetoe > Recent Status Updates

‘Three general principles underlie the production of all though-forms:

1. Quality of thought determines colour.
2. Nature of thought determines form.
3. Definiteness of thought determines clearness of outline.’

‘Dhrupad is when a raga is unfolded through an unaccompanied, free-tempo opening section known as alap, and then progressed into a jor section with a measured pulse. It had deep spiritual quality. Raga purity was prized, and each musical piece was designed to express one of the nine standard emotions or rasas originally detailed in a two-thousand year old Sanskrit text, the Natya Shastra.’

2. On Ravi’s teacher: ‘He was fanatical in his drive to learn, and forced himself to abstain from sex so that his energies were focused solely on music. Sometimes when he practiced, he would tie his hair to the ceiling with a long cord, to force himself to stay awake.’

1. On Ravi’s teacher: ‘At the age of eight he ran away to join a traveling group of musicians, claiming to be an orphan. Over several years they taught him both folk and classical styles. As well as learning vocal music, he mastered the violin, clarinet, cornet, trumpet, shehnai and various drums — tabla, pakhawaj and dhol — even before he took up his principal instrument, the sarod.

‘Ravi might complete his brief introduction by encouraging the audience to listen with their hearts, rather then their heads. He considered this to be he highest form of the music, capable of evoking a profound sense of serenity. When John Coltrane came to Ravi for lessons, it was this feeling of peace he was seeking.’

‘Thus, the thrill for the listener is to be found not in harmony, chords or key changes but in the melodic creativaty that a performer demonstrates — a thrill intensified by the overwhelming emphasis on improvisation. Indian music is performed without scores, foregrounding instantaneous invention within the constraints of the chosen raga.’

‘The drone acts as a kind of mental anchor, tethering the musician and listener to a fixed pitch, a familiar home to return to after every daring foray into melodic invention.’

‘One aspect that gives ragas such emotional power, is that the scales they employ are not limited to the two scales, major and minor, that dominate Western music. There are no fewer than 72 different parent scales into which al ragas can be categorized. Indian music thus explores a much greater variety of scales than does Western music, allowing for a wide range of moods.’

After reading all about John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”, there’s no better timing than to continue and read about the man who inspired the naming of John’s son: Ravi Coltrane. Ravi Shankar had a great impact on Coltrane’s music due to John’s interest in Indian classical music + the respect he had for Ravi. Can’t wait to see what’s there to learn about mr. Shankar and Indian music in general.

‘I want to get to a point where I can feel the vibrations of a particular place at a particular moment and compose a song right there, on the spot — then throw it away.’

“Stay in this world to transcend it.”

‘If you don’t take refuge in your own nature, there is nowhere else to take refuge’

‘Good friends, since ancient times, this Dharma teaching of ours, both its instantaneous and gradual versions, had proclaimed “no idea” as its doctrine, “no form” as its body, and “no attatchment” as its foundation.’

‘Sun Ra felt some credit was due, “[After my group] moved to New York [in 1961] and… stayed in a hotel, Coltrane would come by, and I’d talk to him again about things… he never gave me a cup of coffee.’

‘Words, sounds, speech, men, memory, thoughts, fears and emotions — time — all made from one.’

‘It’s an unrehearsed move that has never been corrected or erased. Coltrane had begun his chant off-microphone; the words “a love” were lost, but “supreme” remains. Van Gelder quickly adjusted Coltrane’s microphone level to catch the next full utterance: “a love supreme…”

‘John used to tell me how to listen to the music, so that I could get the most out of it. He would say things to me like, “You listen to a song, five times, Cecilia. Listen to it instrument by instrument. Play that song and listen to the bass all the way through. Listen to it again, and listen to the saxophone. Don’t just listen to it once and then attempt to give it a critique.”

‘How kind you are to me — to give — the universe revealed I see/Yes now
I’ll go to sleep — it’s right, sweet — I rest in peace / At night—‘

“What was so impressive?” When I couldn’t explain, he would say, “Don’t be like so many people we know. If you can’t explain what the difference was that you heard, what impressed you, just don’t say anything.” He was really quite the teacher as far as I was concerned. He taught me how to listen to jazz, what to listen for, how to be humble and not frontin’ on the music.’

‘I feel that basically the music should be dedicated to the goodness in people, the good things in life… folk tunes usually spring from these simple things… maybe I can work on this, listen to them and learn to combine what’s done around the world with what I feel here.’

‘A drummer should know the melody… that way the song can be played as a unit, not just two or three people carrying the whole thing and the drummer sitting back there just keeping time.’ — Elvin Jones

‘Another revelatory moment takes place at the very end of the same tune, as Coltrane blows breathily, sounding a note that seems to sit between to others. It’s a startling example of “multiphonics” — ‘Monk showed me how to make two or three notes at one time on tenor… he just looked at my horn and “felt” the mechanica of what had to be done to get this effect.’

‘Wherein some people would lay back on what they had already learned to play, if there was a specific problem that bothered Coltrane, he would zoom in on that problem until he solved it.’

‘He didn’t hardly ever hang out, he would go back to his hotel room to practice… It was almost like he was on a mission.’ — Miles Davis

‘Trane struck such a spiritual chord in so many listeners that people started to think of him as being beyond human. I think that’s unfair. He was just a human being like you and me — but he was willing to practice more, to do all the things that somebody has to do to excel. The real value in what John Coltrane did was that what he accomplished, he did as a human.’