The Whole Music Experience

I read an article on Canadian songster Sarah McLachlan in a back issue of Yoga Journal and learned about Sarah's music outreach program. Here is the website http://sarahmclachlanmusicoutreach.com/ I applaud these sorts of efforts.  Music also saved my life and I would have never survived my childhood without music lessons and music.

Chandrika Krishnamurthy Tandon Soul Call Om Namo Narayanaya Self-Release When I first heard about vocalist Chandrika Krishnamurthy Tandon’s Soul Call , I thought I’d received a kirtan CD in the mail. So I felt surprised when I received a famous healing chant set to Indian pop music. Krishnamurthy Tandon sings the same chant throughout the nine tracks that appear on the invigorating CD. It’s not surprising that the overall feel compares to a Bollywood soundtrack since the producer and musicians recorded it at a soundtrack studio, with orchestral arrangement duties handled by Tejendra Narayan Majumdar. The Grammy-nominated album has received a devoted following at the Soul Chants website (site listed at the end of the review). Visitors cite the healing effects the chants have had on them. According to the liner notes, “The powerful healing mantra translates to, ‘I surrender all to the Divine Protector; I salute the Divine Maintainer of all; I belong to the Divine Grace that ...

Laya Project Compilation EarthSync In 2004 before the tsunami hit South Asia and East Africa, animals and indigenous people fled to higher ground. There intuition had saved them from one of the greatest disasters to happen in the last decade. The aftermath brought much needed attention to the poorer communities bordering the Indian Ocean and climate change, and also exotic music that might not have been brought to the world’s attention had the tsunami not struck ground in this region of the world. Laya Project’s Tsunami Music: Sounds Embrace Survival from the Maldives to Myanmar, from India to Indonesia , spearheaded by Patrick Sebag and project producer and director (both a documentary and double CD) Sonya Mazumdar, the repertoire here comments on the musical vastness of this planet. While the CDs contain plenty of tabla beats, Indian twang, bansari flutes etc, listeners also hear Buddhist chants, love songs for the departed, and the rich polyphony gamelan of Indonesia. The...

I want to thank Allan Tamm for forwarding this link to me. Just three blocks from Lincoln Center, they arrived at the concert on Thursday night by shelter bus, not taxi or limousine. They took their seats around scarred, round folding tables. The menu was chicken curry and rice served on paper plates. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/arts/music/19soup.html

Singing for Life Songs of Hope, Healing, and HIV/AIDS in Uganda Smithsonian Folkways Music has the power to heal. This we know and time and again this point garners further proof. A new Smithsonian Folkways recording, Singing for Life compiled and recorded by ethnomusicologist Gregory Barz, brings us another hopeful musical project from the heart of sub-Saharan Africa. According to the ample liner notes, 38 million people worldwide are infected with HIV and roughly two thirds of those infected reside in Africa and 25.3 million live in sub-Saharan Africa. "Uganda is the single sub-Saharan African country that demonstrated remarkable, constant decline in overall infection rates. Many factors have contributed to this decline, and a critical one, Singing for Life , tries to show, is music." In Uganda where music plays a crucial role in everyday life, acting as a vehicle for educational messages, rituals, ceremonies and other activity, various musical groups, healers, a...