Other than hip ethnomusicologists (a contradiction in terms?), the world
of classical (Western) music may be completely ignorant of what "Asian
Massive" is.  Or are.

And yet, this new musical genre looks both intriguing and promising,
subject to free exploration by the bold, the curious, the thrifty in and
near San Francisco.

The 64th annual season of the Stern Grove Festival - the country's oldest
admission-free summer series of performing arts concerts - presents two
Asian Massive events in August, squeezed into a schedule featuring San
Francisco's opera, symphony, ballet and other august music organizations.

On Sunday, Aug.  12, the Grove program will feature what is described
as a world-premiere joint performance by Zakir Hussain, Sultan Khan,
Bill Laswell and Talvin Singh, with "Mr.  Asian Massive" Karsh Kale.

To get into the swing, Karsh (the proper second reference, it seems) will
present a free lecture-performance on Friday, Aug.  10, about what it's
all about.  My Crossover Popster friends (who will be scandalized by the
above admission of ignorance) say Asian Massive forges several strains
of classical Indian music with "post-millennial electronic dance styles"
such as "trance" - but you shouldn't give up already, with loud elevator
sugarplums dancing in your head.  Zakir Hussain and Sultan Khan are well
worth hearing, whatever they may be playing.

Karsh - born in the UK of Indian parents, but raised in the US and
collaborating with Herbie Hancock and DJ Spooky - is said to blend jazz,
rock, hip-hop (NOW I lost you, right?), tabla, sarangi, flutes, vocals in
(ready?) "pan-global music." I don't know how cross the idea may make my
many non-crossover friends-in-music, but I'll give it a try.  For more
information, see www.sterngrove.org, a site which appears down on Sunday.
Who said expanding one's horizons is easy?

My favorite *ultra-hip* ethnomusicologist (and distinguished author of
books about Lou Harrison, the Grateful Dead, Javanese and Chinese music),
Prof.  Fred Lieberman of UCSC, surprised me greatly by responding to the
Stern Grove Asian Massive post thusly:

   Despite being an ethnomusicologist who teaches pop music and tries
   to stay current with ethnic fusion style, it's the first I've seen
   the name [of Asian Massive].  Thanks for the explanation and alert.
   I'm pleased that producers, performers, and/or their audience and
   media hypers have created an appropriate internal taxonomic label
   for the sub-genre of Indo-electronica fusion.  (How's that for unhip
   academicism?)

   I recently received a remarkable new CD of this style, tho I didn't
   notice "Asian Massive" when skimming the notes a few days ago.  It
   is Qawwali-electronica fusion!  (Remarkably effective, tho uneven.)
   It's "People's Colony No. 1" by Temple of Sound and Rizwan-Muazzam
   Qawwali (Realworld).  See <http://realworld.on.net/colony1> for
   details.

   Realword has previously published work of others using similar (and
   also dissimilar) fusion styles, notably Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan &
   Michael Brook (Nusrat, still mourned, was one of the most remarkable
   musicians of the 20th-c, "discovered" by the West only towards the
   end of his career due to the religious nature of Qawwali), Sheila
   Chandra (a spectacular Indo-Brit vocal stylist), and U. Srinivas
   & Michael Brook (Srinivas is a true phenom--a Carnatic classical
   =mandolin= virtuoso, who started as a child prodigy--I attended an
   exciting full-length classical program in Madras when he was 11 or
   12).  I wholeheartedly endorse your recommendation, and would consider
   any event including either Zakir Hussain OR Sultan Khan worth
   attending.

Incidentally, a quarter century ago, Prof. Lieberman presented a
scholarly paper on the topic of "Should Ethnomusicology be Abolished?"
His resounding "yes" to doing away with his own "pseudo-discipline" (a
paper written long before he had the safety of tenure) is still
available at http://arts.ucsc.edu/faculty/lieberman/profession.html

Janos Gereben/SF
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