W.Y Songs

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Prem Joshua is considered to be a pioneer in the field of World Music. I have been reviewing Joshua’s innovative synthesis of East and West since the mid-90s, with Tales of a Dancing River, Hamsafar and Desert Visions still among my favorites. I’m delighted to be able to tell you about Taranga, Joshua’s latest CD.

Taranga, which means “colorful waves of joy and enthusiasm” in Sanskrit, features captivating melodies on the sitar, bamboo flute and soprano sax. Joshua’s compositions soar over driving tabla rhythms as ancient Sanskrit and Sufi poems re-awakened in the 21st century. And while Joshua draws inspiration from deep wells of Eastern musical traditions, he’s never lost touch with contemporary Western music. Over the years he has continued to distill his amazing talent for fusion, mixing meditative classical Indian ragas with highly intoxicating rhythms, creating music seemingly at home anywhere in the world.

Here are but a few of Joshua’s many awards: he is now the number one bestselling World Music artist in India. The daily newspaper “The Times of India” has anointed him the new “Guru of Fusion.” In 2003, the BBC nominated him for its prestigious “World Music Listeners Award,” and in 2007 Joshua received the award for “Best Film Music on Indian TV” at the Indian TV Awards in Mumbai.

Joshua plays, sitar, flute, percussion, drums, bass, soprano sax and handles some vocals. A host of excellent musicians adds tabla, dholak (Indian hand drum), kanjeera (a small round drum covered with goat skin and circled with bells on its wooden body), cello, violin, keyboards and much more. Exquisitely produced, Taranga is happy-feet music for the ages, perfect for active meditation and movement, or simply getting lost in the joy of the moment. I urge you to get to know Joshua’s delicious blend of East and West, you may even want to collect more of his titles.

By: Steve Ryals

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Grammy Awards are the Oscars of the music industry. The music industry launched its own awards thirty years after the Academy Awards were established. The Grammys, the Gramophone Awards–as originally named, were created in 1957 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

The Grammys were conservative. At that time, rock and roll was not included in the nominations, since it was considered a fad. Although the committee consisted of representatives from pop, jazz, classical, R&B, country etc, most innovators never won any awards for years to come.

The first Grammy Awards were presented for the year 1958, on May 4, 1959. Although Elvis Presley’s records were half of the music sold that year, The King wasn’t even nominated.

It is said that Frank Sinatra, the chairman of the board, had a hand in this, since he did not appreciate Rock’n Roll, and in the second year, when Bobby Darin was granted the Record of The Year Award for 1959 for “Mack the Knife,” Sinatra despised the new music even more. During the later years, however, Sinatra recorded the same song.

The end of the sixties still stayed conservative, although with Woodstock and with the push for following along with the times, the middle-of-the-road choices started to take hold. In 1969, the group 5th Dimension proved to be a godsend with their soft jazzy rock music, winning two awards for the same song, “Aquarius–Let the Sunshine in.”

The traditionalist view lost its hold during the seventies when the Grammys relaxed the strict judging criteria and included the rock music artists like the Eagles and Stevie Wonder.

A slap in the face came to Grammys with their biggest scandal when the Best New Artist Award was given to Milli Vanilli. Milli Vanilli were a twosome who had three singles at the number one spot. It was later discovered that the two never sang any of their songs, but lip-synched. Their German producer said afterwards, “We made a pact with the devil.”

The Grammys were broadcast on television for the first time by ABC until CBS bought the rights of telecast in 1973. The Grammys were held in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium for several years and then moved to the Staples Center because of the increase in the size of the audience and the categories. For years, New York and Los Angeles have competed for hosting the Grammys.

The Grammys now boast 108 categories with more than 20 genres of music and chapters in Atlanta, Chicago, Florida, Los Angeles, Memphis, Nashville, New York, Pacific Northwest, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Texas, and Washington, D.C.

The 49th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony took place on February 11, 2007 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California with Dixie Chicks becoming the big winners. In 2008, Grammy Awards will celebrate its fiftieth year, a milestone in the music awards business and will be held on a date to be yet announced at Staples Center, Los Angeles, California.

By: Joy Cagil

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Music video of 1986 From the ‘So’ album www.forumpcfrlog.com http

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