Omega's Ecstatic Chant Weekend

Earlier this month, I had the absolute joy of being invited up to Omega Institutes Ecstatic Chant Weekend over the labor day holiday. There's no better way to describe it than ecstatic - it was a weekend of musical ecstacy. To spend a weekend with so many amazing musicians chanting their hearts out is beyond compare - the musicians included Snatam Kaur with GuruGanesha and Manish Vyas, Deva Premal and Miten with Manose, Krishna Das, Jai Uttal with Daniel Paul, David Newman (aka Durga Das) with his amazing wife Meera, Shyamdas, Vishal Vaid and some fun accompaniments from Gauravani, Siri Om Singh, Steve Gorn and many more whose presence created a musical masterpiece of a weekend.

On Day 1, the events started in the evening and I saw Snatam Kaur, Jai Uttal and Krishna Das on the first day, which was really blissful and sacred and sweet. We went to bed around 2 a.m. blissed out! Day 2 started at 9 a.m. and halfway through the first set, I remembered that I could take video on my new i-phone. So I started recording, and discovered to my amazement that I could instantly upload the clips straight to youtube - and so here they all are. The sound is a little funky on some of them because I covered the microphone with my fingers until I realized where it was, but you'll get the idea.
Manose invited the amazing Steve Gorn to play with him onstage for an incredible flute duet. What a way to start the day!

Durga Das (David Newman) has a really rich musical sensibility that I deeply enjoyed - this song 'The Prophet' has become one of my top plays on my i-pod since this weekend:

Snatam Kaur started the afternoon off with some sweet gentle songs, including this Guru Guru Wahe Guru which she invited Manose onstage to join her - it was so beautiful!

Then things got wild - GuruGanesha pulled a bunch of people onstage including Deva Premal, Miten and Siri Om Singh and they played a rousing version of 'Walk with the Lord by my Side" - look at everyone's expressions - they are all having such a blast!

After Snatam, Deva Premal and Miten got on stage and sang a beatiful chant, Shima which means love in the Hopi language:

Then they sang a really fun song - Id Were Were - look at how much Deva Premal is enjoying this one (and don't miss GuruGanesha's enthusiastic clapping in the front row )

Then, Miten invited Shyamdas (and GuruGanesha) on stage to lead a song, which was really upbeat and lively.

After that, Premal asked Snatam to join her onstage to sing Aad Guray Nameh - I think it was the first time Snatam stood and sang that chant (and her baby, Jap Preet kept trying to climb onstage - I wish I had caught that on camera!)

Later in the evening, Krishna Das played - I only was able to tape one song, which isn't one of his traditional chants, but this fun gospel song - Jesus on the Main Line:

I missed Jai Uttal on day 2, but someone posted a fun clip of him doing an improptu kirtan in Omega's Lunch Room:

On Monday Morning, after I live, Shyamdas performed again, and I found this clip online - he's got everyone up on stage with him just rocking the house!

I also missed videotaping Vishal Vaid, who is an amazing guzzal singer. Here is a clip I found of his music on youtube: