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Description
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Popular percussionist Girish is blasting through the defining boundaries of the chant music genre, bringing a fresh, exciting, and yet deeply spiritual interpretation that is sure to change the way that audiences and performers think of chant music.
Great music for yoga, inspiration, meditation, and more. A favorite at some of the biggest yoga centers in the country!
You may readily recognize the familiar sound of Girish's tabla playing, which has consistently graced popular chant recordings for the last decade. He has accompanied such celebrated artists as Snatam Kaur, Krishna Das, Rasa, Thomas Barquee, Dave Stringer, and Wah!
Now Girish is revolutionizing the world of chants with his funky, stirring style. On his new CD, Reveal, he intelligently incorporates pop, jazz, and folk nuances into ancient Sanskrit mantras. His voice is well trained through years of studying Sanskrit and chanting for hours a day, year after year.
"I took mantras that are 10,000 years old and combined them with a musical style that makes the benefit of the mantras accessible and appealing to modern listeners," says Girish. But rather than translating the mantras, he kept the integrity of the Sanskrit sounds intact for a reason. "When you chant, the mantra acts as a portal to the presence of the deity whose name you're chanting. There's this whole energy field built up around a mantra that has been used for thousands of years and has this vortex of spiritual power built around it," he explains. "Sanskrit is the mother tongue of the English language and all of the romance languages."
About the title of his new CD, Girish says, "Sanskrit is a revealed language, which means it emerged envisioned, out of meditation of the saints." Also, so much was revealed to Girish as he made this CD. The recording itself reveals an ancient tradition in a new and surprisingly clear way.
A remarkable cast of performers participated in and supported the making of Reveal. These include top female vocalists Donna Delory, Wah!, CC White and Snatam Kaur. But most impressive is Girish's effort in conceptualizing, writing for, singing on, and performing multiple instruments throughout the recording.
Though it is deeply rooted in the wisdom and spiritual knowledge of the Vedas, listening to Reveal is fun and light-hearted. "Ma," the first song on the collection, is a hymn to the Goddess from a scripture known as the Chandi. Girish put this song first because he says, "as everything, it emerged from the Goddess." Girish says that he particularly loves this song because it is "a powerful contemplation on the Goddess and it honors my spiritual lineage in the Divine Mother tradition."
Perhaps the catchiest tune on the recording is the dramatic, dynamic, engaging chant called "Hanuman." Soulful chants merge into a rap session that sweeps you up and urges you to groove. In Hindu mythology, Hanuman is the son of the wind and is associated with the practice of pranayama, the deep yogic breathing central to the Hatha yoga tradition. Girish explains that in singing a chant to Hanuman, the breath becomes a vehicle to merge with God. Yoga teachers love playing this song in class.
"Sharade" is a love song to the goddess Saraswati (the goddess of music and wisdom), and it appropriately expresses heartfelt devotion. Gentle keyboard and saxophone set the tone for going deep within. Then CC White joins Girish in a graceful, tender duet delicately spiced with jazz elements. Devotion and passion dance as the song progresses from dynamic to introspective and back again.
The other three chants on the CD, ?HK Ambient,? ?Gopala,? and Shri Ram,? are equally intriguing. All pay tribute to the spiritually liberating power of mantra. "Through mantra," says Girish, "all this spiritual wisdom and information is downloadable. It's not merely a language of conversation. Chanting gives you a chance to move out of your conceptual mind into knowing, into direct experience."
Those who sing along inevitably bring healing and devotion into their lives. Because, as Girish says, "Sanskrit is a profound tool for spiritual awakening that can be accessed by everyone, regardless of religious affiliation. And that's as a good a reason as any to bring Sanskrit chanting, or singing to the world."
Yoga Music, Meditation Music, Mantra, Chant,Relaxation Music, Nature Sounds, World Music |
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Artist BioGirish For as long as he can remember, Girish has created rhythm to accompany life. When he was eight years old, his parents gave him a little red snare drum as a bargaining tool to stop him from banging on everything else in the house.
Drumming has always been instinctual to Girish, flowing freely from his fingers and knowing no musical bounds. In his teens, he started experimenting with pop, rock, jazz and orchestral music. His first experience of music as sacred art came in college, playing with jazz bands. "During improvisational sessions," he recalls, "there were these unexplainable moments of synchronicity and intuition that felt like magic."
These moments came just as Girish was feeling pulled toward a sacred life. A college philosophy class inspired him to explore spirituality through Kundalini yoga, meditation, and the study of Eastern scriptures. By the time of his college graduation, Girish was so deep into these practices that he decided to move into an ashram in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Thus began an unexpected journey-a seeming detour that inadvertently nourished his musical artistry.
Girish lived in the ashram for five years, giving up music and taking the vows of a monk in the divine mother tradition called Dakshina Marg or Mahashakti Yoga. Yet, here, another compelling sound force emerged for Girish: the chanting of Sanskrit mantras. As a monk in the ashram he spent hours every day chanting. Girish also studied Sanskrit as a means to understand the deeper meanings of these ancient chants, and helped his teacher translate dozens of hymns.
He thought he had given up music for his spiritual practice, but one day he happened upon a set of tablas at the ashram and was instantly compelled to play them. This event set him on a life-changing course. Guided as always by rhythm, and now by his spiritual pursuits, Girish began to study tablas with Jagadessh in the nada yoga tradition (yoga of sound current), which emphasized the spiritual import of music. He also traveled to New York to learn the art of Indian drumming at Siddha Yoga Ashram.
After New York, Girish then hooked up with the musician and spiritual teacher Bob Kindler, known as Babaji. "From Babaji, I learned that sacred music is a viable outlet of spirituality, one that is profoundly uplifting and transformative," says Girish. It became clear to him that his innate musical passions didn’t conflict with, but in fact lead to a spiritual livelihood. Traveling and performing with Babaji helped cement this notion.
Girish also studied with legendary tabla master Swapan Chaudhuri at the Ali Akbar School of Music in Marin County, California. It was in northern California that Girish met other musicians at the forefront of the chant music explosion in this country. Krishna Das was just gaining popularity at that time and Girish played with him regularly. In this context, Girish was quickly introduced to a wider world of music for yoga. Soon he was accompanying many of the names in the yoga music genre, including Wah!, Dave Stringer, Thomas Barquee, Snatam Kaur, Shanti Shanti, Steve Ross, Swaha, and Rasa. His move to Los Angeles in 2000 brought him to the nation's epicenter of chanting and world music.
Girish continues to explore and expand musical borders, and has found new avenues for his artistic expression. Yearning to express the power of Sanskrit mantras through his own voice has been a driving force behind his CD's, Reveal, Shiva Machine, and his new release Diamonds in the Sun.
 | Episode Description | Episode Date | Download | | Special Guest: Girish | Thursday, May 05, 2011 |  |
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