Batish Brings Feverish Sitar to BSU
by Marianne Flagg
Idaho Statesman
No one appreciates more than Ashwin Batish the common perception-
- and misconception - about what constitutes Indian music.
A tendril of incense curls in the air as a cross-legged man sits plucking
a sitar, twanging blissfully toward Nirvana.
Classical Indian sitar music can be mellow and spiritual. But in the
hands of Batish, a master player, the sitar is an instrument of versatility
and great charm.
"It's not just squatting on the floor and burning incense," Batish
jokes, "It's fun. you can dance to it."
Batish will be in Boise on Saturday to pay his danceable mix of Indian
dance-pop. His show starts at 8:30 p.m. in the ballroom of the Boise
State University Student Union Ballroom.
Tickets cost $8.50 for general admission at the Record Exchange, Spike's
Tapes, CD's and Records and Five Mile Records.
Student tickets cost $6.50 and are available at Union Station in the
SUB.
Batish's music is an inviting hybrid of ragas (traditional Indian
melodies) and the happy thump of Western dance music. It's part of
a burgeoning style of music known as world beat/ ethno-pop. In a crushing
of barriers, East meets West in dance music that retains the special
flavor of a culture.
Batish celebrates classical and modern Indian music by combining the
sitar with drum machines. Other performers mine world beat from reggae,
salsa, and Caribbean, African, Celtic and Arabic rhythms.
"Maybe it's time for this music to come forward," Batish says of world
beat. "In my mind the musicians are the ones tht are creating the
excitement. They are visualizing music ahead of its time. The globe
is shrinking."
Batish, who was born in Bombay, India, and now lives in Santa Cruz,
Calif., is fluent in classical sitar and has great respect for it.
As a boy, he realized the potential of the sitar in a pop music
setting.
"I have been in the West since I was 13 or so. I always thought,
"Why isn't this music being played for college kids?"
He has leashed the ears of many college listeners with his album "Sitar
Power" (`Batish Records).
With song titles such as "New Delhi Vice," "Bombay Boogie" and "Casbah
Shuffle,"the album offers party music that is both flip and feverish.
Although this fusion sound is new to many Westerners, it has flourished
for years in India.
"It is used in pop music in Indian movie scores,"Batish says. "You
hear this kind of fusion, Western instruments have always been in
India. Indian artists are very familiar with the saxophone, flute,
clarinet and violin."
The sitar, which can take a lifetime to master, owes its eeries, layered
sound to 18 strings.
The most-played string in the first, which is made of steel. The next
11 strings - underneath the first - are called sympathetic strings.
"When you hear that resonance at the end (of a line), those are the
sympathetic strings to the first string."
The others are two brass strings for melody in the lower octaves and
four strings for strumming and creating a rhythmic pattern.
Although Batish enjoys teaching and talking about the sitar with missionary
zeal, he prefers to do his converting in concert.
"I seriously believe in one to one contact with an audience," he says,
"You can't really carry a type of music aound in your pocket and do
it justice. You never will believe what a sitar can do unless you
see it."
©Idaho Statesman. Printed by permission.
For additional information about Batish recordings and publications,
contact: Batish Records, 1310 Mission street, Santa Cruz, Ca 95060
Tel: (831) 423-1699 / Fax: (831) 423-5172
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