The old school blues

Blue is a colour found rarely in nature and an emotion found in every human being. The colour blue is associated with feelings like sadness, depression, melancholy and remorsefulness.  Blues is a genre of music originated by African Americans of south of America in the late 19th century.  The slaves wanted to indulge themselves in the act of catharsis by singing songs not about kings and queens or god but about their own lives.

They picked up the cheapest musical instrument available at that time: Guitar and shared their misery through verses. The story telling element of this genre is the most fascinating thing about it. Stories about life pinning one down and yet to say that we humans are beautiful even in our defeats. Tragedies about slavery, about getting beat up, about lost love, about regrets, about pain and about life.  

Jimi Hendrix is credited for quoting ‘blues is easy to play but difficult to feel’. The structures of the song are fairly simple but they appeal to the listener just right. It quickly gained popularity, initially within America and later throughout Europe and Africa. Geography played a major role in creating the sub genres like delta blues, Detroit blues, Texas blues Louisiana blues, country blues and etceteras.  It is the most influential music genre of all time. Genres like jazz, rock and roll and country are derivatives of blues. Musicians like B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix are no strangers to music lovers.

Over the years, its popularity among people has surely declined but it still exists unlike new genres that easy come and easy go. I think it can never really die.

Don’t we all enjoy a tragic story? The music and rhymes are cherry on top. Emotions like sadness and pity are never felt in a bearable level, always found in excess. Blues provides us the purgation of such emotions so we can deal with them on a bearable level. Indulging yourself in blues does make you better at handling your sadness. Sorrow that sparks happiness. Such is the beauty of blues. Such is the magic of blues  

Jazz: Art to Articulation

Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom. Improvisation, hitting the bass
notes, and experiencing gratitude, is what Jazz is about. One of the greatest forms of Music and
Art, Jazz is what defines the words calm and soothing. Some consider it hard to be played, and
some think that improvisation is something you’re born with. Both of the things are wrong. Any
form of music, can be learnt by anyone, played by anyone, and mastered by anyone. All that
matters is the intent.
The articulation of emotions, rhythm, and the notes is something that is not exclusive to jazz, but
the way it happens in jazz, is magic. Ornette Coleman once said, “Jazz is the only music in which
the same note can be played night after night but differently each time”. This quote defines what
jazz is all about. Jazz is a vehicle, which takes you to the true destination. A musical one, that
describes the emotions, virtues, and hardships that a human being faces, and the joys of life he
experiences.
Very few music styles have taken off like Jazz. How did this happen? Circumstances at the time
were just right for the worldwide phenomenon that was Jazz. As the world turned its back on
World War I, people were celebrating, putting their wartime experiences behind them. New
values swept aside the old-fashioned Victorian morals, and these values took shape in a desire
for freedom. Jazz music represented and expressed this freedom wholeheartedly, and this
"embodiment" helped it to succeed. Jazz was also a relaxed, more spontaneous and infectious
genre of music, and the type of attitude that was favoured by the general public in the 1920s, and
is still being favoured by the current generation.
Jazz is the transition of Art into Articulation. The articulation of virtue and freedom. A noteworthy
thing, “Life is a lot like jazz... it's best when you improvise.”

The Beauty of Classical Music

Mozart once said, “I pay no attention to anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings”. That is the Beauty of Classical Music. The point in this world where words cease to exist, music begins. Classical Music is the language of communicating emotions, feelings, and gratitude towards people. People like Franz Schubert, Johnny Cash, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, and Pandit Jasraj, have immortalized this form of art in the hearts of appreciators and lovers.

Classical Music is like watching Television at the highest possible definition and quality. After getting into Classical Music, everything else seems a bit monochrome. A vast range of dynamics, emotions, harmonic language, orchestration, and everything in between, that makes other forms of music just plain. But, every good thing has a down side as well. It is really tough to learn.

Years of Dedication and Hard Work, countless hours of practicing and training, and yet a few are able to master it. This inability to master an art has caused the depreciation in the audience, and the interest base of the art. Not exponentially, but gradually.

For instance, Tarana, a vocal form in Indian Classical Music, probably best represents the vocalist's urge to move away from song-text and into the realm of instrumental music. It uses syllables like dere, naa, deem, tana, and pakhawaj syllables. These syllables, therefore, are used as a musical language tied in with melody and rhythm, allowing musicians to be unfettered by the restrictions that literal language may pose. Classical music brings you closer to the tune, and makes you independent of the lyrics.

It is a conventional wisdom that every singer, sooner or later, will come to learn Classical Music. Not just singers, musicians and artists would eventually turn to classical forms of the respective arts.

Every form of art, eventually, rolls down to the classical roots. No matter what the genre, no matter what the background, classical music is always present in every form of music that is present in the world. That is the beauty of Classical Music.

The Lost Voice of Cinema: A Brief Study of Bollywood Music

Music, the strongest form of Magic, has been captivating people in the Indian Cinema for over a Century now. Going as far into the past as 1901, the First Music Schools in India, had no Idea how vast and how complex the musical legacy of India would get. The foundations laid out by the maestros like Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh Mathur, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosale, etc. have provided a steady and firm nurturing ground for the Musicians of this era to learn and polish, but lately, there has been a steady downfall in the character of Music in India, and it is crumbling down. Why is this happening?

The basic essentials of a good song are appropriate portions of authentic music, great singing, and capturing lyrics. Indian Cinema, till some time ago, had all of these. But off-late, things have changed in all the three areas, enormously. The Music has become more and more electronic, more dominant and less accommodating & caring to the lyrics. In fact, sometimes the music is so overwhelming that at times people hardly care about the lyrics, and ignore the fine singing.

Lyrics are said to be the soul of a song. The diversity and the variety of lyrics are dead. There are points at which the lyrics stop making any sense, and are just written to compliment the music that is playing in the background.
Singing is one of those domains where the role of technology is so underrated. More often than you think, the involvement of software that tunes the voice to the perfect pitch is used. This is not an issue just with Indian Music, the whole music fraternity has fallen prey to this bad influence. This has given rise to singers who are not trained and don’t really know anything about music in general.

Still, there is hope for Indian Music with the hidden talent that is brewing amongst a busy lifestyle of the crowded cities. The hidden artists and singers, who are not getting exposure, are the ones who need to be focussed on & groomed in such a way that they can balance out the highs and the lows of Bollywood Music, and give a new birth to music, and shine.

The Underground Scene of India: Music in a Caccoon

The Genres which go beyond the Mainstream culture of music come under the Underground music. The songs under the Underground music are not commercially legalized.

Underground Music differs a lot from Commercial music as they tend to express a lot of common ideas such as high regard for sincerity and intimacy whereas the Commercial music restricts the use of creative expression and follows the existing mainstream trends in music.

Underground Music has existed since even before the mid-60s. But it’s has been seen that a few Underground bands like the Sex Pistol turned from an Underground band to a Mainstream Band.

Talking about the Underground music scene in India, many bands have emerged like The Local Train, Soul Mate and Indian Ocean which have been a source of both entertainment and inspiration. However, there have been some lesser known acts that came into the scene, gave us some really good music but unfortunately disappeared.

The primary reasons behind such failures are lack of a platform and poor acceptance of genres. Apart from this, the lack of support from the industry has further obstructed the growth of these independent bands.

Only way forward is through a collective effort wherein the artists start listening to and supporting each other. Since we are all in this together, let’s keep this scene alive and while we’re at it, let’s not forget to cherish and enjoy this Endless Journey that we call music.

After Hours- an ode to the underground

We’ve heard stories about the underground. For some of us, however, it was a first time experiencing it at Jamlouder After Hours.

To give you a brief, After Hours is a gig where musicians come to express their music that is different from and sometimes ahead of the mainstream. Musicians supporting other musicians, that is the core belief for us at Jamlouder and this is our way of realising that belief. 

The last session saw eleven solo performers and three bands perform at Sharma Muzik, the music store that has indeed become our very own Gilman, as someone noted at the event. It has been an immense pleasure working with some of the best talent from our city at this show. Takes us back to the good old college days where music festivals were all the craze. After all, we too are musicians.

And speaking of musicians, the bands were totally insane. Teen Spirit paid a tribute to Dolores O’Riordan by giving a flawless performance of one of her songs, Zombie. The Lolypops went full punk and embodied everything we love about punk rock. The Faculty did their own renditions of their playlist and maybe taught us a thing or two about music.

Somewhere in the crowd, we found a place, an identity and in the end that is what matters.

It was a night to remember as our local music scene got a whole lot louder. Just the way we like it. But in case you missed it, don’t worry.. . we’re jamming every alternate week. So stay tuned and keep rocking!

Welcome to the Machine

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” The new year is upon us and it is calling out with a very simple question: is it always going to be this way?

Last year, we set out in our quest to present and produce good music. As we left the comfort of theory and ideas and started doing shows and recordings, we came to know firsthand just how much pain and effort goes into these things. It was an experience both humbling and empowering. Along the way we made some new friends and learned new things.

Over the course of about a dozen discussions with the people who have been pushing the local music scene forward, the message became clearer. Truth is, we come from the underground. We live for the underground. It is our inheritance and our legacy. Therefore, the change needs to come from within.

It has never been easier for artists to publish their work. At first glance it appears that the problem was discoverability and getting acceptance from the mainstream audience. But truth is that the scene derives its beauty from a characteristic sound that is pure and raw, which can only come from the freedom that the niche provides.

Fact is, it takes an independent artist to know an independent artist and the scene needs to grow along those lines. Artists need to listening start to other artists. A community that focuses on collaboration rather than competition has to be fostered using the current channels.

And that is what we are aiming for at JamLouder. Our every effort goes into making sure that this great pool of talent sustains itself, grows and flourishes. Let it be said, it is not easy but there is no greatness without the struggle.

So yeah, it is always going to be this way. It is the best of times and the worst of times… but it’s the only time we got. So let’s make the most of it and get on with the show…