Baul- The Folk Music of Bengal - Page 10

Anu is right. Thanks Bobda I too came to know about few new instruments.

This content was originally posted by: Qwest

12. GOPICHAND - this one string instrument allows you to change the pitch by squeezing the bamboo sides. The tighter you squeeze, the lower the note gets, until the instrument breaks and you have to get a new one at the corner gopichand store

Just a query. Is it that the instrument is named after some store. Can we have more on this one. I am really interested to know more on this instrument.

It has been 30 years or so since Indian music infiltrated Western pop culture, and one of the original infiltrators, Purna Das Baul, from Bengal, showed up at Symphony Space on Saturday night. Mr. Das is connected: he's on the cover of Bob Dylan's ''John Wesley Harding'' and has sung with Mick Jagger, Mr. Dylan and Richie Havens. He also came recommended by Allen Ginsberg, to whom the concert was dedicated.

Mr. Das arrived with a band of family members, including his wife and two sons. The family is part of the Bauls, a Bengali subculture; traditionally, members of the sect are wandering musicians, and their music is percussion-heavy, at times sounding like African percussion filtered through the Caribbean. The music has a bounce to it, and the dancing, by Mr. Das and his son Bapi, was plump with sensuality.

When Mr. Das sang he sounded at times like a flamenco singer in high passion, open-throated and woeful. He's a master of the vibrato, letting it flap a bit, widely, or controlling it so his voice sounded like a buzz saw. He used impossibly long phrases, then cut them short. He sang a song about love, ''If love sticks to your heart, it's difficult to get it off,'' yelping big swoops in between choral chants.

The band, helped out by Badal Roy on percussion, used a banjo and a lutelike dotara, along with finger cymbals and metal bells tied to the ankles. A bamboo flute called a bansuri followed the melody of the banjo; it was light and rhythmic, and the dance impulse made the music move. PETER WATROUS

This content was originally posted by: Qwest

 

Son of Purna das Baul

Thanx Babu. nice to see that even he is going places.😊 the more of these new generation ones come forward this folk music will stay alive. Purnadas Baul has made the music popular world wide. now its on the next generation to see that its carries forward. and few are actually doing so too.