Performers - introductionI have identified three groups that have entered and formed the basis of Hindustani classical music culture in America. The first and smallest of these consists of the Indian diaspora. Examples of this group include such players as Hamid Hussain and Ali Akbar Khan, who have set up many schools on the East and West coasts, as well as players such as Aashish Khan (Ali Akbar's son) and Kinnar K. Seen, whom I have interviewed. Like many who learned in India from their musician families, Seen grew up into a family tradition:
First thing is that music is in my family. My father is a musician...in India. He is quite famous there. Head of the department at the university [at Jalandhar]. He was a dean too. Traditionally he was teaching too. That's why this is in the family. I don't even remember when I started. I think I was born with it. I was just learning it. There was no special time. Although Seen later took lessons from some professors at university and he developed several playing styles, he attributes his father's gharana (Panjab gharana) as the root of his learning: "I should say that, because I learned from him everything. Traditionally. I say that." The second group that has entered and formed a part of the Hindustani classical music culture in America consists of Indians who grew up in America. This group is larger than the first, and includes such players as Enayet Hussain and Amit Chatterjee, whom I have interviewed. I found it interesting that, although members of this group were often urged by family members to participate in the Hindustani classical musical tradition, they sometimes chose to prorogue their inheritance in order to learn Indian folk genres and/or to explore aspects of Western culture. In Chatterjee's case:
Indian music was in my family, so to speak, even though there was only one family member who was practicing, and that was my mother. She studied the Patiala style of singing from one of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan's disciples...So I grew up hearing the music. When I was growing up, I had a natural ability to sing, but I didn't sing classical music. I sang Bengali songs. This was in India. Then when we came here, I got completely away from any kind of Indian music. I came here when I was eleven. Then, around the age of thirteen or fourteen, I got really very attracted to the electric guitar...I went on and became a guitar player, until I was about eighteen or nineteen years old, which is when I got interested in Indian music again. Then I became very interested in playing sitar. Not only did Chatterjee prorogue his cultural inheritance for a time, but he also chose to pursue a different instrument than his family had in the past (cf. members of the diaspora group). Because he also studied outside his family tradition and had several teachers, he doesn't consider himself a member of any gharana. However, due to the time he spent learning from Amit Adiecha, he thinks that he is following, to some degree, the Indore gharana tradition. The third and largest group to contribute to the American Hindustani music tradition consists of non-Indian-Americans. There are many reasons why non-Indian-Americans have wanted to enter that music culture. Mostly, they were already musicians of the Western classical and folk traditions. They were fascinated by Hindustani music as they first heard it: on the radio, on television, at a college concert, in a college class, in their travels, or as it influenced their favorite Western musicians--for example, the influence of Bismillah Khan on John Coltrane, and Ravi Shankar's and Alla Rakha's influence on the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Hindustani music was a part of pop culture in the late 1960's and many of my non-Indian-American interviewees entered the music at that time. Some, like Steve Gorn, were fascinated by the technical aspects of the music, while others, like Patsy Margolin, were attracted by the music's affective qualities. A few, like Paul Leake, were drawn just by the discipline of learning the music, and yet others, like Mark Lutnes, by the link of the music to a spirituality or faith. Many, however, were captured by combinations of some or several of these qualities. Here are two striking examples:
David Whetstone: I was a hippie in the Sixties. I loved to play acid rock and heavy metal. I also played the French horn in high school orchestra, and none of these musics seemed quite satisfying to me. I started searching for something else. Then someone played for me a recording of Ali Akbar Khan, and I was attracted to the beauty in the music and also to the fact that it was older people doing it...I hadn't associated with anything that had to do with the older folks and I liked the idea of the long training and discipline...I was attracted to the devotional aspect of it also, and also to the improvisation. While David Whetstone was attracted to the music on many levels, Steve Gorn approached the music, at first anyway, solely as a new direction for his study of Western music:
By the time I was in high school I was playing clarinet and saxophone and very much interested in playing jazz. This was in the early Sixties, right about the time that John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman began to really turn the direction of jazz in a different place. When I was at college...it was around that time that I first heard Ravi Shankar, as many people at that time did. That was in the context of getting high. I loved [the music], but I really didn't, at the time, know what was going on. But I was aware of the fact that Coltrane's music was taking a different turn and I found out that Bismillah Khan had been a big influence on him . It's what got me interested in listening a little further. Non-Indian-Americans entering the music culture might be seen to enjoy a wide latitude of choice ranging from vocal studies to instrumental studies. This is not the case, however. Looking at the choices made by members of this group, we see many sitar, sarod, and tabla players but very few vocalists. This is possibly so because Americans could not become interested in something to which they were not exposed. Americans were predominantly exposed to instrumentalists. The main Indian superstars in America's eyes, were Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, and Alla Rakha, who play sitar, sarod, and tabla respectively. Those interviewed were mostly inspired either by them or other players of those same intruments--and chose those instruments accordingly. The lack of classical vocalists in America deserves special attention because it contrasts sharply with India, where the majority of musicians are vocalists. Such a contrast must be tied to social causes, which I believe are as follows: First, few Indian-Americans listen to classical Indian vocal music. Rather, they prefer the lighter classical and folk genres. So they neither perform classical singing themselves or play such recordings in their stores or restaurants, and rarely, do they bring performers of Hindustani classical vocal music to America, barring a few connoisseurs of Indian music in America. The result thereof is that neither American born Indians nor most non-Indian-Americans have exposure to classical vocals. Second, when an American does hear that musical genre, there is rarely an immediate attraction to it. Thus, American performers of Hindustani classical vocals are a rarity. As Margolin comments:
[Vocal music is] actually very popular among Indians who are interested in classical music, but very few Indians are interested in their own classical music. As they become more Americanized, they become even less interested. Vocal music gets played on Indian stations, but classical music does not get much play at all, except on WKCR, and they play lots of vocal music...vocal music doesn't get much play on Western stations because Westerners don't understand it. There must be something in the psychology [that makes it difficult for Americans to feel comfortable with classical vocal music]--something in the language difference, but especially the intonation. The drone bothers people with the Indian voice. It's a more alien sound than the instruments because Indians use their voices differently, at least to our ears, than Westerners use the voice. [audio sample (unimplemented)] Margolin also points out that not only is it difficult for Westerners to appreciate Hindustani classical vocals, but it is even more difficult to learn because it is difficult for Americans to learn the language properly, with a consistent accent, which is necessary in order to not grate on the ears of the Indian audience. If Americans wanted to learn to sing in the Hindustani tradition properly, they would have to learn mainly from one teacher in order to attain a pure accent. This is difficult for the student of the vocal tradition to do, given the nature of the training that Americans receive in Hindustani music, often sporadic periods of training over many years from several teachers, supplemented by recordings, concerts, and notes taken at lessons (see appendix 2).
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