The ache!

Somewhere deep, somewhere within,
Don't know how and wherein
A feeling of heaviness, numbness
Or of needles and pins!

If only the ache would go away,
And the pain would disappear
Embellishment of thoughts, surge of life
The cerebral rouse

Evening with Allman Bro

Again the morning comes
again he's on the run
sunbeam shining through his hair
appearing not to have a care
pick up your gear and gypsy roll on
roll on
Crossroads, will you ever let him go, No, no, no
or will you hide the dead man's ghost
or will he lie beneath the plain
or will his spirit float away
but I know that he won't stay

Alliance Francaise de bangalore: Global Music Day

18th of June, and me and Mohit landed up at Allaince for some good music. And we were not disappointed. The music played were all originals and of pretty good quality.

Bruce played with Prashanth Santokke in a fusion outing. While the first song was great, the second failed to live up to the expectations especially when the lineup for the second number contained an acclaimed Carnatic Saxophonist (forgot his name). It seemed out of sorts, and think the percussion players realized that the string and wind instruments weren't really jelling together, so they took it away with some good percussion jamming! Later on Bruce told that the saxophone tuning was different from his and Prashanth's and it was really difficult to scale everything again .. anyways, guess not many could catch up the difference. (Anywhere in Bangalore, the general public is happy to hear and cheer for any drumming or percussion, good or bad!!!)

There were quite a few other groups actually .. the Esperantos, and Gopal's Band of farmers (from Guruskool music). But the highlight of the evening for me definitely was the small piano piece played up by an Alliance Fr musician (again forgot the name). The auditorium being small, the piano solo just seemed to fill up the whole place and it was mind blowing.

Later followed a band called "Lounge piranha". Bunch of colle ge kids but good original music, nice British contemporary rock, kinda like "Live" or "ColdPlay". Pretty nice compositions but need whole lotta work on guitar leads! "Zebediah plush" followed with their own set of music. Their bassist sure is the prettiest bassist in the history of RocknRoll. Gotta find out her name!!


On the other stage, some oldies were jamming over some Allman and Deads ... there was this firang who was playing some cool licks on 'china cat sunflower'

oh! and there was this babe on pink! Awesome to say the least!

The weight!

The world is always falling on your head, and you have always kept pushing it up, holding it up! For many, you have been the Atlas; the shield; the great crusader; for many you are arrogant; proud and rigid; basking in own glory, megalomaniac!

You were given the charge when things were volatile! Nobody cared! Everybody talked but nobody stepped forward! The Indian mentality of risk management: "Do not take up something that deems impossible". Ah!! That was your chance of playing the game of death! Your chance of acting the crouching tiger! You were sick of being the crestfallens, the imbeciles! You wanted to rise and that could be possible only if 10 others stood up, and all at the same time together! Single big pillars would not hold the weight, group of bearers were required! "Team" is the mantra, huddle is the armor! Jago, bhaiyo, jaago!

- "Dhande mein, koi kisika bhai nahin; Kaam nahin to maal nahin!".
-- "prrr ... Lekin .. picchle bar hi to ...¨
- "Arrey! Uska to kab ka usool ho gaya na!"

You are in a precarious situation. You are down under! You might have escaped the Super Cat, but there is no Broad smile waiting for you! [[Ah! The selectors must have been relieved that they did not have to do the ugly job! Did they, or you yourself bribe for it? :)]]
You are tense and sweating so much, that perspiration runs down and hamper your field of vision! [[Don't you carry a red handkerchief?]]
Your legs are shaking; your heart is pounding, your thoughts clouding! You know very well that it is not the studio set of "Baaghi". Action!! You can not shy away! Got to clear your mind before you can clear the front leg and hit through the line.

You are boiling under pressure. Like bubbles coming up out of simmering water, you want to burst up, create a dhamaka, make an impression, contribute and play a part in a national achievement! National achievement? Yeah, of course! India and Pak confrontation in any front is the biggest happening at any time! Everyone is involved. Everybody wants to play a part in it. In any possible way: besides financially supporting it or being actively involved in it, even trying to build some support for own opinions.

You know the job is not done! You know it is a long way off before "Team" can hit the cruise control! A huge surge of energy is required, going from strength to strength! And the biggest opportunity is definitely the biggest arena; the biggest extravaganza in 2007! You so, so badly want to hold the big trophy aloft; but you are still strong enough to be one of the bearers?

Are you just going to shrug?

Alternative Profession!

Nat Geo! or Discovery? Lonely planet guide? Or one of the food and alcohol testing trails around the globe? Just a dream!

The life and music of Jason Becker

This is an article I had written in Feb 2004 for VAYU groupites:

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If you a rock and roll follower, you have probably heard fair share of tragedies, burnouts, frustrations, fall through of personalities. From Lynyrd Skynyd’s plain crash, to untimely death of Stevie Ray Vaughan, to tragic death of Marvin Gaye, or Norah Jones’s troubled relationship with her father. The stage has many such painful memories.

But the tale you probably will not come across much, may be the one most compelling rock and roll tale of all: the story of a young, dynamic virtuoso guitarist Jason Becker. Jason Becker never had great commercial success of any of his albums going platinum or had his picture on cover of Guitar World, he never even played his guitar with his tongue!!

Way back, when he could still hold a guitar, he was one hell of a player. He made his name amongst the best shred guitarist of eighties, when speed guitar was the coolest thing around. Jason always wanted to be a guitar hero. It was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream that began when he picked up the guitar at the age of five, when his uncle, Ron, started teaching him blues and started jamming with him. His father, Gary, taught him classical guitar. During elementary school, his biggest influences were Bob Dylan and the Band, Andres Segovia, Christopher Parkening, Fernando Sor, Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Randy Newman and Willie Nelson. He would learn and play along with records of Derek and the Dominos, lots of Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Roy Buchanan, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the Steve Morse band. His inclination towards classical music showed in his playing of Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi.

From his early days, Jason wanted to do things as good as anyone. In an interview to guitar world he wrote.“Before I had ever heard of Yngwie, some 14-year-old kid gave me a tape of a long guitar solo of Yngwie doing his thing, but it was sped up to 45 [rpm]-speed. This kid told me it was himself playing. Being 14 myself, I was bumming pretty hard. I mean, I thought I was just wasting my time. Then I decided I had to play like that. So I learned that whole damn solo at that double speed. When I finally found out it wasn't that kid and I heard it at regular speed, I was relieved. “

Jason was always ready to learn new things from just about anyone. He absorbed all kinds of music from around the world, and melded different aspects of each style into his playing. In high school, Becker met his good friend Marty Friedman, and the two of them hit it off instantly. They were both excellent guitarists, who shared the same vision of speedmetal. Marty Friedman had a big influence on Jason, in terms of maturity of writing and composing. Instead of playing like him, Jason blossomed in his own style. Jason also was influenced a lot by his friends Richie Kotzen and Greg Howe. Funnily one of the things that effected Jason, was old Disney music (Pinocchio especially J ..). He loved the drama and the magic, and the emotions.

Just a teenager at the time (16), Becker with Marty Friedman recorded four albums of searing, neo-classical shred guitar for Mike Varney's Shrapnel label, forever earning himself a place in the shred Hall of Fame.
Together, they put out an album, and toured Japan and the U.S. under the name Cacophony (Atma Anur on drums, Peter Marrino on vocals, Jimmy O’Shea: bass).. While they never went mainstream in the U.S., Europeans embraced their music and they sold out almost everywhere they went. 2 marvels of Cacophony were Speed Metal Symphony and Go Off!. These were compositional thrash marvels of such intricate precise speed-picking that it is doubtful playing of this kind will ever be duplicated. Together they presented the future of Bach’n’roll, adding Stravinsky, Philip Glass and Bartok to the list of not-so-obvious influences for an electric rock guitarist. I would recommend some amazing stuff like “Speed Metal Symphony”, “Savage”, “Desert Island”, “Images”, “Sword of the warrior”, “Black Cat”. These aren’t neo classical like Vinnie Moore, Tony MacAlpine or Malmsteen, these are pure “Cacophony”. And like in Asterix, these can open up the heavens! The whole guitar fraternity went berserk over “Cacophony”, and Jason was heralded as the next milestone after Malmsteen.


Becker then went solo for a couple of years,. On his first solo album, Perpetual Burn, Jason extended his reach with the acoustic classical piece "Air" – a clean-toned, counterpoint, multi-layered piece. This is my favorite album of Jason Becker. This has the emotional and passionate “Altitudes”, the funny but very interesting “Mabel’s Fatal Fable” which gradually explodes, the blazing “Perpetual Burn” and “Eleven Blue Egyptians”.



When he turned 20, he joined David Lee Roth's supporting band, taking the place of the great Steve Vai. With Roth, Becker recorded A Little Ain't Enough, and was voted n the coveted Best New Guitarist award from Guitar Magazine. With his public visibility increased a hundredfold, Jason did an about-face on the classical influences and returned to his rockin’ blues roots, showing off touch, phrasing and a clear Albert King influence in his playing

Things were looking up for Becker, but during the recording of the album, Becker noticed a limp in his left leg. Unfortunately, his guitar-playing career came to an abrupt halt. Becker was diagnosed with amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - better known as Lou Gehrig's disease - a terminal illness that gradually destroys the neurons that control movement. As the motor neurons die, patients steadily lose their ability to move. The brain, however, remains unaffected, and patients become trapped in a body that no longer works.

While Becker was barely able to finish the album, he was not able to tour with the David Lee Roth band to support A Little Ain't Enough. He stayed behind, and continued recording in his home studio. Becker was diagnosed with only five years to live, but that was almost fourteen/fifteen years ago. He is still living in Glendale, California.
I remember in 1991-92, I entered the hostel room of my guitarist friend Tieso, and found him sitting with his head down. When he told me about Jason, I could not speak a word- just the previous day we were listing to “Perpetual Burn”!
Confined to a wheelchair, he eats and breathes through a tube, receiving care and sustenance from his family and friends. Although ALS has left him not only motionless but speechless, Becker is able to communicate by using a system of rapid eye movements developed by his father, Gary Becker. Amazingly, Jason Becker's spirit remains as vital and positive as ever. In that condition Jason wrote “Perspective” (and later ‘The Raspberry Jams’), a testament to his indomitable fighting spirit and determination to remain a creative and productive musical force. Having lost the ability to play the guitar, Becker painstakingly wrote the album on the Macintosh computer. The album runs the gamut from symphonic works to a chordal piece, world music and rock. While Firkins handled the guitar parts on one of the main symphonic works, "End of the Beginning," the album featured some guitar work by Becker, which he had recorded on an eight-track before he developed ALS, and later synced up to the recordings of the other musicians. There is this very emotional song “End of the beginning”. Every time, I listen to it, my heart goes numb and my eyes wet.
Becker also released an album called “The Raspberry Jams”. This contained some unreleased demos recorded when he could still play. The Raspberry Jams features stellar guitar performances that demonstrates his passionate neo-classical and masterful blues chops. “Breath taking solos, speed and precision yet amazingly human and spontaneous” – described Guitar World.
"I believe I will be healed," he wrote on the liner notes to his 1995 album Perspective "but if not, so be it. Even though I have this disease, I am really lucky in most ways. I am surrounded by friends and loved ones who never let me forget my inner fire, hope and faith. Many handicapped people do not have this luxury." “.. With meditation and prayer I am so full of peace and love, how could life be boring? And it doesn't just work for old crippy here! Often in my mediations, or shut-up time for the mind, I receive whole symphonies.”
While there is still no effective treatment for ALS, scientists have recently made some progress determining its causes, and believe the disease may be caused by an infection. The news puts Jason Becker one step closer to his belief that he will be cured. Like many others, I will keep hoping and praying for this great musician, composer who carries the true spirit of music. Like Eric Johnson said - AH VIA MUSICOM!

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Courtesy: Guitar World Mag, Guitar Player Mag, JasonBecker.com

scribbling of a IO fan .. on Black Friday!

Black Friday is the first OST, IO has composed music for. The OST album launched by Times Music, has 3 new songs of IO and 6 tracks of movie themes, background scores.

I have been looking forward to this album for sometime ever since I got an update from Rahul Ram. I wanted to see how IO would be in an environment new to them, where they might be restrained of their musical expressions because of various constraints imposed by the movie. I knew it will be different for sure …

I can play any IO song, and instantly get connected with the music. The bonding of the rhythm and the melody with my mind is instantaneous, It is, as if, the music creates a world around me, and I can feel myself completely hooked onto it. I can then follow every bit of melody lines, feel all the rhythm hooks, my body and soul swings to the music, and I can feel the take off with the music! With the first 2 songs (Bandheh & Badshah), I feel somehow short of the take off, as if it is about to take off but holding back at the last moment! Probably I need to listen more intently before I can start doing that.

“Bandheh” - the first songs starts with haunting vocals of Rahul Ram singing “Arrey rook ja bandheh, Arrey tham ja bandheh .. Arrey neendein hain zakhmee, arrey sapne hain bhookhe, ki karvat phat padegi “. This is very different IO composition, and has a lot of instrumental arrangements with Sax, Electric guitar etc. Paresh Kamath renders some sizzling electric guitar leads in it. “Badshah in Jail” has some awesome guitar works by Susmit, and some great vocals by Asheem!

“Bharam baap ke” –is one of my favourites from this album. This is the essential Indian Ocean we can immerse ourselves totally into feeling the ripples the music creates. The song actually is carried on further, from one of their earlier songs, "Brisk Lonely walk". Piyush Mishra’s lyrics are very very deep!

6 instrumental tracks follow, which I guess relate to the movie and the images. You will feel the heavy jazz influence and new dimensions.. (sometimes Buddha bar, lounge music J .. ) … very very interesting! J Keep listening.. for they will grow onto you! Pay special attention to “Memon House” for it is a beauty! It is awesome! It is searing, groovy, and very jazzy, .. I would have given anything to be present in the jam sessions for this song! Everybody just comes into elements in this number. In many ways it reminds me of the very first self titled album of Indian Ocean. “Chase” is very interesting too. Amit does an amazing job in percussions!

The impression of the music to the listeners can sometimes be influenced by their reactions to the visuals. I hope the movie is equally brilliant, you already know that Indian Ocean would have done justice to the visuals for sure!

The band has traversed times with their music for the last 15-20 years and created their signature styles. But, from “Out of the blues” to Bhor”, you can feel the transformational changes over the years ,,, or for that matter, “Torrent” (from JHINI) which first appeared in their first self titled album). To expect another “kandisa” or “Jhini” would be in-justice towards this brilliant band.
This is a brilliant Indian Ocean album but within sudden new boundaries, etching newer lines.. Each day I am digging deeper into the album.. Right now, I am totally into “Memon House”, which I feel is one of the best Indian Ocean compositions ever!

thus it started ..

Was talking to Abhi some days back ... he advised me to put up all the scribblings (mostly about music) that I usually mail, so that it can serve as inventory and accessible for everyone to read!! Hence the blog. Hmmm! Wonder how will it be? Maybe mostly about music or of travel. Don't know whether this will ultimately work out or not ... I am usually too lazy to keep these things organized!