1:16 PM #
A date for tablas and data for tables…
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a percussionist.
I took piano lessons briefly, and quit from lack of interest. In sixth grade (I was about 10 or 11 years old), my parents told me I could learn any instrument in the middle school band except the saxophone or percussion. The saxophone was the only band instrument not used in a symphony orchestra, and according to them, drums were “not real instruments.” My mother has since told me that they made a mistake by not letting me play the drums, but at the time, the answer was “no.”
Had I known about the tabla when I was a kid, I don’t think I would have taken “no” for an answer.
The tabla has to be the most rich and diverse percussion instrument ever. I first remember hearing the tabla showcased in college; I know I heard that sound before, but always as a sample, or an accent fill. I remember hearing an extended tabla solo in a song by a man who has become one of my favorite recording artists, Bill Laswell. I don’t remember which song it was, because he has a huge discography (700 titles or so), and he uses the tabla in a lot of his work. Read the interview. Buy his music.
Laswell isn’t a tabla player, but he has collaborated with numerous other performance artists and musical greats including Herbie Hancock, Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, Talvin Singh, Roc Raida, Bootsy Collins, Emergency Broadcast Network (EBN), Peter Gabriel, and the greatest living tabla virtuoso, Zakir Hussain. This Saturday, October 2nd, after the Austin Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR; there’s the data table reference), Zakir will be performing at a benefit concert for AID, the Association for India’s Development. I just bought my ticket last night. If you’re in Austin and you like percussion, or if you’d rather use the more noble cause of helping underprivileged people in rural India, don’t miss this concert.
Recommended Music
- Tala Matrix, Tabla Beat Science
- Bill Laswell, Zakir Hussain, Talvin Singh, et al. Collaborative tabla rhythms in traditional and non-traditional formats.
