September 16, 2023 • 27 mins
Mike interviews Annette Philip, the first Indian musician appointed as a faculty member at Berklee and founder of the Berklee Indian Ensemble. Discussion includes the fusion of rock, jazz and classical Indian music, Annette’s Grammy nominated album, Shuraat, and the a recent collaboration with Stewart Copeland of the Police.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome back to What's at Risk.I'm Mike Christian. Founded in twenty eleven
by Annette Philip, the first Indianmusician appointed as a faculty member at Berkeley
College of Music, the Berkeley IndianEnsemble is a world renown collective known for
its global Indian sound that honors traditionswhile boldly experimenting with a cross pollination of
(00:34):
genres, cultures, and multiple artforms. The ensemble released its first collection
of transnational genre bending music on itsdebut album, Sharat, featuring ninety eight
musicians from thirty nine countries. Sharatexploded onto the scene in July twenty twenty
two. In November twenty twenty two, Sharat was nominated for a Grammy for
(00:58):
Best Global Music Music Album, thusmaking the Berkeley Indian Ensemble the very first
Berkeley Official ensemble to earn a Grammynominations. Okay, we are speaking with
(01:19):
Annette Philip, Berkeley College of Music, graduate member of the Berkeley Faculty and
artistic director of the Berkeley Indian Ensemble, and that you grew up in India
and you've had an amazing run hererecently. How what was your path to
where you are today and how didit? How did that all come about?
(01:40):
Oh well, I think from avery young age, it was very
clear to me that music gave methis unbelievable sense of joy and excitement that
nothing else did. And so itwas kind of a no brainer, even
by age five, that whatever Ido in the future must be related to
(02:02):
music. And you know, Itook up Western classical piano lessons I was
living in Singapore at some point inmy childhood and then started learning trumpet and
recorder, and then moved back toIndia and then really discovered my singing voice,
(02:23):
and then there was no looking back, no turning back. Got into
professional voiceovers and recording jingles and reallyfell in love with studio work, while
I was also honing my skills asan arranger and eventually gave in to my
love for a cappella and choral musicand basically music with a lot of vocal
(02:49):
harmonies. I ended up setting upmy own performing arts collective in Delhi,
where I was living in India atthe time, right after college, and
that went on to become one ofIndia's largest youth performing arts collectives. And
from that, I think, beingyoung and you know, trying to do
everything on my own. I kindof got burnt out artistically and also emotionally
(03:15):
spiritually and felt all right, letme, let me look at something outside.
And eventually that's where Berkeley came inand I decided to do maybe a
year. But I've been now nowworking at Berkeley for already thirteen years and
(03:35):
it's been a great ride. Andyeah, one thing led to another and
here we are. Well congratulations.I know you've had a lot of success
your music to me, and I'mforgive me, I'm uninitiated in this,
but it seems like a fusion ofrock and jazz and classical Indian music among
other genres. Did the classical musiciansthat I grew up with, like Ravishankar
(03:59):
and Alia Park do they paved theway for your generation of musicians? Oh?
I think definitely. You know,the Indian gurus from our classical heritage
inspired all of us not only tocontinue to hone our craft, but also
(04:19):
to continue to be open to collaborationacross the world. Global collaboration is something
that Ravishankar was definitely very well knownfor and loved for. And at the
same time, it isn't just theclassical musicians, but also the folk musicians,
(04:39):
the contemporary composers like mister Ayr Rahman, all of them have shown that
the possibilities are infinite when it comesto musical collaboration and also when it comes
to taking Indian music global and seeingthe synergy between all these different genres.
(05:00):
So we are all extremely grateful tothose masters, those icons from history and
the living legends that we have todayas well, who really, yeah,
inspire us, motivate us to befree and liberated, and be innovative and
(05:21):
try experimental stuff and you know,keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible.
Yeah, I think that's terrific.And You're ensemble and the Exchange and some
of the other collaborative efforts you've hadcertainly point to that. You and the
Berkeley Indian Ensemble's first record, SURET. Did I pronounce that correctly? Was
(05:46):
nominated for a Grammys Best Global MusicAlbum, And it seems like it was
hugely popular. Why do you thinkit was so paling? Well, we've
been very fortunate to have a global, very loyal, global fan base since
around twenty fifteen. When we hadour first viral video. It was a
(06:09):
it was a cover a reinterpretation ofa very well known and very beloved song
called gia Jale written by A.R. Rehman, who's one of our
mentors and really inspirations. And overthe years people have been coming for our
concerts. We've had almost a decadeover a decade, i would say,
(06:30):
of sold out concerts wherever we've gone. And it just took us a long
time to figure out the rights toyou know, release some of these songs
and also figure out our internal rights, royalty and copyright systems with the original
music that we were creating. Andfinally, as a gift to our audience
(06:56):
in when we got to our tenureanniversary, we were able to really this
album. So I think part ofthe popularity that we've been so honored to
part take off is the fact thatwe've had an audience that has stayed with
us for ten years and who hasbeen clamoring for our music to be available
on streaming platforms, and so thatthat's number one, and number two I
(07:21):
think is the accessibility factor. Youknow, the music is of course within
the Indian idiom vast using vast aspectsof the Indian music culture, so not
only Hindustani, which is not Indianclassical or carnatic which is South Indian classical,
(07:43):
but folk music, sufi elements,Indo jazz music, which is you
know, very much inspired by Shaktiand remember Shakti John McLaughlin's Acti Hussein,
that entire amazing tribe of heroes ofours. Yeah, scoring right now to
John McLaughlan and shok T. Yes, that's right. And so I think
(08:05):
the accessibility factor that you may notunderstand every syllable or every word or even
any of the languages that are expressedin in the album, but you can
understand the spirit of it, andthe fact that you know, our arrangements
are very global, incorporating everything fromjazz harmonic context to you know, gospel
(08:35):
traditions to you know, hip hopand definitely rock and progressive rock. I
think people find a connection and soI think it's those two things that led
to the popularity of Shiuat Yeah,that makes sense. Stuart Copeland, the
(09:01):
drummer for the Police, recently releasedan album Police Beyond Borders, which featured
members of the Berkeley India Exchange andthe Berkeley Indian Ensemble, and that's a
reimagining of some of the Police's morepopular songs. It certainly took those songs
to a different place than when theyoriginally came out. How did that collaboration
(09:24):
come about, Well, Stuart Copelandis working with a Grammy winning composer and
arranger called Ricky Cage, and Ihappened to meet Ricky at the Grammys this
year, and Ricky and I startedtalking about maybe doing something together, and
it turned out this project was thefirst one that we decided to collaborate on,
(09:48):
and yeah, it was. Itwas so interesting to see reinterpretations of
Sting's music in so many different languagesand different styles. And of course we've
all been fans of Staying and thePolice for forever, so this was a
(10:09):
this was a dream come true.Will there be touring behind that album?
Will it be another I know theensemble, I know there's a lot of
musicians in your ensemble. How willhow will that be promoted from our lives
standpoint? Or will it be Well, we don't know yet. I think
this is the this is the excitingthing about projects like this, You know,
(10:31):
this infinite possibilities, and I thinkwe look to Stewart and Ricky to
lead the way on how how thathappens live, but right now it is
available on all streaming platforms. Andwe're really excited that so many of our
Bookley India Exchange musicians were able tobe part of this project. And I
(10:52):
definitely want to do a shout outto the lead vocalist from our side,
nischans Shaker. He's an amazing,very versatile, very dynamic vocalist from from
India and he not only performed asthe lead vocalist on these tracks, but
he also arranged all the vocal partsfor the two songs that were featured on
(11:16):
King of Pain and Every Little Thing. So we're really grateful that, you
know, these amazing musicians could getthis opportunity. Yeah, that's great.
I did get a chance to listento that album this morning, and some
of the versions I like better thanthe original Police versions to be on I
won't tell Sting that. Well,that's that's all Stewart and Ricky's heart and
(11:41):
love and energy poured into this beautifulproject. Yeah, that's wonderful. How
does the Berkeley India Exchange differ fromthe Ensemble. So the ensemble came first
in two eleven. I was thefirst Indian musician to be invited to join
(12:07):
Berkeley's faculty and was given a giftwhich was a black canvas to create something
new. And so my idea wasto create an ensemble where people from all
different cultural backgrounds and musical backgrounds wereable to create music within the Indian adium,
but really bring their personal flavor intothe music that we were co creating.
(12:31):
And that was the Berkeley Indian Ensemble. So that was twenty eleven.
And then from the popularity and thedemand for the music that this group was
creating, an entire institute was born, which was launched in twenty thirteen called
Berkeley India Exchange. And so theinstitute is a large global arts network.
(12:54):
We have three focal areas, education, innovation, and community. And we
do not only the academic offerings likethe Berkeley Indian Ensemble and now the South
Asian Ensemble, but we also hostworkshops all over the world. We do
massive productions, artist residencies, scholarships. We've raised and awarded about three million
(13:20):
dollars and scholarships not only to Indianstudents but students from any country who are
part of the Berkeley India Exchange programswe do. We're starting on music and
mental health programming. You know,we do collaborations with amazing technology partners like
Google and Intel. So there's avariety of things that the Berkeley India Exchange
(13:43):
Institute does. And the Berkeley IndianEnsemble is now a touring entity that lives
under the umbrella of Berkeley India Exchange, but really is a band. And
now we have a permanent lineup ofeight musicians from different parts of the world
who came together very organically in thefirst ten years of the Ensemble being around.
(14:07):
And yeah, so that that entitytours, does albums, you know,
does our primary big productions, whilethe Institute is focused on many other
areas including music making, but alsoyou know, creating access to education,
et cetera in different parts of theworld, especially in South Asia, right,
(14:31):
And I think I think music issuch a great platform for education for
young people, in particular arts aseducation, music as educations because it's so
reflective of our cultures and our civilizations. And I think that's a terrific way
to to bring it to another leveland make it more accessible to young people
(14:52):
particularly. Yes, absolutely, whatdo you teach at Berkeley and what is
your subject? So I was teachingfor the first ten years that I was
a faculty member, and primarily Iwas running the Bookley Indian Ensemble, which
we've now changed into the South AsianEnsemble, and I was also teaching boys
(15:15):
and other ensembles, you know,a lot of things to do with artistic
interpretation, etc. It always seemedto me that the Indian music had a
spiritual undertone, maybe even even morethan an undertone. Do you do you
feel that way when you talk aboutthe community aspect and you're so collaborative in
(15:35):
your approach to music and songwritings,and does that spiritual aspect come into your
approach to music? So I definitelyhave a deep connection to community building and
really thinking of our art and howwe make art as a way to impact
(16:00):
society and impact our world in apositive way. For me, it's not
just thinking of Indian music as aspiritual you know, something that has a
lot of spiritual roots, but reallymusic in general. I think creating collaborating
(16:21):
in music is you know, oneof the biggest ways to build trust with
people, and oftentimes people who havenothing in common with each other, maybe
in terms of how they grow upor their socioeconomic background or their political views.
You know, nothing could be similar, but there is something that they
(16:42):
can see eye to eye with eachother in terms of their taste, their
musical taste. There the way theychoose to express themselves, the way that
music touches or impacts them. Andso oftentimes you may not be able to
have a regular conversation because language mightbe a barrier, or just beliefs might
(17:06):
be a barrier, but you mightbe able to collaborate and make music together
because you tap into kind of thedeeper part of yourself where there's so much
more similar between people than different.And so I think that comes into play
much more than just thinking about spiritualroots. I think the whole aspect of
(17:27):
making art, especially making music,is very much, you know, related
to soul connection. So that's howI look at it. Yeah, well
we all need a lot more soulconnection, that's for sure. And I
think your approach, your collaborative approachof bringing all these genres and all these
(17:48):
different communities from around the world intothe music and mixing it together to come
up with something different than what eachof them are individually, I think really
leads to what you just discussed.I noticed that you're a part of Bill
Banfield's Jazz or Bain. I've hadthe honor of spending some time with Bill.
(18:11):
I think he's a national treasure onmany levels. But he has a
very community focused approach to his musicand his teaching and mentoring. How has
that impacted your music. It's beenso much fun to work with doctor b
which is how we call him fondly, and he has a very interesting approach
to songwriting. In some ways,he's trying to re energize or bring back
(18:37):
to life old song form, whichis I think the kind of songs that
he grew up listening to, whichhave a real story to them and a
big back background story as well.And so for a few years that I
worked with doctor Banfield, it wasreally interesting too, Yeah, delve into
(19:00):
each of those stories and see whatthe interpretation could be on my end coming
in to perform those songs and interpretthem in my own way. He's a
wonderful musician and a great mentor,and you know, it's been such a
joy to work with the jazz ofbeing. Yeah, Well, that confirms
everything I think I know about him, and his recognition by the President for
(19:25):
that Humanitarian Award is really significant also, So yeah, great guy. So
last question, and now, what'swhat's next for you? You've got You've
had a lot of accomplishments here overthis last thirteen years. What are you
thinking about as the next step?Well, a lot of different things.
This year. I've started getting backinto my own solo projects, so I'm
(19:49):
doing a lot of writing for dancersand for dance projects, and I'm also
dancing a lot myself. So that'sbeen really really exciting. Just finished a
project in Oakland with a dance companycalled Ishami. I then did a production
in New York where the dance arecalled Alex Mitchell as part of a larger
(20:12):
production called White's Fruit. And soI'm definitely continuing in writing for dance and
to dance myself, and also hopefullygetting out an album very soon of my
own works and really you know,delving into that side of my artistry.
(20:32):
I put some of that on holdwhile the Berkeley Indian Ensemble was growing.
And on the Berkeley Indian Ensember side, there's exciting things coming up as well.
We have a second tour in theUnited States which will happen in December,
so the early part of December we'llgo to four or five different cities
(20:52):
and do a mini tour. We'djust come off the road. We did
fifteen cities in the spring, sowe're doing a a mini tour because there's
been a lot of demand from thecities that we weren't able to visit in
our first tour. And we're alsoworking on album number two with the Booklean
Ensembles, so that'll be really reallyexciting. And we're doing some writing retreats
(21:15):
in October November this year. AndI also have an a cappella group called
Women of the World, and wewill be going on tour next year again
and that's really exciting. We singingabout thirty seven languages, and so it's
such a beautiful way to keep expandingmy artistry and my knowledge of world music
(21:41):
cultures. And so those are thethree main things happening. Lots of yummy
things in the horizon. Is thatall very impressive. I would have to
spend half a time just keeping upwith what your creativity was. That's very
(22:02):
thank you enough, Philip, thankyou so much for your time. That
was really fascinating and I wish,I do, really wish you all the
best. I thank you your communityefforts and collaborative efforts with arts and music,
as as education and as expression isreally really significant and needed in our
world today. So thank you,Thank you so much, Mike. It's
(22:25):
been such a pleasure to talk toyou and thank you for the platform you
provide to so many creative people aroundthe world. Stuart Copeland had this to
say about Police Beyond Borders. Itwas Ricky Cage who suggested that we make
(22:48):
a global album out of the Policearrangements. It was a light ball moment,
of course, the Police were alwaysa global band. We toured all
over it and sting wrotes songs aboutthe bigger picture of humanity. The idea
of hearing the songs and exotic languageswas immediately inspiring. The Police's music essentially
(23:11):
derives from Black culture, and itwas particularly spine tangling to hear that culture
arriving back in Africa. Every breathyou take in Zulu, all the flavors
of different languages lit up these tunesthat are so familiar. I hope that
familiarity will give a comfortable vantage pointfor anyone to experience music styles that might
(23:33):
otherwise sound alien. Here's a quotefrom a net filip one of the students
started a circle singing group at Berkeley. You have to really surrender to the
moment. I think in all music, that's what we're trying to encourage our
students to do, to surrender,to be totally present in the moment.
And I feel that circle singing isa very non competitive, non hostile,
(24:00):
supportive, healing and liberating space tojust give yourself to and then see what
happens. The power of music toheal or at least promote well being is
acknowledged in many cultures, but onlyin the past two decades have the medical
(24:26):
and scientific communities joined together in aneffort to prove its efficacy and explore the
possibilities of making music part of actualmedical protocols. Doctor Charles Limb, who
is the co director of Sound HealthNetwork at the University of California and San
Francisco, had this to say aboutmusic. So, one thing I've noticed
(24:49):
in all of the musical experiments I'vedone is that when you listen to a
musical stimulus and you look at thebrain while that's being listened to, the
entire brain is really engaged. Themusic is a robust stimulus for the brain
and from Daniel Levitton. In Parkinson'sdisease, music is helpful because it sets
(25:14):
a pace or a tempo, andoften Parkinson's patients can't walk because they're frozen,
and the music gives them a pulsethat causes neurons in their brain to
synchronize with the tempo, and thathelps them to start walking and to keep
walking. You can't repair broken neuralconnections, but you can make new ones
(25:36):
anytime you learn something new. Thoseare new neural pathways. Practicing an instrument.
Learning an instrument develops those pathways.Mickey Hart, percussionists for the Grateful
Dead, says music and medicine goesback far as history goes back. Shamanism
people live by that. My grandmotherwho had Alzheimer's and was fading, and
(26:02):
she hadn't spoken in about three orfour years, and I started playing the
drum and she was smiling, youknow, as best she could, and
then she said my name. Itwas a startling discovery and it kind of
lip my light. What's on yourmind? Send us your thoughts, comments
(26:26):
and questions to What's at Risk atgmail dot com. That's one word,
What's at risk at gmail dot com. Thank you a big thank you to
our producer, Ken Carbury of ChartProductions,
Welcome back to What's at Risk.I'm Mike Christian. Founded in twenty eleven
by Annette Philip, the first Indianmusician appointed as a faculty member at Berkeley
College of Music, the Berkeley IndianEnsemble is a world renown collective known for
its global Indian sound that honors traditionswhile boldly experimenting with a cross pollination of
(00:34):
genres, cultures, and multiple artforms. The ensemble released its first collection
of transnational genre bending music on itsdebut album, Sharat, featuring ninety eight
musicians from thirty nine countries. Sharatexploded onto the scene in July twenty twenty
two. In November twenty twenty two, Sharat was nominated for a Grammy for
(00:58):
Best Global Music Music Album, thusmaking the Berkeley Indian Ensemble the very first
Berkeley Official ensemble to earn a Grammynominations. Okay, we are speaking with
(01:19):
Annette Philip, Berkeley College of Music, graduate member of the Berkeley Faculty and
artistic director of the Berkeley Indian Ensemble, and that you grew up in India
and you've had an amazing run hererecently. How what was your path to
where you are today and how didit? How did that all come about?
(01:40):
Oh well, I think from avery young age, it was very
clear to me that music gave methis unbelievable sense of joy and excitement that
nothing else did. And so itwas kind of a no brainer, even
by age five, that whatever Ido in the future must be related to
(02:02):
music. And you know, Itook up Western classical piano lessons I was
living in Singapore at some point inmy childhood and then started learning trumpet and
recorder, and then moved back toIndia and then really discovered my singing voice,
(02:23):
and then there was no looking back, no turning back. Got into
professional voiceovers and recording jingles and reallyfell in love with studio work, while
I was also honing my skills asan arranger and eventually gave in to my
love for a cappella and choral musicand basically music with a lot of vocal
(02:49):
harmonies. I ended up setting upmy own performing arts collective in Delhi,
where I was living in India atthe time, right after college, and
that went on to become one ofIndia's largest youth performing arts collectives. And
from that, I think, beingyoung and you know, trying to do
everything on my own. I kindof got burnt out artistically and also emotionally
(03:15):
spiritually and felt all right, letme, let me look at something outside.
And eventually that's where Berkeley came inand I decided to do maybe a
year. But I've been now nowworking at Berkeley for already thirteen years and
(03:35):
it's been a great ride. Andyeah, one thing led to another and
here we are. Well congratulations.I know you've had a lot of success
your music to me, and I'mforgive me, I'm uninitiated in this,
but it seems like a fusion ofrock and jazz and classical Indian music among
other genres. Did the classical musiciansthat I grew up with, like Ravishankar
(03:59):
and Alia Park do they paved theway for your generation of musicians? Oh?
I think definitely. You know,the Indian gurus from our classical heritage
inspired all of us not only tocontinue to hone our craft, but also
(04:19):
to continue to be open to collaborationacross the world. Global collaboration is something
that Ravishankar was definitely very well knownfor and loved for. And at the
same time, it isn't just theclassical musicians, but also the folk musicians,
(04:39):
the contemporary composers like mister Ayr Rahman, all of them have shown that
the possibilities are infinite when it comesto musical collaboration and also when it comes
to taking Indian music global and seeingthe synergy between all these different genres.
(05:00):
So we are all extremely grateful tothose masters, those icons from history and
the living legends that we have todayas well, who really, yeah,
inspire us, motivate us to befree and liberated, and be innovative and
(05:21):
try experimental stuff and you know,keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible.
Yeah, I think that's terrific.And You're ensemble and the Exchange and some
of the other collaborative efforts you've hadcertainly point to that. You and the
Berkeley Indian Ensemble's first record, SURET. Did I pronounce that correctly? Was
(05:46):
nominated for a Grammys Best Global MusicAlbum, And it seems like it was
hugely popular. Why do you thinkit was so paling? Well, we've
been very fortunate to have a global, very loyal, global fan base since
around twenty fifteen. When we hadour first viral video. It was a
(06:09):
it was a cover a reinterpretation ofa very well known and very beloved song
called gia Jale written by A.R. Rehman, who's one of our
mentors and really inspirations. And overthe years people have been coming for our
concerts. We've had almost a decadeover a decade, i would say,
(06:30):
of sold out concerts wherever we've gone. And it just took us a long
time to figure out the rights toyou know, release some of these songs
and also figure out our internal rights, royalty and copyright systems with the original
music that we were creating. Andfinally, as a gift to our audience
(06:56):
in when we got to our tenureanniversary, we were able to really this
album. So I think part ofthe popularity that we've been so honored to
part take off is the fact thatwe've had an audience that has stayed with
us for ten years and who hasbeen clamoring for our music to be available
on streaming platforms, and so thatthat's number one, and number two I
(07:21):
think is the accessibility factor. Youknow, the music is of course within
the Indian idiom vast using vast aspectsof the Indian music culture, so not
only Hindustani, which is not Indianclassical or carnatic which is South Indian classical,
(07:43):
but folk music, sufi elements,Indo jazz music, which is you
know, very much inspired by Shaktiand remember Shakti John McLaughlin's Acti Hussein,
that entire amazing tribe of heroes ofours. Yeah, scoring right now to
John McLaughlan and shok T. Yes, that's right. And so I think
(08:05):
the accessibility factor that you may notunderstand every syllable or every word or even
any of the languages that are expressedin in the album, but you can
understand the spirit of it, andthe fact that you know, our arrangements
are very global, incorporating everything fromjazz harmonic context to you know, gospel
(08:35):
traditions to you know, hip hopand definitely rock and progressive rock. I
think people find a connection and soI think it's those two things that led
to the popularity of Shiuat Yeah,that makes sense. Stuart Copeland, the
(09:01):
drummer for the Police, recently releasedan album Police Beyond Borders, which featured
members of the Berkeley India Exchange andthe Berkeley Indian Ensemble, and that's a
reimagining of some of the Police's morepopular songs. It certainly took those songs
to a different place than when theyoriginally came out. How did that collaboration
(09:24):
come about, Well, Stuart Copelandis working with a Grammy winning composer and
arranger called Ricky Cage, and Ihappened to meet Ricky at the Grammys this
year, and Ricky and I startedtalking about maybe doing something together, and
it turned out this project was thefirst one that we decided to collaborate on,
(09:48):
and yeah, it was. Itwas so interesting to see reinterpretations of
Sting's music in so many different languagesand different styles. And of course we've
all been fans of Staying and thePolice for forever, so this was a
(10:09):
this was a dream come true.Will there be touring behind that album?
Will it be another I know theensemble, I know there's a lot of
musicians in your ensemble. How willhow will that be promoted from our lives
standpoint? Or will it be Well, we don't know yet. I think
this is the this is the excitingthing about projects like this, You know,
(10:31):
this infinite possibilities, and I thinkwe look to Stewart and Ricky to
lead the way on how how thathappens live, but right now it is
available on all streaming platforms. Andwe're really excited that so many of our
Bookley India Exchange musicians were able tobe part of this project. And I
(10:52):
definitely want to do a shout outto the lead vocalist from our side,
nischans Shaker. He's an amazing,very versatile, very dynamic vocalist from from
India and he not only performed asthe lead vocalist on these tracks, but
he also arranged all the vocal partsfor the two songs that were featured on
(11:16):
King of Pain and Every Little Thing. So we're really grateful that, you
know, these amazing musicians could getthis opportunity. Yeah, that's great.
I did get a chance to listento that album this morning, and some
of the versions I like better thanthe original Police versions to be on I
won't tell Sting that. Well,that's that's all Stewart and Ricky's heart and
(11:41):
love and energy poured into this beautifulproject. Yeah, that's wonderful. How
does the Berkeley India Exchange differ fromthe Ensemble. So the ensemble came first
in two eleven. I was thefirst Indian musician to be invited to join
(12:07):
Berkeley's faculty and was given a giftwhich was a black canvas to create something
new. And so my idea wasto create an ensemble where people from all
different cultural backgrounds and musical backgrounds wereable to create music within the Indian adium,
but really bring their personal flavor intothe music that we were co creating.
(12:31):
And that was the Berkeley Indian Ensemble. So that was twenty eleven.
And then from the popularity and thedemand for the music that this group was
creating, an entire institute was born, which was launched in twenty thirteen called
Berkeley India Exchange. And so theinstitute is a large global arts network.
(12:54):
We have three focal areas, education, innovation, and community. And we
do not only the academic offerings likethe Berkeley Indian Ensemble and now the South
Asian Ensemble, but we also hostworkshops all over the world. We do
massive productions, artist residencies, scholarships. We've raised and awarded about three million
(13:20):
dollars and scholarships not only to Indianstudents but students from any country who are
part of the Berkeley India Exchange programswe do. We're starting on music and
mental health programming. You know,we do collaborations with amazing technology partners like
Google and Intel. So there's avariety of things that the Berkeley India Exchange
(13:43):
Institute does. And the Berkeley IndianEnsemble is now a touring entity that lives
under the umbrella of Berkeley India Exchange, but really is a band. And
now we have a permanent lineup ofeight musicians from different parts of the world
who came together very organically in thefirst ten years of the Ensemble being around.
(14:07):
And yeah, so that that entitytours, does albums, you know,
does our primary big productions, whilethe Institute is focused on many other
areas including music making, but alsoyou know, creating access to education,
et cetera in different parts of theworld, especially in South Asia, right,
(14:31):
And I think I think music issuch a great platform for education for
young people, in particular arts aseducation, music as educations because it's so
reflective of our cultures and our civilizations. And I think that's a terrific way
to to bring it to another leveland make it more accessible to young people
(14:52):
particularly. Yes, absolutely, whatdo you teach at Berkeley and what is
your subject? So I was teachingfor the first ten years that I was
a faculty member, and primarily Iwas running the Bookley Indian Ensemble, which
we've now changed into the South AsianEnsemble, and I was also teaching boys
(15:15):
and other ensembles, you know,a lot of things to do with artistic
interpretation, etc. It always seemedto me that the Indian music had a
spiritual undertone, maybe even even morethan an undertone. Do you do you
feel that way when you talk aboutthe community aspect and you're so collaborative in
(15:35):
your approach to music and songwritings,and does that spiritual aspect come into your
approach to music? So I definitelyhave a deep connection to community building and
really thinking of our art and howwe make art as a way to impact
(16:00):
society and impact our world in apositive way. For me, it's not
just thinking of Indian music as aspiritual you know, something that has a
lot of spiritual roots, but reallymusic in general. I think creating collaborating
(16:21):
in music is you know, oneof the biggest ways to build trust with
people, and oftentimes people who havenothing in common with each other, maybe
in terms of how they grow upor their socioeconomic background or their political views.
You know, nothing could be similar, but there is something that they
(16:42):
can see eye to eye with eachother in terms of their taste, their
musical taste. There the way theychoose to express themselves, the way that
music touches or impacts them. Andso oftentimes you may not be able to
have a regular conversation because language mightbe a barrier, or just beliefs might
(17:06):
be a barrier, but you mightbe able to collaborate and make music together
because you tap into kind of thedeeper part of yourself where there's so much
more similar between people than different.And so I think that comes into play
much more than just thinking about spiritualroots. I think the whole aspect of
(17:27):
making art, especially making music,is very much, you know, related
to soul connection. So that's howI look at it. Yeah, well
we all need a lot more soulconnection, that's for sure. And I
think your approach, your collaborative approachof bringing all these genres and all these
(17:48):
different communities from around the world intothe music and mixing it together to come
up with something different than what eachof them are individually, I think really
leads to what you just discussed.I noticed that you're a part of Bill
Banfield's Jazz or Bain. I've hadthe honor of spending some time with Bill.
(18:11):
I think he's a national treasure onmany levels. But he has a
very community focused approach to his musicand his teaching and mentoring. How has
that impacted your music. It's beenso much fun to work with doctor b
which is how we call him fondly, and he has a very interesting approach
to songwriting. In some ways,he's trying to re energize or bring back
(18:37):
to life old song form, whichis I think the kind of songs that
he grew up listening to, whichhave a real story to them and a
big back background story as well.And so for a few years that I
worked with doctor Banfield, it wasreally interesting too, Yeah, delve into
(19:00):
each of those stories and see whatthe interpretation could be on my end coming
in to perform those songs and interpretthem in my own way. He's a
wonderful musician and a great mentor,and you know, it's been such a
joy to work with the jazz ofbeing. Yeah, Well, that confirms
everything I think I know about him, and his recognition by the President for
(19:25):
that Humanitarian Award is really significant also, So yeah, great guy. So
last question, and now, what'swhat's next for you? You've got You've
had a lot of accomplishments here overthis last thirteen years. What are you
thinking about as the next step?Well, a lot of different things.
This year. I've started getting backinto my own solo projects, so I'm
(19:49):
doing a lot of writing for dancersand for dance projects, and I'm also
dancing a lot myself. So that'sbeen really really exciting. Just finished a
project in Oakland with a dance companycalled Ishami. I then did a production
in New York where the dance arecalled Alex Mitchell as part of a larger
(20:12):
production called White's Fruit. And soI'm definitely continuing in writing for dance and
to dance myself, and also hopefullygetting out an album very soon of my
own works and really you know,delving into that side of my artistry.
(20:32):
I put some of that on holdwhile the Berkeley Indian Ensemble was growing.
And on the Berkeley Indian Ensember side, there's exciting things coming up as well.
We have a second tour in theUnited States which will happen in December,
so the early part of December we'llgo to four or five different cities
(20:52):
and do a mini tour. We'djust come off the road. We did
fifteen cities in the spring, sowe're doing a a mini tour because there's
been a lot of demand from thecities that we weren't able to visit in
our first tour. And we're alsoworking on album number two with the Booklean
Ensembles, so that'll be really reallyexciting. And we're doing some writing retreats
(21:15):
in October November this year. AndI also have an a cappella group called
Women of the World, and wewill be going on tour next year again
and that's really exciting. We singingabout thirty seven languages, and so it's
such a beautiful way to keep expandingmy artistry and my knowledge of world music
(21:41):
cultures. And so those are thethree main things happening. Lots of yummy
things in the horizon. Is thatall very impressive. I would have to
spend half a time just keeping upwith what your creativity was. That's very
(22:02):
thank you enough, Philip, thankyou so much for your time. That
was really fascinating and I wish,I do, really wish you all the
best. I thank you your communityefforts and collaborative efforts with arts and music,
as as education and as expression isreally really significant and needed in our
world today. So thank you,Thank you so much, Mike. It's
(22:25):
been such a pleasure to talk toyou and thank you for the platform you
provide to so many creative people aroundthe world. Stuart Copeland had this to
say about Police Beyond Borders. Itwas Ricky Cage who suggested that we make
(22:48):
a global album out of the Policearrangements. It was a light ball moment,
of course, the Police were alwaysa global band. We toured all
over it and sting wrotes songs aboutthe bigger picture of humanity. The idea
of hearing the songs and exotic languageswas immediately inspiring. The Police's music essentially
(23:11):
derives from Black culture, and itwas particularly spine tangling to hear that culture
arriving back in Africa. Every breathyou take in Zulu, all the flavors
of different languages lit up these tunesthat are so familiar. I hope that
familiarity will give a comfortable vantage pointfor anyone to experience music styles that might
(23:33):
otherwise sound alien. Here's a quotefrom a net filip one of the students
started a circle singing group at Berkeley. You have to really surrender to the
moment. I think in all music, that's what we're trying to encourage our
students to do, to surrender,to be totally present in the moment.
And I feel that circle singing isa very non competitive, non hostile,
(24:00):
supportive, healing and liberating space tojust give yourself to and then see what
happens. The power of music toheal or at least promote well being is
acknowledged in many cultures, but onlyin the past two decades have the medical
(24:26):
and scientific communities joined together in aneffort to prove its efficacy and explore the
possibilities of making music part of actualmedical protocols. Doctor Charles Limb, who
is the co director of Sound HealthNetwork at the University of California and San
Francisco, had this to say aboutmusic. So, one thing I've noticed
(24:49):
in all of the musical experiments I'vedone is that when you listen to a
musical stimulus and you look at thebrain while that's being listened to, the
entire brain is really engaged. Themusic is a robust stimulus for the brain
and from Daniel Levitton. In Parkinson'sdisease, music is helpful because it sets
(25:14):
a pace or a tempo, andoften Parkinson's patients can't walk because they're frozen,
and the music gives them a pulsethat causes neurons in their brain to
synchronize with the tempo, and thathelps them to start walking and to keep
walking. You can't repair broken neuralconnections, but you can make new ones
(25:36):
anytime you learn something new. Thoseare new neural pathways. Practicing an instrument.
Learning an instrument develops those pathways.Mickey Hart, percussionists for the Grateful
Dead, says music and medicine goesback far as history goes back. Shamanism
people live by that. My grandmotherwho had Alzheimer's and was fading, and
(26:02):
she hadn't spoken in about three orfour years, and I started playing the
drum and she was smiling, youknow, as best she could, and
then she said my name. Itwas a startling discovery and it kind of
lip my light. What's on yourmind? Send us your thoughts, comments
(26:26):
and questions to What's at Risk atgmail dot com. That's one word,
What's at risk at gmail dot com. Thank you a big thank you to
our producer, Ken Carbury of ChartProductions,
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.