Sajit posted earlier about a remarkable Spanish-Hindi fusion track called ‘Mírame’ (Look at Me). It’s by Daddy Yankee, who sings reggaeton, a popular genre of Latino hip-hop:

Daddy Yankee is reggaeton’s biggest crossover contender: He has already rhymed alongside Nas, Lil Jon and Terror Squad, and his brassy, slogan-strewn flow suggests both a quick-tongued thug and a Latin crunkster.

This pounding reggaeton song leads off with ‘Eli Re Eli’ from Yaadein, covered by Hindi singer Deevani. But not only is this a rare Hindi-Spanish mix, Deevani also sings in Spanish. Well.

>> Listen to a clip

The song innovates on several levels by merging similar sounds rather than contrasting ones. A lot of desi fusion has a low hip-hop beat, bass-heavy and distinct from a high-pitched tumbi or bhangra track which soars above. But in this song, the male reggaetonero is almost higher-pitched than the female Hindi singer. Which, to state the obvious, is insane. It’s playing chicken by shriekiness.

Desi remixes often use a smooth-voiced rapper or reggae artist; the rough edges are provided by the Hindi/Punjabi singer. In this song, the roles are flipped. Daddy Yankee’s style is aggressive and cants forward against the honey-voiced Hindi singer.

Remixes usually highlight the differences in pronunciation between the German-influenced English, with its hard, aspirated consonants, and the much softer Hindi/Punjabi. But in this track, Spanish and Hindi flow seamlessly into one another. It’s the same reason why Spanish teachers would always go nuts over desi kids’ Spanish accents. Years of trying to teach a soft language to American kids left them putty in my Hindi-speaking hands.

Remixes often mock the foreignness of the tweeter track. ‘Indian Flute’ by Timbaland & Magoo with Raje Shwari says, ‘Sing it to me, but I can’t understand a word you’re sayin’.’ ‘Rock The Party’ by Bombay Rockers says, ‘I don’t know what you’re sayin’, all I know’s that I came to party.’ But this song doesn’t take the easy out. Deevani sings in Spanish and pulls it off respectably.

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Last Monday, I went to hear Sachal Vasandani croon jazz at a hole-in-the-wall, basement club in Manhattan. He’s friends with my cousin the conductor. The bar was packed with University of Michigan music alumni, a more raucous crowd than the usual jazz audience. Vasandani and his band had the early show, the 7pm show before the headliner comes on.

Because of the friend connection, I wasn’t expecting more than a pleasant evening out. And though I love jazz classics, I’m not fan enough to dig the dissonance of an improv jam session. Vasandani emerged from the gloom of rear stage. He was tall and floppy-haired and stood a bit stiffly, like a pre-makeover John Mayer. He wore a blazer, but he wasn’t as natty as chart-topping young fogies like Harry Connick Jr. and swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. We plunged into our sidecars and lemon drops and waited for the show to begin.

When Vasandani opened his mouth, we utterly forgot about the drinks. The first time you hear a magnetic singer pull from his bag of vocal tricks, it’s like falling in love. Those who hadn’t heard him before were shocked. I wore a silly, involuntary grin and told my cousin, ‘He’s really good!’ He smiled smugly. Listen to Vasandani singing ‘Embraceable You’ (thanks, Ankush; warning: it’s a crappy, mono WAV clip that doesn’t do him justice).

After a few standards, Vasandani cut loose with a couple of original compositions by the band and one by a friend. His voice seems to emerge via ventriloquism; it’s bigger than his body can sustain and more classic than his look. He’s like Charlotte Church in terms of the surprise factor. He has a very mainstream, full new jazz sound; he’s won a slew of awards, and the NY Sun has compared his sound to Connick Jr.:

Sachal Vasandani was a total surprise: He looks like the leading man in a Bollywood musical but is a very traditional jazz crooner…

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Apache Indian resurfaces as a dreadlocked auto mechanic in a remix of Desmond Dekker’s 1969 Jamaican hit ‘The Israelites‘ (thanks, Ashish). His heroines, like the cutie in ‘Pyaar Pyaar,’ used to be fly Punjabans; this one’s a standard-issue, Wonderbra-chested blonde. It’s a smooth tune, but he looks all grown up now. Watch the video.

The Black Eyed Peas just sampled Asha Bhosle (thanks, Harish and Umang). The first 15 seconds of the lead single off their new album, ‘Don’t Phunk With My Heart,’ are a sped-up version of ‘Yeh Mera Dil Yaar Ka Deewana.’ Listen to the original and the new version. Watch the video.

The song from Don is pure masala western. Bhosle also starred in a remix of that song a couple of years ago. The video, with a woman taking revolver-revenge upon her cheatin’ man, was ubiquitous on MTV India.

Here’s a review of the Peas’ new album, Monkey Business:

Other guests of note are… Sting on “Union” (sonically inspired by the former Police-man’s “Englishman in New York”), while funk legend James Brown contributes to a scorching soul track dubbed “They Don’t Want Music.”

Update: Manoj and iTwofs point out that the rest of the melody is lifted from Apradh’s ‘Aye Naujawan Hai Sub Kuchh Yahan’ (1972), also by Bhosle. Listen to the original.

Maybe we need a HollyCat. Although the Peas should credit the composers, it’s hard for the Indian creative industries to take the moral high ground here.

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What do you do if you’re an aspiring European desi pop star with a catchy yet disposable sound derivative of Jay Sean? You find a producer from Cøpenhagen and put out a stoned vision of a video. The Bombay Rockers are neither rockers nor from Bombay. Discuss.

24 year old Indian Navtej Singh Rehal is the central musician behind Bombay Rockers. Navtej is born in Denmark (Copenhagen), but has his roots in India. He grew up at Nørrebro and has gone through the whole public system – from nursery to gymnasium in Denmark, except for two years, where he went to school in India… Together with the two Danish producers, Janus Bosen Barnewitz and Thomas Sardord, Navtej is the core of Bombay Rockers. [Culturebase]

The Hindu shows why you don’t turn to a paper called The Hindu for music reviews:

The twosome have innovatively mixed an evergreen Punjabi folk song called “Ari Ari” in two versions… one only wishes that they had done away with the slang in the lyrics. [The Hindu]

Their first single, ‘Ari Ari,’ was the rage in Danish dance clubs, & their latest single, ‘Rock tha Party,’ was a hit in Europe & the CD has spent 10 weeks at #1 in India. [Beautiful Atrocities]

Except for the bass, their version of the old bhangra song ‘Ari Ari’ hews pretty closely to the original, there’s no Jay-Z breaking in. If unsweetened, traditional bhangra can make in Europe, could it make it in the U.S.?

Punjabi Boy reviews the ‘Rock tha Party’ video for you, though I’m guessing the state in which something’s rotten is actually Denmark:

The Punjabi dude and the Swedish hero pick up a couple of blonde chicks in Stockholm and have a groovy one night stand with them…. But the Swedish chicks are vexed because they got played. So they call this assasination hit squad of giant teddy bears…

Pretty people being chased by ridiculous assassins? Bad guys subtitled with silly monikers? Wonder if Punjabi MC’s ever done something like this.

Watch the supremely silly video. Sajit’s previous post here.

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Speaking of desis in jazz, check out jazz vocalist Sachal Vasandani tonight in Manhattan:

“Sachal Vasandani’s singing reveals emotion and intellect,” says Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. “Versed in the blues, standards, and modern jazz… his sound is consistent and unique…”

After being named Collegiate Jazz Vocalist of the Year by Downbeat Magazine in 1999, Vasandani moved to New York and, after a year of working on Wall Street, quit his job to begin his career as a singer… Vasandani’s debut solo album is due out later this year.

Monday, 6/6/05, Zinc Bar (90 W. Houston / LaGuardia Pl.), 7:15-8:45pm (he’s on ~7:30pm), $5; Sachal Vasandani, vocals; Jeb Patton, piano; David Wong, bass; Quincy Davis, drums Continue reading →

One of my favorite things about visiting South Asia, in recent years anyway, is the unique (despite overly repetitive) playlist of MTV India. Sure, some really awful Bollywood songs are included, but where else will you hear a track with such poignant lyrics like “just chill chill, just chill” repeated over and over again, right? So after being in Sri Lanka for over a week, I have added some of the following to my iRiver music playlist. And if you want to have this argument, I like the iRiver better than the Ipod, but lets not make this post an iRiver vs. iPod one.

Bombay Rockers— Rock The Party. This Danish duo, includes one desi and one gora exactly and approximately. The gora sings in English, and the desi of course sings in Hindi. How novel of an idea? The song is catchy, but the track’s music is not original, the lyrics are not really intricate, and it seems like the Rocker’s are trying a little too hard to be Europe’s answer to the Neptunes (trucker hat, bandana around the wrist and all).

Daddy Yankee—Mirame. To be fair, I actually put this on my playlist before I left the states (along with Raje Shwari and Beenie man’s Below the Waist and her track Country Style with Petey Pablo), but this spindi (Spanish + Hindi) reggaeton track is hot, so I had to give it a plug.

Abhijeet Sawant—Mohabbatein Lutaaunga. India’s answer to Kelly Clarkson, Reueben Studdard, and Clay Aiken, all rolled into one. Sawant was the winner of “Indian Idol” and can really belt out a tune. It is a little corny, and in the video of this song he does some weird forehead pointing thing, but some of his tracks are catchy, this one in particular.

The Rishi Rich Project—Dil Mera.—This track is on the Kya Kool Hai Hum Soundtrack. I haven’t seen the movie, but the trailer makes it look hip, and having the Project participate, makes the film even hipper. I was actually pleasantly surprised to hear a lot of Raghav and Jay Sean tracks all over the radio here in Sri Lanka. Sonu Nigam, Jayesh Gandhi and Amrita Kak— Just Chill. I had to put it on, just to laugh. This is apparently the opening track for David Dhawan’s new movie Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya, starring Salman Khan and Sushmita Sen. Remember to “just chill chill, just chill.”

Blaaze-–Bunty Aur Babli. This is the lead track for the movie of the same name starring Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee. The song is a rap song and the video has Amitabh lip-synching, quite ridiculously, along to the lyrics. Its unfortunate because the movie looks good. Continue reading →

I don’t know why more people aren’t fans of jazz music. Is there anything better than sitting in a dark corner of a jazz club with a whiskey on the rocks in one hand and a melody that sounds different to each listener tapping out through the fingers of your other hand? Agastya directs us to Indian American saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Named a Rising Star of the alto saxophone by the 2003 and 2004 Downbeat International Critics Poll, Rudresh Mahanthappa is one of the most innovative young musicians in jazz today. By incorporating the culture of his Indian ancestry, Rudresh has fused myriad influences to create a truly groundbreaking artistic vision. As a performer, he leads/co-leads five groups to critical acclaim. His most recent quartet recording Mother Tongue on Pi Recordings has been named one of Top Ten Jazz CDs of 2004 by the Chicago Tribune, All About Jazz, and Jazzmatazz to name a few and also received 4 stars in DOWNBEAT. This CD reached #8 on US jazz radio charts and reached #1 on Canadian jazz radio charts.

The saxophone is just cool. I wanted to play one in elementary school but they stuck me with the tuba, and according to my therapist it’s still a relevant issue. My hope was to learn how to play one and then marry a girl that played the violin so we could make lots of talented babies together.

Listen to a bunch of Mahanthappa’s recordings here. If you want to see him live there are a number of upcoming dates.

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