Azure Miles Records ~ The Music of Michael Robinson
Chinese Legend
(Udaya
Ravichandrika, Bilaskhani Todi and Gunkali)
Chinese
Legend originated with the main repeated melodic figure that came to me while
driving home over Coldwater Canyon after midnight following an informal and
moving sitar performance by Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy at his home. Out of curiosity,
I searched for a raga that contained the same swaras or tones of my newfound
melody, discovering Udaya Ravichandrika, a South Indian raga. There is some
controversy over whether to use a natural or flat seventh. I decided to use
both. The main melodic voice here is a sitar, the instrument of Ravi Shankar.
During
the fall of 1997, Martin Perlich, the distinguished KUSC Los Angeles radio host,
played Chinese Legend inbetween music by Mozart and C.P.E. Bach, describing
my music as “highly recommended for people interested in living composers.”
From
Hills of Snow was inspired by a recording of raga Bilaskhani Todi by sitarist
Rais Khan and Sultan Khan, the sarangi artist. Bilas Khan composed this elegiac
raga in the sixteenth century for the funeral of his father, Tansen, one of
the greatest figures in the history of Hindustani music. Tansen had disapproved
of his son's marriage, and they had not spoken for years. Upon completion of
its first performance, this profoundly moving raga miraculously caused Tansen's
arm to move with a gesture of forgiveness. I have chosen a piano timbre with
an Indian tuning for this composition.
Porcelain
Nights was a great pleasure and challenge for me. It is based on raga Gunkali,
an inspirational early morning raga that was sung by Bade Ghulam Ali Khan on
one of the first Indian classical music recordings I ever heard. It remains
a favorite to this day. The zither timbre employed here is a tribute to santoor
artist Shivkumar Sharma. After completing the work, I was fortunate to come
across his own version of Gunkali, and I subsequently decided to replace my
original tanpura pattern with the one he uses to "create the atmosphere"
of Gunkali.
All
three of these compositions were written in 1997.
-
Michael Robinson, January 1999, Los Angeles
© 1999 Michael Robinson All rights reserved
Chinese Legend (Azure Miles Records)
There
is without doubt method to the barely restrained madness that frequently surfaces
in the music of Michael Robinson, a Beverly Hills resident who recently had
his music improvised by none other than Ray Manzarek at LA's Jazz Bakery.
At
times the music drifts along with a minimum of fuss only to be plucked from
the tranquil stream bed and twisted in front of your ears into something very
different. From out of nowhere a resounding tabla and accompanying Indian percussion
will leap from the undergrowth and embellish the increasingly erratic piano
lines that only seconds earlier were wandering aimlessly.
There
are also extremely interesting divisions between the hand played parts and the
obviously heavily sequenced ones, usually without any indication that one has
taken over from the other. Either the lead parts are recorded very very slowly
and quantized or Michael is leaving sections for the cut and paste.
Who knows? The main thing is that his music is a definite grower. I've listened to the whole album several times at different times of the day and found myself increasingly drawn to the random creativity that creates spaces that are quite unique to this composer.
In closing the presentation of the CD's we received for our listening pleasure were packaged quite delightfully with covers comprising of single sheets of Japanese hand silk screened rice paper and a direct to disk recording autographed by Michael himself. Before I even placed it on the platter I just knew I'd love it.
Rating - 921,233 (out of a possible 1,000,000)
- electronicmusic.com 1997