Jai Uttal

He loves soul singer Al Green and Indian music. He's played Motown in bands and busked for change in Northern India with the street singers Bauls of Bengal. For Jai Uttal, it's just music, whether playing Roscoe Holcomb old-time banjo licks or leading a chanting retreat in Fiji.

"I'm not throwing Indian music in as a spice, or trying to be fashionable."

The influences all come together on Spirit Room "A Retrospective," compiled from his four albums for Triloka, and which, he says, "is very representative of my work, I think. I was very careful in the selection of material, so it would show all my facets."

Growing up in New York, the son of a music business executive, Uttal took piano lessons, before taking up banjo, guitar, and harmonica, delving into the American roots. But his real epiphany came when he first heard Indian music, and ‘it touched my heart like sounds of my home. Then I got all the Indian albums I could, and jammed along on guitar with Ravi Shankar records."

His obsession was so great that when he was 19, Uttal left Manhattan for California to study with sarod and voice with master Ali Akbar Khan; he still takes lessons, but admits, "because of my touring schedule I'm a pretty bad student these days." 18 months later he made his first trip to India.

"I rented a house for $15 a month in Bhopur. I saw the Bauls playing in a park, and got to know them. Soon my house became Baul Central. We'd sing, and I got lessons, then I traveled with them, performing in stations and on trains."

The experience helped inspire him to mix East and West in his own music, although he's careful to state that "it was never a calculated decision to mix the musics," it was simply a part of his own his own identity, shown in the way pieces like "Malkouns (Night On The Ganges)" evolved.

"I respect all these musicians and the tradition so much that I don't feel I'm casual about it all. And I'm not throwing Indian music in a spice, or trying to be fashionable."

For Spirit Room "A Retrospective" Uttal wanted a collection that showcased his band, the Pagan Love Orchestra, and their different sides, but also included some special personal moments, like his collaboration with the late trumpet player and world music pioneer Don Cherry on "Footprints," and "Hara Shiva Shakkara," which "is an old Sanskrit prayer I set to music. I sang it in Israel a couple of years ago, and some Jewish Cabalists came up and said ‘Do you know what you're singing is in Hebrew?' It turned out to be a Hebrew prayer about the creation of the universe. I was chilled that all the old traditions were on the same wavelength."

The Sanskrit and Hindi lyrics he uses all come from traditional prayers, a reflection of the spirituality that runs throughout his music. Chanting also plays a great part in Uttal's life; he recently returned from leading a week-long chanting workshop in Fiji, and he's currently looking ahead to the August release of a live chanting disc, Live Kirtan and Pagan Remixes, (Etherean) which was recorded in a yoga studio.

"I did a bunch of post-production and three remixes, with beats and stuff. It's me playing harmonium and singing, with a tabla player; it's real different. It shows another side of me, something I've been doing for years. I just never thought many people would be that interested in it. I'm really pleased with it."

This article first appeared on Sonicnet.com

Jai Uttal

"I'm not throwing Indian music in as a spice, or trying to be fashionable."

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