Apr 28 2022 to Apr 28 2022 7 p.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

Many Black American and African lives have mattered to the world because their interactions with South Asians have furthered the causes of political liberation, spiritual liberation, and musical liberation. They range from global pan-Africanists to the mentors of Martin Luther King, Jr. who met with Mahatma Gandhi. The global import of Afro-Diasporic music is seen throughout South Asia and jazz musicians have been greatly influenced by South Asian religions.

The session will have two presentations. The first presentation by Susheel Kurien is titled Black, Brown, and White: How Pre – Independent India informed Afro-American Jazzmen. Pre Independent India of the 1930’s was an attractive destination for African American jazz musicians. They spent considerable amounts of time working in India and their interactions with and observations of life around them have a unique perspective. In this talk we will share some of their firsthand observations and opinions of the India they encountered.

The second presentation by Kenneth X. Robbins is titled The Sound Universe: From Maharaja Sayajirao III and Hazrat Inayat Khan to John and Alice Coltrane. The musician-Sufi Inayat Khan, born into a family of musicians supported by a maharaja, came to the West. His view of the “universe as sound” influenced the spiritual search of  jazz musicians like John Coltrane. Coltrane’s widow, the pianist-harpist Alice Coltrane, became a guru herself. The discussant will be Professor John Satchmo Mannan, who is a well-known as vocalist,  saxophonist , and promoter of the jazz tradition.