I have always wished I had gotten some formal musical education in my childhood, so that instead of just listening to Indian Classical music with a kind of blind appetite, I would have been able to tell the ingredients apart, would have been able to connect certain melodies that have entered into me to their well known names.

But since I have no formal training (but then perhaps, it is for the better for I have chafed at "pleasures" such as mathematics that I was forced to enjoy, and learned to partake in illicit activities such as reading Russian novels camouflaged by textbooks at an early age) I am limited to putting my ear as close I can to the speakers of the stereo and let the notes devour me, on this muggy night. So here is some music: Pt. Jasraj's soulful performance of Rag Bihag (or Behag as it is sometimes spelt) - an important evening raga. The rasa (mood) is romantic combined with pathos, as in longing for one's lover. For the technically minded, here is Rajan P. Parrikar's extensive tour to Bihag-desh. Also this performance is 30 minutes long.

After my arrival some six summers ago to these United States, I fanatically attempted to educate myself in the musical traditions of the natives, i.e., in all manners of American music. There was a period of a time when I religiously followed a regime of listening to one new musician or band every weekend, and went to nearly all the free concerts that happen in the summers in this city. And it was in this process in which I discovered the music of Miles Davis, a magical discovery for me in the American sonic-scape.

This feeling was reinforced a couple of weekends ago when I saw the recently released DVD of the legendary concert Miles played at Isle of Wight way back in 1970. When asked to give a title for the set, he famously responded, “call it anything”. Miles’s playing in this DVD basically blew my hairy ass straight out of the chair. Or as the review in NYT described this madness:

"The 38-minute jam that Miles Davis and an electric sextet played at the Isle of Wight Festival in the summer of 1970 is like a pungent, musky, musical soupThe sounds floating through the rock-funk murk evoke the Three Witches' incantation from "Macbeth": "eye of newt, and toe of frog/wool of bat, and tongue of dog."

I was also thinking of his phenom records "Bitches’ Brew" and "A Kind of Blue" earlier this morning, as it happened to be one of those mornings I would have rather stayed in bed to daydream all day, and escape from the so-called life. But since I can't, I am opting instead for Miles's horn to guide my Dante-like, reluctant feet through the purgatory of today into a kind of blue paradise. So let's have some Miles.

Call It Anything live @ Isle of Wight 1970. What a mindfuck! Also look out a tripped out Airto Moreira all producing all those funky sounds with various Brazilian percussion instruments.

from the many videos on YouTube, here are two: So What with John Coltrane Time After Time

with "The City of Angels" soundtrack. Here are few videos:

Goo Goo Dolls' ever green, straight shootin', gut wrenchin' ballad Iris Sarah McLachlan performing Angel live U2's If God Will Send His Angels Peter Gabriel's I Grieve The soothing background score

Finally, this chap has uploaded about all (?) of this movie as ten minute long segments, as that is what YouTube allows. Yes, sometimes pure sappy-wappy music is what these ears ask to hear.