Presented by La MaMa, June 25, 2020
Neel Murgai is an extraordinary musician, overtone singer and composer based in Brooklyn, co-founder of an Indian music collective Brooklyn Raga Massive. Much to his credit, he has a kids’ show! Since isolation, he’s been live-streaming, and La MaMa, Off-off-Broadways’ legendary theater – live-streamed his solo concert class at the end of June.
Usually alone on the screen, Mr. Murgai played sitar, guitar or drum while he sang. He began with a “Hello” song:
Hello – Namaste – Konnichiwa – Hola – Bonjour – Shalom – Salam
He moved on to a song giving us the names of water, and his third song was about fire (Don’t touch that!). Another song was African-American spiritual that has from time to time morphed into a topical song:
Ain’t gonna let no coronavirus turn me around –
Turn me around –
Or turn me upside down.
One wonderful song was based on the Indian sound of the universal creation:
First there was the sound – Om – Shanti.
The great part of the show was Mr. Murgai’s instruction. He explained the sitar to us – its 20 strings, made from a gourd, with a wooden neck and metal strings, and a
jawari, which we’d call a bridge – the word means “to give life to the sound”.
There were beautiful close shots of his instrument, made from multiple woods. He sang an Indian scale for us and he explained – sort of – what a raga is – “that which colors the mind”. The fire song, for example, was in “a raga of the late night”, and his Goodbye song was “a rainy season raga”.
One of the most interesting moments was Mr. Murgai’s demonstration of Mongolian throat singing. He even gave us a lesson, based on the flow of vowel sounds:
Oo – Oh – Ah – Eh – Ee
It’s odd that this has such vocal control that he can throat sing, but he can’t really sing legit – and we don’t care at all. But some of the video effects were annoying.
What a terrific show this is for kids! Indeed, Mr. Murgai’s presentation of Indian and Mongolian music is a lesson for all of us. The La MaMa video is at lamama.org/raga-kids . His website is ragakids.com .
Author: Steve Capra
