jody stecher | shantha benegal
| Jody Stecher's music exemplifies the open door between tradition and creative personal expression. A renowned singer and multi-instrumentalist, his recordings have been Grammy finalists, won Indy Awards, and been a musical influence spanning generations and continents. Jody learned sursringar from Zia Mohiuddin Dagar during the decade spanning the mid 1970s-80s and more recently has had significant input and guidance from Zia Fariduddin Dagar. The sursringar originated as a modification of the large Dhrupad rabab (seni rabab), that was made to increase the sustain of the strings and improve the tonal clarity. It is has a voice similar to the bin, though sweeter in the mid and upper range. |
| Shantha Benegal is actively involved with the promotion of performing arts from South Asia. She is a singer and teacher, a poet and writer. She studied Dhrupad from Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, Khayal from Pt. Murli Manohar Shukla and has a deep interest in Thumri, Dadra, Qawwalis and Folk music. Shantha also served as a publicist in the University of Washington School of Music, Seattle. | .jpg) |
Shantha Benegal spoke to Jody Stecher on the eve of Utsav 2006-- Seattle's 3rd Annual Festival of the Performing Arts of South Asia.
SB: How did you get interested in the sursringar, an instrument every one has heard of and no one seems to have heard?
JS: I had been studying sarod in Seattle with ZM Dagar and was finding it hard to replicate the long meend and swelling tones of his vina on the sarod, an instrument with short sustain. I couldn't imagine taking up the vina, because of the “human pretzel” aspect of the required seating posture, and because of the many new techniques I'd have to learn before being able to play even the most basic things. I asked him if there was an Indian instrument with more sustain than sarod that used similar technique and whose tone resembled a vina. Dagarsahib smiled and said: “sursingar”. I had heard of it but had thought it to be extinct. Turns out he had one at home. He promised to order one just like it from Hemen Roy the next time he was in Calcutta and he'd bring it with him when he returned to America. If mine was incomplete he'd bring me his and sell it to me at cost.
SB: Which one did you get?
JS: His! It's a gorgeous instrument and it turned out to be exactly what I wanted.
SB: So ZM Dagar was asking you to replicate his vina music on the sarod?
JS: No. He was teaching me sarod style using rapid right hand rhythm patterns but I wanted to sound more like him and I was very keen on his style of alap.
SB: What is the difference between a sitar and sursringar?
JS: They are made of the same materials and use similar flat bridges, traditionally made from deer antler. The sitar body is made of a gourd sliced vertically whereas for sursringar a larger gourd is cut horizontally. Each has a wood top but the sursringar has a metal plate for a fingerboard instead of frets like the sitar. Sursringar is shaped and proportioned like the old Dhrupad Rabab, a similar shape to the sarod. Some sitars and all sursringars have a secondary smaller resonating gourd behind the peghead. Early forms of the sitar had no sympathetic strings but now they always do. Sursringars generally have none but some do. The method of playing is different as well; sursringar is closer to sarod in its technique. In fact, as sarod music developed it incorporated aspects of sursringar technique along with aspects of Rabab, vina, vocal music, and percusion.
SB: Percussion?
JS: Rabab players played melodic patterns whose rhythmic organization was based on the patterns of pakhawaj. Sarod players often do the same thing based on tabla compositions.
SB: Did the old rabab players play alap?
JS: They tried but it was a big problem during monsoon when the animal hide that comprised its top would go slack. It had no sustain at all.There are several tales with conflicting data about the sursringar's origin but all of them make it clear that it was developed as a wood-topped modification of the dhrupad rabab.
SB: You live in the Bay Area. What brought you to Seattle?
JS: It was time for a change. I was visiting friends up there in 1974 and liked it and decided to stay. I lived there for much of the 1970s. After I moved back to California my sister and then my parents moved to Seattle where they all resettled from the east coast. So I have both friends and family in Washington and of course all my guru brothers and sisters are there as well.
SB: Did all your learning of Indian music happen in America?
JS: My formal lessons have been entirely in this country but I absorbed a lot of music in India in an informal way. By osmosis you might say, and also by witnessing various Dagars teaching others. Fariduddin Dagar made a deep impression and I learned a lot just by spending time with him.
SB: Who was your first inspiration?
JS: For Indian music? It was the Carnatic singer K.V. Narayanaswami. A friend of my mother’s was learning from him and he invited me to witness a lesson. I was so taken by his combination of humility and skill. Here was this tremendously accomplished musician sitting on the floor dressed in lungi and sleeveless undershirt giving his all to singing scales which he sang with sincerity and devotion (for him the swar-s, the tones of the scale really were divinity, this was no lip service to a distant ideal) and an intensity and precision I hadn’t dreamed could be applied to “mere” excercises. It changed how I thought about music and about myself. My first inspirations in North Indian music were many. The earliest ones were Vilayat Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Amir Khan, Keserbai Kerkar and especially Moinuddin and Aminuddin, the Dagar Brothers.
SB: Who is your first Indian music teacher?
JS: I learned theory and history from Ravi Shankar when I was an undergraduate student at CCNY. My first practical lessons in North Indian music were from Ali Akbar Khan at his fledgeling school in northern California. I learned directly from him for about three years and continue to catch good ideas from his concert recordings from various periods going back to the 1940s.
SB: I read an article of yours online in which you said (I’m paraphrasing): “Dagarsahib was the slowest moving person you’d ever met.” How did this affect his music?
JS: His unhurried mental state enabled him to hold his attention on his sound in a way few others even dream possible. The long sustain and beautiful arc of his tones came about not only because he had a good instrument to play on. Others would play it and it would just go *plunk*. He sustained the tone with calm mental focus. What a good question!
SB: How much time did you spend in India with Dagarsahib?
JS: We were never there at the same time. Over a three month period I would spend several weeks at a time as a guest in his home interacting with his family and students. I was treated so beautifully and kindly there.
SB: How did your India stint affect your music?
JS: I absorbed the atmosphere that supports the music, came to understand much of its cultural underpinnings, and I received a lot of encouragement from musicians. All of this helped. You know, students of every gharana think their guru and their musical style are special. This is natural and I suppose it can seem tedious to many. In my case one thing I find particularly special about the two brothers I learned from is the supportive atmosphere around them.
SB: You are a two-time Grammy Award nominee for traditional American music, right?
JS: Yes I was twice a Grammy finalist for recordings I had done with my wife Kate Brislin. I also have won several Indy awards for recordings of my own music and for those I produced of other musicians.
SB: To the uninitiated such as me, that music sounds quite different from dhrupad. In what way are they different and/or similar?
JS: Much of American vernacular music, especially that with roots in Northern Europe and West Africa, is modal, as is dhrupad and other Indian classical and folk music. American modality has not been systematized and catalogued as it has in India but ornament, microtonal shading and a very close relationship between vocal and instrumental music are as present in this country's music as that in India. There is also a reverence for past masters and a keen sense of continuity as well as the freedom to make changes according to individuality in both musics. But yes, they do sound different.
SB: How do you switch back and forth between dhrupad and bluegrass-folk?
JS: The same way you switch back and forth between English, Konkani, and Hindi.
SB: How does your American music influence dhrupad and vice versa?
JS: For the former there was an adverse influence at first. My pitch was off. I remember comparing the frets on my guitar with Dagarsahib's vina. They each have 12 frets to the octave. Not one of them matched! Eventually I learned to discern and reproduce smaller pitch increments than I was used to. This is difficult even for Kheyal students and practitioners who are accustomed to hearing the harmonium. Even though virtually all kheyal vocalists sing the komal gandhar (minor third) of Todi, Bhairavi, Darbari Kannada, Mian Malhar and Jaunpuri differently in each of those raag-s, when they hear dhrupad musicians say, for instance, that the shuddh gandhar (the major third) of raag-s Bhoop, Behag, Shankara and Yaman are all different they get upset. When they hear that sa, the fundamental root, is mutable in dhrupad they think dhrupadias are mad!
I think my practice of and long exposure to Dhrupad has given my American music a certain gravitas which it may not have attained otherwise. It's hard to know for sure. I've used Indian metres in some of my western recordings. Jhaptal on one Scottish recording for instance, and a tihai in the middle of a mandolin solo on a bluegrass CD a few years ago. But these are so integrated into the fabric and feel of the music that it doesn't sound at all exotic or out of place. At least I hope not.
SB: Do you allot equal time to practicing of both the genres?
JS: Over the course of my whole life, yes I think so. In a given month or week it goes in cycles and waves. Some times one or the other gets more attention. Practicing both on the same day or within the same hour presents no difficulty.
SB: Are there any opportunities for an American musician like you to play Indian music here or abroad?
JS: I have done very little public performance of Sursringar and dhrupad. Until recently I felt I didn't play well enough to play this music in public so it was part sahdhana, part passionate hobby. I wanted the Indian music I played to be of the same standard as my western music and I wanted to do justice to what I was given by my teachers. So I haven't looked at all for places to play. But I am starting to get invitations to play here and there. I have the impression there may be more opportunities in Europe but I see some American opportunities arising. There is less prejudice now against non-Indian performers. All but two of my Indian classical music students have been from India, some referred to me by Ustad's family, others found me by happy coincidence. The only objection to my European ancestry I've encountered has been by the occasional romantic guru-seeking Euro-American to whom I am just not exotic enough. I’ve gently discouraged students of all origins from putting me on a pedestal; such behavior is probably good for the inner development of the student but it's bad for ME!