Notes From Home: himalayan folk tunes by Manose

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--New Age Retailer

THIS CD IS GREAT FOR KIDS!!

It's lively and bouncy and has just the right touch of the whimsical, a great way to introduce young ones to another culture. When he's not touring with Grammy quality artist, Manose likes to play childcare centers. Believe me, he's a hit with little audience members!

LINER NOTES

1.Kauda: A piece inspired by festival dance tunes of the Gurung people who's homeland lies at the feet of the Annapurna mountain range. It combines sweet melancholy expressed on the flute and sarangi with up-tempo folk rhythms.

2.In the Spider's Web: When young men and women of the rural villages meet socially, a favorite activity is a flirting game called Dhori. With the women gathered on one side, and the men gathered on the other, they take turns improvising teasing questions and answers to the tune of this song. He with the wittiest tongue and best singing voice wins the heart of his love!

3.Malshree: A song for the goddess Durga, this piece is heard everywhere in October/November during the time of the Dasain festival which celebrates Durga's triumph over an evil water buffalo demon. Dasain is the major holiday of the year for Hindu Nepalese, a time for visiting relatives back home, exchanging gifts, and eating well!

4.Fluttering Silk: This is one of Nepal's best loved and most widely known folk tunes. If you ever visit Nepal for trekking, at some point your Nepalese staff is almost sure to pull out a madal drum and sing this one for you. Like many folk songs the world over, the lyrics are partly improvised, somewhat nonsensical, and somehow about love. The main refrain is "shall I sit here on this hill side, or shall I fly away?"

5.Maruni: A piece of music to accompany folk dance, this is another where we find the sweet and bitter of life commingling easily.

6.Rajamati: From the Newari people of the Kathmandu Valley, this song is about a boy in love, so in love, as he tells his father, that if he cannot have the hand in marriage of the beautiful Rajamati, he will run away to the city of Varanasi to become an ascetic on the banks of the holy Ganges river rather than marry another.

7.Notes From Home: This original composition is dedicated to all Nepalese living abroad.

8.Sorathi Dhun/Jamkey Fuli: A tune for Newari folk dance.

9.Sherpa Song: People of the high mountains, Sherpa's are famed in the West as mountain guides. They are Buddhists who revere the spirits and deities of the Himalayan mountains. Their language and culture is very similar to that of the people of neighboring Tibet. This rendition of their, you might say, anthem is a salute to them.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MANOSE

Beginnings

Manose's hometown, Bouda, Nepal stands on the ancient route leading from the Himalayan mountains down into the Kathmandu valley. It is just upriver from Nepal's most holy Hindu temple, and is home itself to an important Buddhist shrine. An influx of Tibetan refugees who naturally congregated around the great Boudanath shrine, and the outward growth of Kathmandu city has created there a nexus where everyone from religious pilgrims, to rowdy enclaves of traders, and Western adventurers converged to meet, mingle, haggle, and gawk. Typical of crossroads the world over, it is dusty and colorful, a Babylon of languages and traditions.

It was here that eight-year-old Manose fell in love with the bamboo flute one night, when a fortuitous breeze wafted its song through his bedroom window. Truly, the sound of the bansuri is seductive. Compared to a silver flute it has a resonate quality that seems to actually penetrate the listener physically. And because it is not valved like a silver flute, its potential for subtle expressiveness is practically limitless. We can understand therefore, young Manose's instant infatuation.

He purchased a two-rupee flute from a street hawker and began to carry it with him in his school bag where it vied for space with his favorite sling shot. His real relationship with music began when Manose heard about an old man who played haunting music on the shenai. That man, Madan Dev Bhatta, a disciple of Ustad Bishmilallah Khan, initiated Manose into the study of classical raga music, often known as North Indian classical music.

While learning the basics from listening to his new guru play shenai, Manose began to collect cassettes by flute maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia. To augment the lessons he was getting from Bhatta, Manose would play the cassettes again and again, trying to copy what he heard, often practicing five or six hours a day. "I wanted to learn," says Manose. "I wanted to have something."

Musical Achievements

Now, as a performer in a variety of genres from raga, to Nepali folk, to fusion rock, his sound he has matured into something at once virile, tender, and playful. From the demanding study of raga music, he has acquired technical mastery and an astonishing ability to improvise. At the same time, we find him wonderfully free to draw inspiration from wherever he finds it, be it the swaying sweetness of a samba, or the lightening fast lines of Celtic masters. When asked what or who has had the greatest musical influence on his playing, he thinks for a moment and says "the sound of the flute."

He is widely recognized as Nepal's premiere flautist and is the recipient of national awards including instrumentalist of the year. And even while living in the United States, he still manages to be a vital part of the music scene back home. His debut music video airs regularly on Nepali TV, he is a member of one of the county's most popular pop bands, and last year he performed in Nepal's first jazz festival where he shared the stage with Australian great Don Burrows.

In the United States, Manose has performed with the likes of Grammy-nominated fusion artist Jai Uttal, singers Krishna Das and Deva Premal, and blue grass great Peter Rowan. He is also a member of the New Maihar Band, an ensemble created by living legend Ali Akbar Khan. In addition, he has performed in France, Switzerland, Germany, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.

After all this, no matter where he goes, or what genre his is playing, it is his pure love for the sound of the flute that remains most palpable is his music. This is clearly a young man who "has something."

Average Customer Review: 4