‘RagaSON’ Fuses Indian Ragas with Mexican Son Jarocho

[Audio:http://media.theworld.org/audio/01292014.mp3]

Originally aired on PRI’s “The World”

I’d like to tell you about a new recording called, RagaSON.

It’s a new collaboration between Los Angeles-based sitar player Paul Livingstone and one of the great figures of son jarocho from Veracruz, Mexico, Ramon Guitierrez.

There is an interaction between the sitar and the guitar in “Bhairavi/Las Poblanas” where these two very different instruments from two very different cultures find a common ground.

For more than a decade, Livingstone has been traveling to Mexico to perform and teach Indian music to Mexican musicians. But he’s also been learning about Mexico’s traditional music and in some cases, collaborating with a few musicians.

“RagaSON,” the title track on the record, is the fruit of years of work looking for a common path between Indian music and Mexican traditional music.

You see, the music of India is on a different musical scale than that of son jarocho from Veracruz, and trying to find a place where the two could meet was no easy task. But one thing they have in common is rhythm.

One example, and one of my favorite tunes on the album, is called  “Manj Khamaj/Toro Zacamandu.”