Acknowledgements, Credits, Further . . .

By Marcus Boon

Performing at UC California at La Jolla in 1971 with Steven Schoendorf and Terry Riley.

This is the first part of what will probably be a substantial archive of interviews and writings about Pandit Pran Nath. The next group that I put on the site should include interviews with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, Michael Harrison, Sri Karunamayee, Catherine Christer Hennix and Mashkor Ali Khan.

A brief word on why things are being presented here as they are. As you will notice, the interviews and articles here talk of many things besides Pandit Pran Nath. I thought it was important to present this material so that, aside from helping people understand Pandit Pran Nath's history, and how he connected to his students in the West, we can start to understand how the tradition that Pandit Pran Nath brought to the West suggests possible futures, musical and otherwise, which can be brought into being. In other words, we're not just talking about preserving a tradition (even though everyone involved with Pandit Pran Nath would have the highest respect for preserving his tradition in its most unadulterated form), but learning how to "make it new" without using raga for a quick fix of novelty. Is there a kind of modernity, of contemporariness that begins with Pandit Pran Nath, rather than Satie or Rimbaud or Picasso? I think the answer is yes. Of course, it could begin with other people too, since - a multiplicity of approaches to music making and/or spiritual practice, in which the highest forms of knowledge from a variety of traditions are in contact with one another, questioning, experimenting - that is what we want. And that is the blessing of our being alive at this strange moment in time - that we have access to other traditions, and they have access to us. And we can be changed by this. Have been already. Will be much more. This is very much an unfinished business.

I have many people to thank for their blessings and generosity in helping this project happen. Doors have constantly opened for me where I barely even registered their presence. I thank Pandit Pran Nath, and his continuing living presence in my teachers. I thank the Chisti-Sabri lineage of Sufi masters, and especially Nizamuddin Aulia and Hazrat Allaudin Sabri, whose mighty blessings I have felt, and who turned me on to the knowledge (and experience) that Sound is Divine. I thank the Kirana lineage of Hindustani classical vocal, and its two incomparable twentieth century masters, Abdul Wahid Kahn Sahib and Abdul Karim Khan Sahib. Thanks to La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, through whom I first encountered Pandit Pran Nath, one night at the Dream House, and for their great generosity with time, contacts, thought and much more. Thanks to Michael Harrison, my singing teacher and pianist/composer extraordinaire, who encouraged me in my investigations from the beginning, and for inspiration. Thanks to Shabda Kahn, for persuading me that it was in my interests to come to India and study with the group, and for being a wise and protective guide to us all. Thanks to Lance and Stephanie Sandleben, my travelling companions for support and the pleasure of their company. Thanks to Terry Riley, for contacts, photos and the decades of perfect sound. Thanks to Lee Torchia, for patiently being my MC and tapemaster, on many hot afternoons spent listening to archive tapes, basking together in perfect sound. Thanks to Henry Flynt and Joan Allekotte for allowing us to print their writings, and to Henry again, for making me think things through. Thanks to everyone who gave me interview time: Sri Karunamayee and Rangama, Charlemagne Palestine, Shanta Serbjeet Singh, Mashkor Ali Khan, Catherine Christer Hennix, Henry Flynt, Jon Hassell. Thanks to Rob Young and Tony Herrington at The Wire for encouraging me to go deeper with the project, and then editing it so well. Thanks to Janet Robbins and the huskie posse for their hospitality. And to Tim Hunter for his assistance with images. And Tim Hill, for connecting me to Sheila Dhar's legacy (Sheila passed away last year - love and respect to her).

The photo on the first page of the website is of Terry Riley and Pandit Pran Nath outside the Houston Astrodome in 1973, courtesy of Terry Riley.

Further Information:

MELA: Pandit Pran Nath: La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela's website, with lots of information on Guruji. The MELA store on the website is also your best bet for any recordings of Pandit Pran Nath that become available. Check out the page of Zazeela's extraordinary posters too.

Other Minds: A page of tributes to Pandit Pran Nath from Jon Hassell, Terry Riley, Shabda and Tamam Kahn and La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. Also a video clip from In Between the Notes, a documentary on Pandit Pran Nath.