Sri Chinmoy plays Hawaiian guitar

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 22 Nov 2006 3:06 pm

This is soundin bad, I guess a "best of" or 'greatest hits" won't be out in time for the holidays? Well, back to "The Shaggs"[This message was edited by Andy Sandoval on 22 November 2006 at 06:55 PM.]

Mark White · Post by **Mark White** » 22 Nov 2006 3:21 pm

What Steinar said......and Bobby Lee.....and Gerald too. I've been biting my tongue here, I'm glad you guys called it like it is!

I DO feel so much better about my playing though

[This message was edited by Mark White on 22 November 2006 at 03:24 PM.][This message was edited by Mark White on 22 November 2006 at 03:24 PM.]

Don Kona Woods · Post by **Don Kona Woods** » 22 Nov 2006 3:43 pm

If it may be, that this thread has served any significant purpose, it has been that we could all get our pent-up aggressive feelings out in the open, so that we could be relieved and face the holidays with a new purpose.

So thank you Sri Chinmoy.

Aloha,

Don

Gary Stevenson · Post by **Gary Stevenson** » 22 Nov 2006 6:39 pm

Holy Crap And I thought as a 6 month Lap steel I was bad! He would have been better off if had tuned to open D and just play chords with no pickin!

Steve Pierce · Post by **Steve Pierce** » 22 Nov 2006 10:30 pm

There's a restaurant in San Francisco on the corner of Market and 9th called Ananda Fuara. It's vegetarian food of course, but really good.

Anyway, everything in the restaurant is a tribute to this guy. His paintings are all over the walls along with pictures of him doing the feats of strength Bill mentioned. The pictures show him lifting 1000 pounds, or pulling a car. There's also pictures of him with famous dignitaries. The music playing in the restaurant is his and there are videos of him painting, or playing MANY different instruments.

The music is all generally the same (as are the paintings and the feats of strength). All the waiters and waitresses in the restaurant wear similar clothing and give of a cult vibe.

I have to admit I'm amused by the whole thing. I didn't know that Santana and John McLaughlin were into him back in the 70s. It puts another wrinkle in this thing for me.

What this guy thinks of himself is a lot more entertaining than his music!

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Steve Pierce

Gary Boyett · Post by **Gary Boyett** » 23 Nov 2006 3:57 am

I may be mistaken but isn't he playing on this album?

[This message was edited by Gary Boyett on 23 November 2006 at 09:53 AM.]

Derrick Mau · Post by **Derrick Mau** » 23 Nov 2006 11:08 am

All he needs is a zirconia bar!

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 23 Nov 2006 9:58 pm

And some music lessons wouldn't hurt either!

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 23 Nov 2006 10:45 pm

Gary,

That was a great album. It's worthwhile when two very different musicians like Santana and McG cooperate. Didn't Chinmoy get those two off drugs?

Although this clip isn't for me, it's interesting. "Unschooled" exactly. It's sort of like a kind of folk music. Very simple. But some people will be engaged by it. Zappa said about Elmore James, "He kept playing the same lick over and over, but I get the feeling he meant it."

There's another thread on here about chops versus delivery. Probably few people would listen to him for chops, but I'll bet he reaches some people.

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"The less I was of who I was, the better I felt." -- Leonard Cohen

Bill Creller · Post by **Bill Creller** » 24 Nov 2006 3:01 pm

If he reaches some people,they must have a serious doo doo problem between thier ears.

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 24 Nov 2006 8:53 pm

Gary didn't say the guy was good. He said this is an "oddity" by somebody "unschooled," which is a considerate way of saying the guy has no chops. And he put it here for the guy's connection to Santana and McLaughlin. I agree with him that it's interesting: I can't figure out how two great guitarists would be interested in Chinmoy.

It would also be interesting to see who is moved by this playing. It's possible that some people in some cultures might like this and not have doo doo for brains.

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"The less I was of who I was, the better I felt." -- Leonard Cohen

Loni Specter · Post by **Loni Specter** » 24 Nov 2006 10:35 pm

OK, I'm gonna stick my neck out here and I haven't even listened to the song clip. I have noticed, and correct me if I'm overgeneralizing, that most REAL steel guitar players (pedal or non) are very technicaly oriented people, usually good with logical, mechanical, mathmatical thinking. Lots of machinists, scientists, and engineers.
I consider McLaughlin and Santana to be extremely gifted, if not virtuoso musicians. I have met both of them having photographed them during the "Devotion" tour days. My stage photos are included on a web site about that period.
Perhaps both guitarists were lookong for inspiration from the charismatic Sri Chimnoy and a better way to deal with the stresses of the life style of the touring world. Drugs like heroin, speed, acid and alchohol were the easy way out for many. The smart ones are still with us today.
Furthermore for many westerners, conventional Judeo Christian religion, offered little encouragement for experimentation and often frowned on Eastern or sub tropical music. Abandonement of western religion, or at least suplementing it with eastern disciplines proved exhilerating and liberating.
I may be rambling a bit, to much leftover turkey and egg nog.
I guess my point is, as a listener, I try seperate myself from expectations of perfection and listen for those fleeting glimpses of bliss when I am lost in the moment and not comparing my own ability with the artist's.
Sri Chimnoy may well be the worst steeler on the planet, but that's not the point.
It's kinda like the joke where a man of diminuative 'stature', undresses in front of a women for the first time and she looks down and squints, saying to him.
"Who do you expect to satisfy with that little thing?"
The man replies,"Well me of course."

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 24 Nov 2006 10:45 pm

That's funny, Loni!

It's hard to find the right words to describe his playing. Some have said "unschooled", but I'm unschooled and so are a lot of really good steel players. Schooling don't mean much on the steel.

Some would call it "amateurish", but there are a lot of good players who qualify as amateurs. Wouldn't want to insult them, either.

Myself, I just say that he can't play steel guitar. He can make sounds from it, just like I can make sounds from a trumpet, but there's a big difference between making sounds and playing music. Did you hear his sitar music? Embarassing!

My brother saw Sri Chinmoy in concert years ago. He tells me that the guy's music was "spectacularly mediocre". I guess that's the kindest way of putting it.

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Mark White · Post by **Mark White** » 25 Nov 2006 5:44 am

Actually, my grandson sounds a lot like him when I let him 'have at it' on my cheapo Gretsch. Maybe the lad is showing more promise than I thought

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 25 Nov 2006 5:57 am

I listened to the clip, then spent some time thinking how unsophisticated and tasteless I am, and that I have no right to play music in public. I thought his music was just too deep for me to understand, and that it must be exceedingly beautiful in ways that I could never understand. Fortunately, I then read everyones comments and found that I'm not the only one who thought it was crap.

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Howard

Derrick Mau · Post by **Derrick Mau** » 25 Nov 2006 9:08 am

Here he is playing a total of 74 piano's in 2 hours on his 74th birthday.

It's a 9 minute video if you can stand it.
http://www.veoh.com/videoDetails.html?v=e140045BYXzPgcb

Jeff Au Hoy · Post by **Jeff Au Hoy** » 25 Nov 2006 11:07 am

Sri Chinmoy doesn't call his music/noise anything... and he seems to find ecstacy in whatever he plays.

Most guys I know who play steel are adamant they play a certain style... and can't stop bitching about how bad they and others play.

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 25 Nov 2006 11:31 am

Jeff,

I posted a variation of this thought on the IGS forum regarding Sri Chinmoy's music.

There's an old Jewish/Yiddish saying that translates to "it's bad for the Jews". This expression is used when a Jewish person in the public eye does something bad or acts inappropriately triggering a negative reaction from the general population that all Jews are this way.

Let me explain further:

If a lousy, tasteless, out of tune rock guitarist is performing live or in a video, the general poplulation watching says "this guy is real bad, he's no Eric Clapton". The general population has a solid benchmark to work from when making a judgement because rock guitarists are everywhere.

A bad lap steeler in the public eye muddies the water for all the good steelers out there. The general population has no benchmark from which to make an informed opinion. They see Sri Chinmoy as the "gold standard" of the art form.

This causes the casual uninformed listener to write off the lap steel as an out of tune, ugly sounding instrument and not even give a chance to the excellent musicians who don't have the benefit of a publicist and marketing team.

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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

CEO, CIO, CFO - UkeTone Records
Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association

[This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 25 November 2006 at 11:37 AM.]

Mark White · Post by **Mark White** » 25 Nov 2006 12:38 pm

He's not doing much for the pianos rep either. The closed fist hammering on the keys was a nice touch.

You have to admit, his 'publicist and marketing team' must be the best there is! I guess this proves a good salesman can sell anything. This is all too funny.....

Jeff Au Hoy · Post by **Jeff Au Hoy** » 25 Nov 2006 5:06 pm

I get it Gerald. Sorta like Byrd and "Hawaiian Style".

okay... changing my address and phone number again...

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 25 Nov 2006 11:01 pm

We used to have a cat which loved to jump up on our piano keyboard. I never realized just how amazingly talented our cat was until I opened this piece of musical horror !

Don Kona Woods · Post by **Don Kona Woods** » 25 Nov 2006 11:10 pm

...and he seems to find ecstacy in whatever he plays.

I choose to believe that his ecstacy doesn't come from his playing but from some altered experience that is in his mind.

This ecstacy is evidently not translating into any reality in this audience is it?

Aloha,

Don

J D Sauser · Post by **J D Sauser** » 26 Nov 2006 12:33 am

Great vibrato too!

We shoud have Scotty send out for him...

But all jokes set aside... hav you noticed the stand?

... J-D.

William Steward · Post by **William Steward** » 10 Dec 2006 9:16 am

I couldn't access either of those clips but have seen another clip of his fuzziness playing piano which was in a word, painful. I enjoyed Loni's anecedote about size not really mattering to one of the parties....as a listener that certainly applies. I suppose there are those sceptics who would question for example whether Cecil Taylor can really play piano but I am certain he can at least play 'changes' if cornered and his abstractions have definite musicality. It is obvious that the ability to make 'music' on an instrument is not all to do with technique. I don't think however that learning to play a scale on any of his many 'instruments' is likely to get in the way of Sri's creativity! As Frank Zappa once said, "...you gotta get into it before you get outta it!" If anyone can find another link to this film clip I would enjoy seeing it...the piano one made me smile.[This message was edited by William Steward on 10 December 2006 at 09:18 AM.]