Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

Ahmad Jamal and Spartacus

Great Ahmad Jamal plays a theme from the ballet of great Aram Khachaturian.

Reci Reci Reci

Reci, reci, reci (Words, Words, Words) (1991)
Director: Michaela Pavlátová
Runtime: 10 min
Language: None
Country: Czechoslovakia

Soweto Gospel Choir

Mixing African gospel with traditional hymns, Jamaican reggae, American pop, and spiritually themed secular songs, the Soweto Gospel Choir are an impressive performing unit.
God Bless Africa!

Sare Nabiyan da Nabi

The greatest qawal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan live



Maybe,the quality of a qawwali is not the words he utters or the music he plays, but the state he induces...

Manav Gangwani red

Manav Gangwani, one of the most creative, innovative and promising indian designer.

Nitin Sawhney

Nitin Sawhney is an Indian-British musician, producer and composer. His critically-acclaimed work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of jazz and electronica and often explores themes such as multiculturalism, politics and spirituality.

Glenn Gould plays Mozart

Glenn Gould was a genius.

Remeber Durgotsav

Beautiful animation be Rajesh Chakraborty

D'damas

Bollywood actress Neha Dhupia displays a creation by D'damas during the Fashion Extravaganza event as part of the 2009 International Indian Film Academy Awards at the Venetian Macao-Hotel-Resort on June 12, 2009 in Macau. (Photo by Victor Fraile/Getty Images)

Sindur Khela

photo by Sanchita Mukherjee from http://photopia.shutterchance.com/

"Sindur Khela" is a major event of Navratri Dashami. Married women apply vermilion to each other and greet each other with sweets. It is in the evening when Goddess Durga is immersed. Bengalis greet each other with bijoya greetings and men follow the customary 'Kolakuli' (embrace each other).

9 colours - Red

The Goddess of tenth day during Saran Navratri is dressed in Red coloured saree. Tenth Day of Durga Navaratri, 2009 – Vijaya Dashami – september 28, monday.

9 colours - Purple

The Goddess of ninth day during Saran Navratri is dressed in Purple coloured saree. Ninth Day of Durga Navaratri, 2009 – Mahanavami Puja – Suhasini Puja – Ayudha Puja – Kanya Puja or Kumari Puja – september 27, sunday.

9 colours - Parrot Green

The Goddess of eighth day during Saran Navratri is dressed in Parrot Green coloured saree. Eighth Day of Durga Sharan Navaratri, 2009 – Goddess Saraswati Mata Puja – september 26, saturday.

Janani janani

Devotional song by great Ilaiyaraaja:



Janani janani jagam nee agam nee
jaga kaarani nee paripoorani nee
jaga kaarani nee paripoorani nee...

9 colours - Peacock Green

The Goddess of seventh day during Saran Navratri is dressed in Peacock Green coloured saree. Seventh Day of Durga Saran Navaratri, 2009 – Maha Saptami – september 25, friday.

9 colours - Yellow

The Goddess of sixth day during Saran Navratri is dressed in Yellow coloured saree. Sixth Day of Durga Saran Navaratri, Maha Sashti – september 24, thursday.

Boy George and Krishna

Inspired by his involvement in the Hare Krishna movement (ISKCON),Boy George had written the song during a trip to India in 1989.



From bombay to bangalore
All the hindus know the score
If you wanna live some more
Hare, hare, hare

If you do not take the vow
You can eat the sacred cow
Youll get karma anyhow
Hare, hare, hare

Bow down mister
Hare rama, hare krishna
Bow down mister
We say radha syam

Do the right thing with your hands
Lay down on the pleasing sands
Whatever else your faith demands
Hare, hare, hare

From bombay to rajastan
Nitai guara, radha syam
Hare krishna hare ram
Hare, hare, hare

Bow down mister
Hare rama, hare krishna
Bow down mister
We say radha syam

Bow down mister
Hare rama, hare krishna
Bow down mister
We say radha syam

In the desert jahshamire
They put kun in their hair
At the westemers they stare
Hare, hare, hare

Paint a tilak on your brow
Open like a lotus flower
Its time to check your karma now
Hare, hare, hare

Bow down mister
Hare rama, hare krishna
Bow down mister
We say radha syam

Bow down mister
Hare rama, hare krishna
Bow down mister
We say radha syam

Bow down mister
Hare rama, hare krishna
Bow down mister
We say radha syam

Bow down mister
We say radha syam
Bow down mister
We say radha syam
Bow down mister

Raise your head and lift your hands to the lord

Hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare
Hare ram hare ram rama rama hare hare
Hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare
Hare ram hare ram rama rama hare hare...

9 colours - Blue

The Goddess of fifth day during Saran Navratri is dressed in Blue coloured saree. Fifth Day of Durga Saran Navaratri, 2009 – Upang Lalitha Gauri Vrata – septemeber 23, wednesday.

9 colours - Red

The Goddess of fourth day during Saran Navratri is dressed in Red coloured saree. Fourth day of Durga Saran Navaratri, 2009 – september 22, tuesday.

Chhau dance

Chhau is a masked dance, the motif of which has been drawn from the mythological picturesque. In the opinion of some people "Chhau" is a dialect which meams six faces, Viz. fore head, eyes, nose, cheeks, lips and chin and a mask bears the six parts of the face. The word 'Chhau' is derived from the Sanskrit word 'Chhaya' meaning 'shade image mask' which is an essential features of this art.
The beginning of Chhau dances is lost in hoary past and the rulers have been intimately associated with religious festivals known as "Chaitra Parva" celebrated every year for several centuries.

The Chhau dance is of the people

By the people and for the people

Dance of mother of arts

Music and poetry exists in time...

9 colours - White

The Goddess of third day during Saran Navratri is dressed in white coloured saree. Third day of Durga Saran Navaratri, 2009 – Sthana Vriddhi Gauri Vrata – september 21, monday.

Barong

Barong is probably the most well known balinese dance. Its is also another story telling dance, narrating the fight between good and evil. This dance is the classic example of Balinese way of acting out mythology, resulting in myth and history being blended into one reality.

9 colours of Navratri - Orange

The Goddess of second day during Saran Navratri is dressed in Orange coloured saree.


Bibi Russell is a fashion designer and former international model from Bangladesh. The Asiaweek magazine highlighted her as "one of the 20 people to watch in the millennium".

9 colours of Navratri

Goddess Shakti is worshipped during 9 days of Navratri. Durga Navratri 2009 begins on September 19 and ends on September 28.The tradition of 9 colours is very common in Gujarat, Maharashtra and some other North Indian states during Durga Navaratri puja.

The Goddess of first day during Saran Navratri is dressed in Dark Green coloured saree.

Nadaka

"Classical Indian / Jazz Fusion is alive and well thanks to folks like Nadaka, who retain all the best elements of its 1970's roots while adding touches which keep a contemporary sound. These albums are among the gems of recent recordings in this genre". (The Internet Guide to Indian Classical /Jazz Fusion)
Nadaka's Live show with the Basavaraj brothers is outstanding! Here we find different traditions, Hindustan, Carnatic, Jazz, meshing seamlessly without losing their distinctness. We¹re in a unique zone where Nadaka's Indianised guitar leads us from traditional modes to more jazzy rhythms, from breathtaking fast passages back to soft soothing chords, where the Flute can be quick Carnatic one moment and Sitar smooth Hindustani the next; where the Violin can be intensely percussive or achingly fragile, the Tabla & Mridangam weave subtle accompaniments or explode into a solid wall of sound.
Nadaka - Guitar & Vocal
Balasai - Flute
Raghavendra - Violin
Sivaramakrishna - Sitar
Ganesh - Tabla & Ghatam
Kesavan - Mridangam & Kanjira

Mynta

Sweden and India find a common place in music through the ears and imagination of the group Mynta. Founded in 1979, the group has created their own genre of music, while preserving the integrity and traditions of their root sounds. The Swedish-Indian fusionists define world music, by extracting the organic elements that runs through the vein of centuries-old musical histories.
MYNTA is led by the Indian musicians Fazal Qureshi (tabla) and Shankar Mahadevan (vocal). These virtuosos within the classic Indian musical tradition have performed all over the world with such musicians as Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, and Zakir Hussain. Fazal is the younger brother of Zakir Hussain, who belonged to John McLaughlin's famous group Shakti, one of the earliest fusion bands in Europe.

Performers
SANTIAGO JIMENEZ - Violin, Keyboard
DALLAS SMITH - Indian flute, Soprano, Clarinet
CHRISTIAN PAULIN - Electric Bass
FAZAL QURESHI - Tabla, Kanjira
MAX ÅHMAN - Acoustic Guitar
OLA BOTHZÉN - Percussion
SHANKAR MAHADEVAN - Vocal

Sabri Brothers

The Sabri Brothers originally consisted of Ghulam Farid Sabri (1930 -1994; lead vocals, harmonium), Maqbool Ahmed Sabri (b.1941 ; lead vocals, harmonium), Kamal Sabri (d. 2001; vocals, swarmandal), Mehmood Ghaznavi Sabri (b. 1949; vocals, bongo drums, tambourine), Fazal Islam (chorus), Azmat Farid Sabri (chorus), Sarwat Farid Sabri (chorus), Javed Kamal Sabri (chorus), Umer Daraz (chorus), Abdul Aziz (chorus), Masihuddin (chorus, tanpura), Abdul Karim (dholak), and Mohammed Anwar (nal, tabla).

Traviata

Villazon, Domingo, Netrebko. Berlin 2006

Gnawa

Gnawa music is a mixture of sub-Saharan African, Berber, and Arabic religious songs and rhythms. It combines music and acrobatic dancing. The music is both a prayer and a celebration of life. Though many of the influences that formed this music can be traced to sub-Saharan Africa, and specifically, the Western Sahel, its practice is concentrated in north Africa, mainly Morocco and Algeria.
Live video recording from the Essaouira 2008 Gnaoua and World Music Festival featuring Maalem Omar Hayat with Franck Vaillant (Drums), Jon Balcke Norway (Piano / keyboards), Mohamed Derouich (Guitar) France / Morocco, Ibrahim Maalouf (Trumpet / Lebanon).

1000 Pillared Hall

1000 Pillared Hall in Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai, India.

Titi Robin in Jaipur

photo Louis Vincent

Born and bred in the west of France, Thierry “Titi” Robin is a musical internationalist, brilliantly combining flamenco guitar with Arabic oud and the dance music of Rajasthan’s snake charmers. Titi Robin and his formation "Trio" are playing in Jaipur's hotel (Rajasthan, India)

Tune: La ville rose & Suite pour Oud
Musicians:
Titi Robin: 'Ud, Guitar, Buzuq
Ze Luis Nascimento: Percussions
Francis Varis: Accordeon
Gulabi Sapera: Dance

Bhavai

Bhavai is Rajasthan's famous folk dance comprising of a spectacular performance. This Dance form consists of veiled women dancers balancing upto seven or nine brass pitchers as they dance nimbly, pirouetting and then swaying with the soles of their feet perched on the top of a glass or on the edge of the sword. There is a sense of cutting edge suspense and nail biting acts in the dance.

Carnatic saxophone

The man who almost single-handedly made the Indian saxophone respectable was Kadri Gopalnath. Gopalnath’s premier student is Prasant Radhakrishnan, who learned carnatic music on saxophone in the traditional guru-shishya relationship with Gopalnath in India. But Radhakrishnan also has a bachelor’s degree in jazz performance (and international relations) from the University of Southern California. Because indian music and jazz have different ranges of expressive possibilities, this evolutionary process creates a remarkable fresh approach to improvisation.

Prasant Radhakrishnan - Saxophone
Ajay Narasimha - Violin
Poovalur Srinivasan - Mridungam
Raag: Malamalava Gaula

Abida Parveen

Parveen is the only woman allowed to sing at the shrines of the Sufi saints.
How was this woman able to change the mind of a man who for many years had refused to give musical instruction to his own daughter, who would grow up to become the popular Pakistani vocalist Riffat Sultana?
Her style of singing is clearly different from any other prominent singer in this tradition, and not just because all of the others are male. Abida sings solo with a small ensemble of musicians, who follow the ebb and flow of her dynamic cues with remarkable skill and awareness. In quieter passages, she will often sing alap-like tempo variations in the middle of a piece as the harmonium and percussion pulsate quietly, then surge upward again with a driving beat.

Ustad Zakir Hussain & Ustad Sultan Khan

Sarangi:Ustad Sultan Khan
Raag: Nat-Bhairav

Khansahib

Maestro Ali Akbar Khan passed away peacefully on June 18, 2009, 12 days after my previous post about he.
Khansahib (as he was affectionately and respectfully addressed)was admired and loved, and will be greatly missed.

Om Namaha

Film: Gitanjali (1989)
Directed by Mani Ratnam.
Music by Ilayaraja

Bonalu

Bonalu is a famous festival of Andhra Pradesh which is especially celebrated with great aplomb in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The term Bonalu comes form “Bhojanalu” or food offering which is made to the Goddess Mahakali.
During this festival women dress colorfully and perform a dance balancing exquisitely painted pots on their head. These women dance along with the mellifluous beats of the tunes sung in the praise of Goddess Mahakali. In these pots usually an offering for Goddess Mahakali is taken which includes cooked rice, water and sometimes pickles and onions. Usually this vertical Battery of pots is decorated in sacred colours (White, Yellow and Red). This colours are called as PASUPU, KUNKUM, and KADI. The pots, once ritually dedicated to the goddess before they are lifted on to the heads of the women carrying them, are considered to have got charged with the spirit of the Goddess. This woman walks with a intense feeling of being possessed by the spirit of the Goddess. Because of this mood in her, she is easily gets into trance and begins to move rhythmically in tune with the drum beat.
In 2009, the date of Ujjaini Mahankali Bonalu is July 12, Sunday and the Rangam will be celebrated on July 13, Monday.

Zucchini flower

The zucchini can be yellow, green or light green, and generally has a similar shape to a ridged cucumber, though a few cultivars are available that produce round or bottle-shaped fruit. But the flower does not become from it less beautiful)

"Symbiosis" by Pilobolus

Pilobolus Dance Theater (www.pilobolus.org) is an internationally-renowned dance company, is based in Washington Depot, Connecticut.

Toufic Hatab '2010

A model displays an outfit by Lebanese designer Toufik Hatab from his Autumn- Winter 2009/2010 Haute Couture collection, in Beirut on June 23 2009.

Klaus Badelt - Pirates of the Caribbean

Klaus Badelt: Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black.
Symphony Orchestra of Radio Television of Serbia.
Conductor: Antonia Joy Wilson
Simply excellent!

Max Raabe & Das Palastorchester

BRAVO for Max and for the reminding to some of the most beautifull past times...

Le Jazz Hot

My favorite song from "Victor/Victoria"(1982.
Performed by Julie Andrews.
Original Music by Henry Mancini.

Chalte chalte - "Pakeezah"

Beautiful Meena Kumari...
And beautiful ghazal written by Kaifi Azmi, music by Gulam Mohamed.
From the film "Pakeezah", directed by Kamal Amrohvi.
Of course sung by great Lata.

Sang Hyang Dedari

The Sang Hyang Dedari dance usually involves teenage or young dancers because of their purity: a virgin girl is considered holy. When it is performed, the dancers are in a state of trance, allowing them to make wonderful movements.
A holy priest, known locally as 'pemangku', then brings them out of the trance by saying a prayer and blessing them with the holy water. When they emerge from the trance, they are weak and exhausted and unaware of having danced on stage.The dance is performed when divine spirits temporarily descend on villages, revealing themselves through the entranced dancers. Sang Hyang is the name of the divine spirit, meaning holiness, while Dedari (meaning 'angels') describes the trance ceremony.
Performed by Ubud Panca Artha Group:



Foto from myudistira's photostream in flickr.com

Sweet Charity

Film: Sweet Charity (1969)
Choreography: Bob Fosse.
Fosse is King!)

Giya Kancheli

Giya Kancheli is Georgia's most famous living composer and arguably its best-known cultural export. He has written music for dozens of films, many of them well-known in the Russian-speaking world but virtually unknown outside it, such as Georgi Daneliya's sci-fi cult hit Kin-dza-dza.
Theme from this film by Moscow Virtuosi. Conductor: Vladimir Spivakov.

Vogue in India

Vogue books a passage to India this april. And, for once, it brings an indian model — the divine Lakshmi Menon.

Rohit Bal

With his signature dyed-blond hair and androgynous style, Rohit Bal is widely recognized in India. He is the longtime favorite of Bollywood and Indian celebrities. His clothes blend traditional Indian fabric with a dash of modern whimsy.