Ragazz
Ragazz: A New Music Concept
Ragazz (rah-gaz’) is Kalyan Pathak’s demonstration of creating transformative Indian Classical Raga and American Jazz that continues the improvisation tradition of both musical idioms. In Ragazz, Indian music and jazz are not simply kept in juxtaposition, but thrive in a compositional meeting place where the elements of both forms of music reflect off each other and stretch into each other’s territory.
Ragazz is not raga music, nor is it jazz, and with utmost respect for both traditions, Ragazz is about developing musical conversations using the languages of raga and jazz; let the accents fly.
The Process of Ragazz:
It is important that Ragazz musical arrangements result from the organic process of performers interacting with each other within the band. Such an effort reinforces the belief that new music can only be created when musicians themselves study many different musical traditions to their best ability and be well versed in them. Therefore, to play Ragazz is to invest in the human ability to learn to play another culture’s music.
The process of making Ragazz music is a reaction against the overuse of digital samples and computerized loops currently fashionable in the music industry. Trends such as these often result in unfairly or unjustly portraying, exploiting or stereotyping ethnic musical styles from all over the world, including jazz.
