Relearning Rhythm, Burmese-Style

[7/4]

January 9, 2005

RECORDINGS

Relearning Rhythm, Burmese-Style

By BEN SISARIO, NY Times

MYANMAR, the Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma, is home to a vibrant and cosmopolitan musical tradition that is barely known to Western listeners. Overshadowed by India and Indonesia, and long hidden by a repressive military dictatorship, it remains one of world music's final frontiers.

For the last several years the Bang on a Can collective has been working tirelessly and creatively to change that. In 1999 one of its members, Evan Ziporyn, a composer and clarinetist and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, met Kyaw Kyaw Naing, an expatriate Burmese percussion virtuoso now living in New York, at a concert in suburban Boston. He invited Mr. Naing to workshops at M.I.T., and Bang on a Can has since performed with Mr. Naing in spirited Western-Burmese jam sessions in New York and at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams.

A new recording from Cantaloupe, "Bang on a Can Meets Kyaw Kyaw Naing," featuring eight Bang on a Can members, Mr. Naing and two other Burmese musicians, is a breakthrough in East-West musical fusion. To teach the Bang musicians the Burmese music, the group made enterprising use of a synthesizer. Mr. Naing - who plays the pat waing, a circle of 20 or more tuned drums - recorded a set of compositions on the machine, and since Burmese music uses modes quite similar to Western scales, the tunes were transcribed for strings, clarinet, guitars and keyboard. For the recording Mr. Naing retuned his drums slightly to match Western intonation.

The results are astonishingly playful, communicative and warm. The first track, "Hsaing Kyaik De Maung" (roughly, "The Man Who Loved Music"), opens with a gentle swell of strings and delicate trickles on the upper registers of the pat waing, recalling the Baroque comforts of Handel's "Water Music." But the Burmese penchant for jazzy polyrhythm soon kicks in, and the tune twirls to its finish with complex percussion runs by Mr. Naing and frisky solo lines by Mr. Ziporyn and the guitarist Mark Stewart.

The Burmese and Western instruments blend seamlessly, and throughout the album the musicians - particularly Todd Reynolds, the always energetic violinist - play with a cheerful curiosity. This is no great surprise: despite the country's political remoteness, Burmese music has historically had a remarkable ability to absorb Western instruments, with strong repertories for piano and slide guitar.

As delightful as the regal chamber-music sound of the quieter songs can be, the group seems to be having the most fun when the music heats up to clangy climaxes. On one track Mr. Naing performs a drum solo so full of melodic-percussive patterns it could almost have been by Buddy Rich, and on one fully improvised track the players take turns soloing over a danceable bass groove.

But the most joyful moment of all is on "Japan Patsan/Taethit Muhan Gita Than," where, following Mr. Naing's lead, all the musicians cry out a Burmese huzzah. They did not know what they were saying, Mr. Ziporyn said, nor did it seem to matter.

[Joe G]

Sounds fun. Have you heard any of this, David?

[7/4]

Sounds fun. Have you heard any of this, David?

Yep! I got a review copy when I reviewed for a Downtown Music Gallery newsletter last year. Very peppy music....here's what I wrote:

Bang on a Can plays the music of Burmese composer and master percussionist Kyaw Kyaw Naing. Naing plays the pat waing, the traditional Burmese drum-circle instrument made of 21 tuned drums. He is joined in this exhilarating session by Ma Aye Myint or Maung Maung Myint Swe on Si Wa (another percussion instrument) and the current Bang on a Can ensemble and special guest violinist Todd Reynolds (Ethel). Playing transcriptions of traditional Burmese music, the group nails this exotic melodic music. Even the improvisations, where BOAC members take spirited solos, are highly arranged.

Too bad they had to 12tet the drums, but it's still some real pretty music.

[WD45]

Sound samples at the CD Universe page. Only 30 second bits, though.