Beyond the Classroom II: Modern Dance, Simon Shaheen, and Norah Jones

Hey everybody! For this blog I wanted to teach y'all more about the modern Indian dances, people who are influential in the Arabic music culture, and more about Norah Jones. 

1. Modern Indian Dance

The modern dances of India are extremely different from the traditional dances. There are no rules to follow, no particular movements for certain songs, and the dress does not matter. The modern Indian dance style was created by Uday Shankar, he is considered the "Father of Modern Indian Dance". He is the person that came up with the no rules concept of the modern dance style. The focus of the modern dance style is the movement of the body. Many time performer of the dance style will create the choreography first and then the music composition after. The music is mostly mimicking the movement of the performer. It has a mixture of two elements of classical dance, nirtta and abhinaya. Nirtta is the importance of rhythm, feet are the focus of this element and there are no facial expressions used except for a grin because of the joy for dancing. Abhinaya is the involvement of the audience, this element is suppose to grab the attention of he audience and allow them to be intrigued and to have fun. The most known dancers of modern Indian dance are Shanti Bardhan, Shobana Jeyasingh, and Dr. Manjushree Chaki-Sarkar. The places that modern Indian dance is found is is theaters and dance academies. 

 

2. Simon Shaheen

Simon Shaheen is a influential person for the Arabic music culture. He was travelled around the world to show and bring attention to the Arabic culture. However, along the way he has learned that he can combine Arabic music with the modern jazz from the West. Shaheen started in the music industry, basically, since he was born. His father was a master oud player and he learned to play the oud, his first instrument, from his father. From there, he continued his interest of music to the Conservatory of Western Classical Music in Jerusalem and studied the violin. After he studied at the Conservatory, he began a band called Qantra to travel the world with. The band members are all masters at their own instruments. The many instruments that the members play are some that we have not discussed in class: tabla, naker, qanoon, and a rababeb.  

3. Norah Jones

Norah Jones, as we have talked about in class, is the daughter of Ravi Shankar and a well-known singer/songwriter. Her music career began in February of 2002 when her first album,"Come Away With Me" was released. Since then she has became know worldwide. She has sold 50 million albums and she songs have been streamed 6 billion times. Her other albums are "Feels Like Home", "Not Too Late", "The Fall", "Little Broken Hearts", "Day Breaks", and "Pick Me Off The Floor". Along side of her solo career she has been a part of many bands, The Little Willies, El Madmo, and Puss N Boots. She has also collaborated with famous singers and bands, Willie Nelson, Outkast, and Foo Fighters. Her singing career started of woman power, the wife of J.C. Hopkins went to him and his executive about signing  her for a record deal, however; they only gave her a three-track deal. She made the most out of it! J.C. Hopkins and his executives were surprised and jaw-dropped by her voice, so after her three tracks they signed her straight away to the Blue Note record company. Her first album, "Come Away With Me", has been her best-selling album and most well-known amongst the world. The album reached number one on US Billboard 200. The single, "Don't Know Why", had more success than the album. It reached number 1 on Top 40 Adult and number 30 on Billboard Hot 100. She was nominated for eight Grammy Awards for the single, and won five of the categories she was nominated for. In that night, she tied Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys for the most awards by a female artist. The album later got certified platinum and continued to grow and got certified diamond. 

Resources

 “Contemporary Indian Dance – Breaking Free from the Traditional.” Caleidoscope, 4 Nov. 2020, https://www.caleidoscope.in/art-culture/contemporary-indian-dance-breaking-free-from-the-traditional. 

“Modern Dance in India.” INSIGHTSIAS, 5 Sept. 2021, https://www.insightsonindia.com/indian-heritage-culture/indian-dance/modern-dance-in-india/. 

“Norah Jones.” Blue Note Records, 15 Apr. 2021, https://www.bluenote.com/artist/norah-jones/. 

“Norah Jones.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Apr. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norah_Jones. 

“Understanding Arabic Music.” The Kennedy Center, https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-interactives/media/international/simon-shaheen-understanding-arabic-music/. 

Music with the Griffis Family!

 Hi everyone! For this blog, I decided to interview my mother, Sarah Griffis. She has been the most influential person for me in my music journey. I wanted to interview her to know and get a feel of her music journey with her growing up in a very different generation than us. She was born in 1979, however; my dad and I say that her "prime" was in the 90s. She grew up with an 3 year older sister and an 6 year younger brother, also she lived in a rural area outside of the small city of Aiken, SC.

And here is a picture of all of us at Disney  

 

Me: Do you have a favorite memory with music?

Sarah (Mom): I always think of my favorite music memory as a really cool memory. It is the "Midnight Kiss" and “When you Wish Upon A Star”, I always remember that coming on at the castle in Disney World or the Disney Sunday movies. And how it was always really it brings me back childhood memories

 

Me:  What was the kind of music you listen to as a kid?

Sarah: I listened to a lot of music depending on which parent that I was with. My father really liked country music like traditional country music so I listen to a lot of Old Town singers like Willie Nelson. My mother actually loved like 70s music so I listened to a lot of disco and like Kool and the gang, that kind of music. 

Me: Did the music that you listened to as a kid influenced the music that you listen to now?

Sarah: The music that I listened to as a kid definitely has influenced the music listen to now. I love music that I heard through TV shows and movies that I saw as a child. I also love to listen to Spotify or Pandora, where I can have mixture of music that kind of takes me back to the memories I had as a childhood. I definitely think that my childhood music has influenced me.

 

Me: If you went to church how different was the music and did you participate in the music at your church?

Sarah: Church music for me was different when I was younger. We went to a very conservative Baptist Church, where I sang in the choir there with my mom and my sister. At the Baptist Church we sang a lot of hymnals and we did not listen to a lot of contemporary music. I became older, starting at my high school ages and into my college years, we started going to a different type of church, we went to more of a contemporary type of worship so the music there was more of contemporary music not as many hymns. There, I certainly participated in singing but not in the choir.

 

Me: What was the church’s opinion on the music that you listen to?

Sarah: When I attended a very conservative Christian high school, I do remember everybody that was a teenager listening to the local pop radio or the top hits radio, and multiple times we had mini sermons about how that was inappropriate. Also, if we were going on school trips we could not listen to that even on our, at that time, walkmans. The newer music, in my childhood, was certainly something that was believed to be poor for us to listen to. They always wanted us to listen to conservative Christian music. 

 

Me:  How did you listen to music and how has that changed today?

Sarah: I listened to music that is very different from how music is listened to now. I started out with only having radio stations. We had AM and FM radio stations that we listened to in our cars. My mom had a huge record player so I do remember listening to records with her on a record player. Then, as I got older, we actually had cassette tapes so we would listen to the Top 40 with Casey Kasem on Friday nights on my regular stereo system that I would have and I would record it on cassette tapes. As I got older, we had a CD players and walkmans. As of today obviously it's very different that we're using streaming devices.

 

Me: What are walkmans?

Sarah: So walkmans are something you would actually use like a cassette tape but you would have a personal device that you could listen to with headphones. I do remember that being something that I would listen to a good bit when we were traveling so we would have our own device with our cassette tapes where we recorded our music off of our radios.

 

Me: Did your music taste change as a teenager and as an adult?

Sarah: I've always liked a lot of variety of music but during my teenage years,in the 90s, it was very popular to listen to Mariah Carey and more of the contemporary kind of rock music or pop. I also listen to a lot of the big hair bands so a lot of the rock music and that's definitely changed, that's not something to listen to at all now as an adult. As an adult, I certainly listen to a lot of variety in music as well but it tends to be more a thing is that I like when I was younger except for the big hair bands, I don't get into that it is much more, however; I do like some more classical music as well. I do find that music as I became an adult I gravitate to is based on the mood I'm in. If I'm happy I want to play something more upbeat then I'm going to listen to more like pop music that has more of a vibrant vibe or if I'm kind of thinking about my parents I'm listening more like country that I listen to when I was younger. 

 

Me: What do you think of today's music?

Sarah: Today's music is very different than when I was growing up listening to music. I think about the Super bowl halftime show of this year and how some of the performers were performers that I was used to seeing in my younger years but it is quite different. I found that you can listen to any kind of music at anytime that was always something that's very different now with stations like Pandora, Spotify, and the Internet, so I like having the availability of music in this modern age. I like today’s music but it's very different than what I'm used to; you have all different types of genres and that's not something that I had when I was younger. 

 

Me: Has being with a significant other influence the music that you enjoy now?

Being with a significant other definitely has influence listen to now. With my husband being older than I am he tends to listen to music that is from an earlier time frame than what when I was accustomed to. Also, he likes a different type of music than I do he tends to like more male vocalist and I tend to like more female vocalists, so that always dictates normally what's on the radio station at the time. He also likes something that's more low beat and I’m always wanting something that kind of makes me happy and is more upbeat. There is definitely a difference between two of us.

 

Me: Are there any song lyrics or specific songs that have a special meaning to you?

This is a hard one so special meaning to me certainly I can think back to times when I would sing to you when you were a baby. “You are my sunshine” is the main one I would sing and we would sing those traditional kind of lullabies. I always think about 70s music that reminds me of my mother, you know, so that kind of music is very important and brings back memories of my childhood. The song “Stand By Me” always has me thinking about my parents because that was their song. Hearing and singing church hymns remind me of my grandparents and how important they were to me at certain times in my life. I always think about the time my grandfather called into a radio station to play “Through the Years” for my grandmother. Music always brings back memories and has great feelings as it resonates with me.