Music

---

I’ve been working hard on this music project: In the past few days I’ve chilled on a rooftop in Thamel (tourist district) playing guitar and singing with street musicians from the Gandharba caste (formerly untouchable caste of musicians) who make their living selling instruments, CD’s, giving lessons, and playing around town (much like working musicians in the US), I’ve played my clarinet at a restaurant gig with an Indian-inspired fusion band made up of a tabla player, a violin player, an Indian-style slide guitar player, a djembe player, and a Jamaican jazz-trumpet-and-reggae player from the UK, and I’ve had a traditional Nepali/Newari dinner of daal bhaat tarkari (lentils, rice, and pickled vegetables) with this interesting portion of a pudding-like substance somehow made from meat, and yogurt with tasty brown chunks for dessert at the home of my madal teacher.

My madal teacher has represented Nepal at cultural arts festivals around the world, and it occurred to me that I’m seeing the other side of the cultural arts performance. I’m getting a glimpse of what these guys do during the 51 weeks when they are at home, in their own culture, making a regular living as musicians. When I go to cultural art shows in the US I’m always struck by how cool and exotic and different these performances are, and I’m sure most of the audience is similarly captivated by the seeming exoticism of the music. Here in Nepal, Nepali music is anything but exotic. It’s just music, and it’s everywhere around town. It’s a bit of an adjustment for me to realize that a month ago this music would have been completely foreign to me and would have conjured up imaginations about how Nepal must be and how different it is from the music normally surrounding me, but now it’s the music that represents the place where I live, and I need only to go outside to be surrounded by the culture that it comes from and the culture that supports it day to day and a culture that I’m progressively learning to be a part of.

So far my posts have been more concerned with my own actions and observations of events that I’ve witnessed, but here I’ll write an elementary sketch of the music scene as I’ve observed it so far. Keep in mind that I have only a small understanding of the Kathmandu music scene informed only by 10 days’ fieldwork, and that this description will be necessarily revised as my experiences continue.

Being a large city, the music scene here in Kathmandu is very diverse and spread-around. I’ve made friends with some institutional musicians and music teachers, who all know each other, much like music school faculty in the US all tend to know each other. I also know some street musicians who sell some instruments, sell some CD’s, teach some lessons, and play a little to scrape a living together. They’re very good musicians, and they have a network of musician friends, but it is on a different plane from the institutional music. I also know some expat musicians who tend to know each other, along with a group of Nepali musicians who play with expats, and this group also is separate from the others. These musician groups aren’t completely separate—some may have friends in others, or know people or do gigs with other groups, but for the most part they play their own sets of gigs and teach their own set of students and don’t mix too terribly much. Some of it has to do with background: the institutional musicians typically have degrees and steady jobs, the street musicians are typically young and don’t have much formal education, and the expats come from developed countries and look different from Nepalis. A funny thing is that musicians in each of the groups I’ve interacted with so far say that the music community is small and that everybody knows each other, but they don’t know musicians from other groups that I mention. I know there are other groups here as well—the gigging rock musicians in Thamel who grind out ‘Deep Purple’ covers night after night, the Indian classical musicians, the musicians who gig in the hotels, the musicians who accompany dancers, the people associated with the Jazz conservatory, etc., and I have yet to speak with these guys. So far all of the musicians I’ve met have been incredibly open, outgoing, and willing to share—share their music, knowledge, and even their gigs. I’ve sat in on two gigs so far, announced only as far as 10 minutes ahead of time, and each one has led to great jams and offers of future gigs. Being sort of a ‘surprise guest’, I don’t know yet the business behind reserving gigs and negotiating payment from the venue. The Nepali musicians I’ve met all teach lessons, but so far the expat musicians don’t. The Nepali music teachers teach a mix of foreigners and other Nepalis for private lessons, and mainly Nepalis for music classes. That’s not to characterize all Nepalis or all expats; it’s only to say that the specific ones I’ve met so far can be described as such. Nepali music genres are fairly popular among Nepalis and expats, and all of the music teaching I’ve encountered has been specifically Nepali—Nepali folk and Nepali-based fusion. Nepali-based remix music is popular with some of the younger Nepalis I’ve spoken with, and the more legitimate institution-based Nepali musicians are interested to play with Westerners so as to become familiar with Western-style playing in anticipation of future fusion music opportunities. Gigs around town are roughly divided into Nepali fusion, Indian classical, and Western jazz/rock genres. So far my language of interaction has been English, and all of the musicians I’ve spoken with have been able to speak it fairly well. I’m continuing to learn Nepali, and I look forward to the day I can speak with Nepali musicians in their own language.

---

Comments

[Hayley Moore]

I miss you
Robert, it sounds like you've been having such a blast in Nepal! I absolutely can't wait to see you in a year and hear everything about it. I miss you so extremely much! College life is great like you said! I love it here. I'm going to get a webcam probably today or tomorrow so hopefully we can talk on skype. So are you planning a great Mt. Everest expedition? hehe. It sounds like such a great culture there and great music. Please, please be safe over there. I love you so much! Love, Hayley.