Jazz is a well-known genre of music that was stemmed from the United States way back in the 1900s and is enjoyed by many people from all around the world to this day. International music has evolved jazz music by incorporating different music originating from other cultures to create a revolutionized art of music. An artist that has combined international and jazz music in a way that will make the two complement one another is George Brooks. Brooks is a highly respected American musician who plays the saxophone.
He is well known for incorporating Jazz music with mainly classical Indian music but has used many other kinds of international music styles.
George Brooks started studying jazz with a few of his friends at the new England conservatory of music. It is a school in Massachusetts and is known as the oldest school that provides musical education. During his time at the college, Brooks was introduced to classical Indian music as he was studying classical music.
Brooks who was so intrigued with classical Indian music at the time decided to embark on a journey to India in order to learn more about his interest in classical Indian music. As an average person who only listens to music, George Brooks is an inspirational individual who lived a standard life at the beginning but worked hard by going above and beyond traveling far from home to achieve his dream career.
According to the information George Brooks Bio, “During his travel to India, Brooks engaged himself in learning from someone in India named Pran Nath by exchanging care and labor for knowledge of traditional Indian style music”.
Pran Nath was no Stranger to music and was heavily influenced by musicians like Terry riley who has worked on Indian classical music and jazz. Knowing this Pran Nath was a huge asset to Brooks because he was interested in Indian culture and jazz music. As Brooks learns more about traditional Indian music during his journey It would assist him in developing his own musical talent and make it easier for him to incorporate the classical jazz that he’s been studying with classical Indian music. The overall impression of George Brook’s adventure, sparks motivation to work harder and get out of your own comfort zone in order to be successful.
Listening to Brooks music, majority of his content is heavily based on his role as the saxophone player. It incorporates classical Indian components which includes different instruments and in his most recent songs, singing. The sounds heard are more toward the soothing spectrum but depending on the song it can be gospel, religious, faster paced, and more complex in the overall sound of Brooks work. A good example of this would be his song called, “The Geometry of Rap”, which gives a pattern of saxophone instrumental and an Indian beat impression to the piece. What was striking about this song is the low fidelity vibes the song gives for a calming impact to the audience. Some Indian instruments that are used are the tabla, which is used well in George Brooks song called, “The Esio Trot”.
The impression of this song gives off a 90’s cafe vibe that starts off with a steady use of the tabla as background support to the saxophone. Later on, the beat starts to get faster as the saxophone’s volume increases. A good comparison to this song would be a book because as the book is being read it starts off at a steady pace like the song, but then as the beat get faster and louder, it could be the equivalent of the climax of the book. A song that George Brooks really implemented the Indian classical theme is “Peshkar for Hamza”. Just listening to this song being played with the saxophone, satar, and other instruments makes you feel like you are traveling through the hot desert climates of India looking for water. This song really makes the audience feel as if they were really at India given the melody resembles how movies would portray the music at the outdoor markets of India.
Another song that was emotional is called, “Joi by Rabha”, George Brooks was a featured artist for this song which truly defines the international music and jazz combination really well. The song is unique in a way that it tells a story about Bishnu Prasad Rabha who was incarcerated with the intent of being forced through malicious methods to reveal his countries secrets. The music was uploaded with a video that brought out the artistic combination of jazz and classical Indian music to the song itself. This song shows that it is modern by incorporating an Indian singer and jazz to support the theme.
George Brooks has three projects called Aspada, Elements, and Summit, that includes songs that were mentioned before. These projects are similar to albums that he works on with groups of people that help create his well-known jazz and not just Indian, but other varieties of traditional music. In his Aspada project he takes fusion of traditional music with jazz to a new level. He takes Asian, African, European, and American traditional music and combines each element into one. In Aspada it consists of four individuals playing different roles and they are, George Brooks on the saxophone, Kai Eckhardt playing the bass, Osam Ezzeldin on the piano, and Selvaganesh Vinayakram playing percussion. Elements is a project that George Brooks, Kala Ramnath, and Gwyneth Wentink worked on together as an original to implement global chamber music which gives off an Indian and American sense.
Last but not least of the projects, Summit comprises of the main people, Steve Smith who plays the drums, Fareed Harque playing the guitar, and Kai Ekhardt doing bass instruments. For George Brook’s project summit, he featured a lot of artist for the album to exploit different styles that each artist has within the Indian tradition. Listening to each of his album projects that he has worked on, they have their own enjoyable distinctive points between one another but still incorporates jazz and classical Indian music in a well roundabout way.
In conclusion, George Brooks is a big inspiration who will be known for his great achievements of incorporating jazz with international music, specifically classical Indian music. To the average listener jazz music and classical Indian music may look like polar opposites but they are more similar than others might think. To this day he goes around spreading the knowledge that he has acquired to many different colleges in order to maybe someday encourage others who may end up revolutionizing jazz music.
We Publish Is Jazz. (2022, Feb 15). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/we-publish-is-jazz/