~music Matt On Matt ·By. Priya Das artistic temperament is con­ Informed the audience and me tl1at ventionally associated with ec­ "matt" means "don't" (in Hindi) Aie ntricity and attitude. What is and so matta tal means "don't play not commonly seen is the other, good this taal." That is why it is so rare! It side of the said temperament, the one is a very. difficult rhythmic cycle to that drives artists to stay true to their master improvisfng in. art and foster an environment that nurtures its growth. The Californian IC: VVhere can our readers experi­ band Ancient Future led by Matthew ence Ancient-Future live? Montfort, is an excellent example . of MM: Ancient Future is playing this. Fodned in 1978, Ancient Future . with Aditya Kalyanpur at the Stone is the world's first and longest run­ Soup Festival in Grover Beach near ning ensemble dedicated exclusively to San Luis Obispo on August 23 at the mission of creating and producing 4 pm. I've written another piece in world fusion music. raag Kalyan that I want to record for The group's "Yearning for the Matthew Mont(oTt and Vis hal NagaT the AFAR. That one is in teen-taal Wind" was released in July 2014. It presents and the melody is really evocative. I guess I Montfort's composition on the scalloped fort: have an affinity for this raag! fretboard guitar, harnessing raag Kalyan in a nine beat cycle, accompanied by Vishal IC: VVhy raag Kalyan? Is there a story be­ IC: Speaking ofAFAR, how did you come . Nagar, the upcoming tabla virtuoso. hind the selection of this raag? up with the idea? The piece is part of a larger repertoire, MM: It was the first raag I studied with MM: For Planet Passion (released in called, "The Archive of Future Ancient Re­ Ali Akbar IZhan. My childhood friend Benjy 2010), we had an investor plan, but it didn't cordings" (AFAR), which is a series of col­ Wertheimer and I had moved to California work out because the music business col­ laborative-music recordings entirely furided together ·in 1977 to study at the Ali Akbar lapsed because of tl1e tech industry disrup- by music-lovers. It is a work in progress and College of Music. I was very excited to prac­ . tion. It become almost impossible to pay for already features artists such as Abbos Kosi­ tice the music Ali Akbar Khan gave me that recording through record sales. mov (Uzbeh percussion), Bui Huu Nhut raag, and I awoke early one morning to start So, I had the idea to just ask people to (dan bau), Paridit Habib Khan (sitar), Paul my enthusiastic practice. It felt great, so I support the music in advance. Then I had McCandless (Grammy winning reed player just had to convince Benjy to play it with me the idea for creating an archive that support­ of the group Oregon), and Ancient Fu­ on tabla. This didn't go so well and we had ers could access as we recorded the project. ture alumni Benjy Wertheimer (tabla), Doug our first fight as roommates. Given that the name of the band is Ancient McKeehan (keyboards), Ian Dogole (pet-cus­ Then, when we went to the college that Future I decided to turn that around, hence sion), Kash Killion (bass), and Marial1 Parker afternoon, Ali Akbar Khan told.the class not the name. (santur, piano). to play raag Kalyan in the morning. "This is Excerpts from an interview with Mont- an evening raga. If you play it in the morn­ IC: VVhat is next for AFAR? ing, you will have a fight in your family;" he MM: We have already rehearsed tracks said. Oops! . with S~enshen Zhang (Chinese pipa). And when we raise more money we have a lot of IC: A nine beat taal (rhythm) is rather un­ musicians that we want to work with, but I usual, what made you set the piece to it? shouldn't name them until the time is right. MM: I just wrote the piece. The really I would love for India Currents readers interesting thing is after I created the main to support the cause and suggest whom we melody; I went to write it down and my should be working with next! (For more on heart sank as I realized it was in a nine beat AFAR and to contact Montfort, please visit cycle. I didn't know of a nine beat taal and I www.ancient-fi.lUtre .com). • wanted to be able to play this piece with In­ dian musicians. So I went online and found <<Yearning fo r the Wind11 is available on matta taal. The amazing thing is that the ver­ iTunes, $1.29. sion· of the taal, with two fast three's (beats) at the end, fit perfectly with my melody! Priya Das is an enthusiastic follower of · When Vishal and I performed this for the world music and avidly tracks intersecting points Album CoveT: Yearning first time in public, and shared the story; he between folk, classical, Jazz, and other genres. 68 I INDIA CURRENTS I August 2014 .