Wendy Parr - A NY musician talks about ARR. *Published in Mumbai Mirror - on Nov 2 '08 - Sunday.*
*Wendy Parr's romance with India had started a few months before she met Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar at the New York screening of Umrao Jaan at the Indo-American Arts Council film festival in 2006. She had already watched old classic Bollywood films — from Mother India and Pyaasa to a series of Azmi's films, based on the recommendations of an Indian DVD and music store owner in Jackson Heights, Queens. And when she saw Morning Raga she was completely drawn to its music. "Five days later, I found a teacher in New York and was studying carnatic music," says Parr, a singer and a master voice teacher who specialises in a technique called speech level singing. She began to teach herself classic Bollywood songs even though she did not understand Hindi or Urdu. "I would just listen and sing back, and listen and sing back," she says. "My Hindi is not too perfect, but I have been told it's not too bad." And then she breaks into the first song she learnt, in her deep, sonorous voice — Yeh Mehlon Yeh Takton Yeh Tajon Ki Duniya from Pyaasa. Parr had earlier released an album called Unusual Way with a touch of African sounds. But she was looking for a new tone to her next album. The mix of carnatic music and a sudden exposure to the classic Bollywood songs, and the inner voice in her said that India was the place to find her new sound. So, she travelled to India in February 2007. Her only contacts in Mumbai were Azmi and Akhtar. But she brought her album producer with her. Soon after, she recorded her version of a Bollywood song from Tehzeeb — Na Shikwa Hota, with lyrics by Akhtar and music by A R Rahman. "We reproduced it with western arrangement, Urdu lyrics and the original melody," she adds. "Javed sahib heard it and he liked it. He now refers to it as my song."* * Her album is scheduled to be released in early 2009. Through music circles in Mumbai, she met Naresh and Paresh Kamath — part of Kailash Kher's Kailasa group and they talked about working on a project. Kailasa was about to record their new album Jhoomo Re. Within a couple of weeks Parr recorded background vocals with western gospel sounds for two tracks on the album. Last summer, when she was back in New York, Parr attended a concert by Rahman. After the show, she managed to go backstage and talk to the composer. The brief conversation in New York was followed by another meeting in Mumbai in late summer. "I paid my respect and said I was recording an album and I really believed that I wanted to work with him to finish it," she recalls. Rahman listened to some of her sample tracks while he was in a car heading to a studio. He said he appreciated her voice. And then he asked her whether she would be interested in writing lyrics in English. That conversation took Parr to Chennai where she heard Rahman's music tracks for Kaizad Gustad's new film Bombil and Beatrice. Parr wrote three songs for the film. Later, she also wrote lyrics in English with music composed by Rahman for a song that will feature in a Tamil film. Parr realises that all of these connections, especially her collaboration with Rahman is unique to the way things function in India. In the US for a similar collaboration to happen she would have had to meet the assistants and other handlers before she actually reached a big time musician. "I have a big appreciation for Indian culture. In India, people are genuinely more open and welcoming," she says. "But I am a voice teacher and the determination I came with, they were open to receiving that. I wasn't coming and saying 'Give me all of these opportunities.' I had something to offer and said 'I want to share this and work with you.'" .. http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=54&contentid=2008110220081102033152694197e4189§xslt=columnist * -- regards, Vithur
