Indo Jazz (Sitar)

Jazz themes based on the music of India probably date at least to the same period that produced "Caravan" and other exotic milestones. The actual fusion of jazz with Indian music and musicians began in California a few years before the Beatles introduced the sitar to pop and rock. Bill Plummer and Emil Richards, later to produce some of the most interesting indo-jazz albums, studied along with Don Ellis, Irv Cottler, Joe Harriott, and other professional musicians under Harihar Rao (also as "Hari Har") in California circa 1964. The students formed the Hindustani Jazz Sextet, the mother of most of the indo-jazz efforts to follow in the 1960s and 1970s.

Indo-jazz started out as an experiment of just getting Indian and jazz musicians together in the same room. As with other types of exotic jazz, working with different rhythmic structures was a major hurdle. Eventually works of true fusion emerged, ranging from improvisations based on classical Indian ragas to "out" jazz blown on Indian instruments. Also there were new, California-mystical creations and plenty of pop songs covered by jazz musicians.

Not all Indo-jazz recordings rely on sitar (electric or traditional). Other Indian instruments such as the veena (or vina) and sarod are used, not to mention tabla and other percussion. Lotus Palace even borrows the more sensational instruments of an Indonesian gamelan orchestra. Many musicians, such as John McLaughlin and John Coltrane, synthesized the sound of traditional Indian instruments. Alice Coltrane used Indian music credibly in her heady, psychedelic creations. Guitarist Pat Martino achieved a similar effect with drums and drones. One of the leading exponents of Indo-jazz fusion in the early 1970s was extraordinary vibist Dave Pike.

See Odd Pop: Sitar and Vinyl Safari: Indian for Ananda Shankar, funky Bill Harris, spoken-word/sitar, and other jazz-related sitar LPs.

Buying: If you like this idiom, seek everything on the jazz labels.