David Dalle
Thursday July 29th, 2021 with David Dalle
Music from India; Musicians from Mali and Niger.

This past week I saw the Indian film "The Disciple" (streaming on Netflix), a drama about a young man's lifelong pursuit to become a classical Hindustani singer. It stars two classical singers who are both new to acting, Aditya Modak as the young aspiring singer and Arun Dravid as his guru. Though they are real singers and the singing and musical performances in the film were recorded "live", it is a fictional story, a wonderful story about the sacrifices, devotion, and doubts in trying to master an extremely difficult and demanding musical tradition. I think it's on par with "Amadeus" as a film with profound thoughts on music, particularly the perspective of striving and not quite being up to the task (Modak's character in "The Disciple" and Salieri in "Amadeus"). Of course, watching this film has made me listen to a lot of classical singing this past week. We will hear the singer Anol Chatterjee in the second half of the program. The first hour will be devoted to women from West Africa in a set organized around the short and sweet Trio Da Kali EP. The trio is led by singer Hawa Kasse Mady Diabaté, daughter of the late Kasse Mady Diabaté, with the super balafonist Lassana Diabaté and Mamadou Kouyaté (son of Bassekou Kouyaté) on ngoniba. We will hear several other singers from Mali as well as female musicians and singers from Niger.