[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55Cjsbt-eYY[/youtube]

The way that the texture builds and unfolds in this piece is incredible and their sense of ensemble is so well-controlled in terms of dynamics. I don't know much about the Santur, but it looks like it's a difficult instrument so I'm shocked at how tight this is.

The video crashes at 20 seconds every time right when they're going to play. Maybe no one else can watch it either?

Apparently the "Santur" is the Iranian version of the "Santoor" form India.
I used to be a member of the "Music Circle" in Los Angles and was lucky enough to sit at the
feet of 'Pandit' Ravi Shankar a number of times . Anyway there was this other guy;
pt Shivkumar Sharma who played the "Santoor" at least as many times as Raviji.

These indian concerts were amazing and imprinted my mind and soul in a unique way.

The Santoor is beautiful and etherial, very different than the sitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VldKoqgDvoI

The western version is the "hammered dulcimer": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRwaVanPTDE

Not difficult to play but a bit of a pain to tune.

jRj

What a great post! The Santur is a quadruple strung instrument with two set of string types - steel and copper. There is a great deal of tension in the instrument to get that ringing tone and as JRJ mentioned, it is very challenging to keep in tune. Similar to a Sitar, frets or string bridges, can be slightly moved altering the tuning to accommodate more western 12 tone tuning, but that is part of the charm and character of the instrument.

I have had the pleasure of playing with Navid Ardakani in the past who is a fine Santur player. We performed a Bb meditation and a version of Mercy Street at the last Free Hands Academy. Mercy was a nice choice as it stays in C#minor and it's relative major E and the Santur is in a fixed tuning. Navid has a second Santur that is in Fmajor.

Here is an excerpt from an evening of music we shared just this last year
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHUlIDIvsgs[/youtube]

Happy Sunday everyone

Gene, you blow me away. Should have figured that you'd have something like this. =)

Thanks for posting this! I've been wondering what the Stick would sound like with a Santur and it turns out that it sounds fantastic. Love it. I like the feel of the jam that you guys were doing here. It sounds relaxed and just kind of rolls along and the Stick is such a great foundation for the Santur, too. The bass is nice and earthy sounding and it doesn't at all conflict with the sparkly tones of the Santur.



I'd love to hear this or see a video. One of my favorite PG tunes and it would be a nice bookend to the solo version you did.

You made my day.

Beautiful music jwanka, thanks for sharing!

Thanks jwanka, much appreciated. I don't know that we got any video of the evening but you can be certain we'll get some of the Stick Night in Anaheim this Friday.

Gene just freaked me out. Totally.

k

Can't wait to see it! Keep us posted....