On The Corner/Badal Roy

Friday at work listening to Miles’ ‘On the Corner’ one of my favorite albums & maybe one of his best- unappreciated in its day but now widely considered to be one of the pivotal building blocks of hip hop, drum and bass, and electronic music. The producer, Teo Macero (he produced most of Miles’ seminal albums) studied with Otto Luening at Columbia University's Computer Music Center. The first track, succinctly tilted ‘On the Corner/New York Girl/Thinkin’ of One Thing and Doin’ Another/Vote For Miles’ Features prominently the tabla playing of Badal Roy. According to wikipedia, “Unlike many tabla player, Roy does not come from a family of professional musicians and is essentially self-taught. Consequently, his playing is freer than that of many other tabla players, who adhere more strictly to the tala system of Indian rhythm. He often plays a set of up to five tabla (tuned to different pitches) at a time, which he plays melodically as well as rhythmically.” His playing really blows me away- it fits so well into everything else going on (and it gets pretty manic) I love the tabla and have often thought of getting a set and trying to learn how to play- but I have enough of a problem trying to wrap my head around rock & roll rhythms & time- the Indian classical stuff would probably make my head explode- thats why I like Badal- he incorporates more than just tradition in his playing- I can dig that…