Jai Uttal: Mantra Sounds Into Silence
An Interview with Jai Uttal: Mantra Sounds Into Silence
Interview by Liane Buck
“WORLD MUSIC IS MUSIC FROM EVERYWHERE”. MUSIC THAT CREATES BRIDGES. MUSIC THAT UNITES HEARTS AND CULTURES. MUSIC THAT BRINGS PEACE.”
Jai Uttal is a Grammy nominated pioneer in the world music community.
Jai Uttal’s musical roots embrace a rich variety of cultures and traditions that span the globe and the centuries. From the hillbilly music of the Appalachian Mountains to the passionate strains of Bengali street singers, from the haunting rhythms and melodies of ancient India to contemporary electric rock sounds, Jai’s music distils the essence of diverse musical forms. As Jai’s work increasingly became devoted to Kirtan, in 2003 he began the first of several recordings focused on the practice of bhakti yoga (kirtan) for the Sounds True label, these have included “Kirtan! The Art and Practice of Ecstatic Chant,” “Music for Yoga and Other Joys,” “Loveland,” “Dial M for Mantra,” and “Pranayama,” a collaboration with his wife, yoga teacher and bhakti dancer Nubia Teixeira. It’s this marriage and subsequent birth of son Ezra that fueled a creative rebirth for Jai that culminated in the 2008 recording “Thunder Love,” a sonic approximation of darkness giving way to dawn and finally opening up to love. In 2010, Jai followed-up his very popular “Music For Yoga and Other Joys” with a 2nd edition to the series called “Bhakti Bazaar.”
His eclectic east-meets-west sound has put his music at the forefront of the world fusion movement.
Interview with Jai Uttal
Liane Buck: So, thank you so much for giving us this time to do this interview. I’m looking really forward to this. I saw the MANTRA movie, and I just think it’s fantastic.
Jai Uttal: It is fantastic. They’re doing such a good job, aren’t they?
Liane Buck: Oh, my God. Yes. I know about books. I know about workshops, and all those big gurus coming up, but I really think that devotional music, the vibration, the frequency, and the get-together, Music is the powerful means to build the human connection.
Jai Uttal: Well, you know, so many of the great, great teacher I had, have taught that in this day and age, they call it the Kali Yuga, where everything is so chaotic and so difficult and so challenging, many of these great teachers have said, now is the time just to sing devotional mantras, just to chant. And because everything else is just too darn hard, and if we chant, we immediately invoke and feel that divine presence, and it just transforms our hearts. So, you’re not alone in, in what you’re saying.
Liane Buck: I wanted to ask you, what is the role of sacred music in the world, in your opinion, nowadays?
Jai Uttal: Well, I need to preface that by saying, for me, my music and my singing is very personal. It’s me, you know, connection to God. It’s my connection to my guru, and it’s my way of, of, entering into the journey of healing and self-healing, and then sharing that with others.
So, when I sit down to sing with a group, I don’t have like this huge global consciousness of what is this doing to the world. It’s very personal, my inner journey, but then, when I step back from myself a little bit and I, and I see how, not just my music, but all the sacred music that’s happening these days, I see the waves and waves of transformation that are created from these sounds, and I, and I can only hope, I mean I see that it touches so many people and once these sacred sounds or sacred syllables touch someone, they’re never quite the same because they develop a taste for it, and they want more. And then the heart became just softened and opened and much more loving, and it’s just, you know, I see it happening all the time. I can only hope and pray that, that the waves and ripples will, will circulate all over the globe and all over the universes.
I can’t see that far, and I see lots of trouble in the world, but I can only, we can only do our little bit. You know, we, just from one day to the next can, can, can only do what we can do, but I, I hope that it’s touching everyone.
Liane Buck: Well, that, that’s interesting, and I’m, I’m just going to interject one image here. So, I think that you are part of this big heavenly flash mob of sacred, static chants and mantras and movement. I mean that Mantra Music is really replicating all over.
Jai Uttal: Well, just that that’s why so many of us need and are coming together because we all have different perspectives to share and we all, you know, we all can expand each other’s vision, visions by, by sharing our unique perspectives. So, it’s beautiful to hear that.
Liane Buck: The art of Kirtan is a really powerful musical experience. How does it feel to be the catalyst of this type of spiritual experience when you’re playing to a broad audience, as in a Mantra movie?
Jai Uttal: Yeah. Well, it’s, it’s a real rainbow of different feelings. On one hand, you know, I feel such an incredible energy because I, I feel, of course, my own energy is expanded, but I feel, but I feel the energy of all the people there and everyone’s energies is expanded in this kind of divine calling.
And on top of that, I, I feel, and this is, might sound pretentious, but I really feel the answer that the Divine ones were answering us while we’re singing or joining with us while we’re singing, and it’s just an amazing, amazing feeling. On the other hand, well not really the other hand. On another hand, I feel completely honored and completely humbled that, somehow, I have become part of, of this spiritual journey and the emotional healing of, of so many people. I never set out to, to do that, and I never expected it, as I said before was all very inward and personal practice.
But now I see, I see that it connects with so many people, and I’m slightly mystified, but also really grateful that, that somehow or another, this, my path in life has become a path that helps other people, and that helps, as you said, catalyze this huge spiritual energy. So, I’m, I’m really happy about it.
