'Asian' music

[kweis7]

So this is a gigging musician question:

We played a gig at a local museum recently. First time we played there and it went really well. The museum called the next week and the lady said 'we'd like you to play for our upcoming lecture/dinner and we'd like music with an 'Asian' sound to it, is this something you do?' I said 'you bet, all the time' and booked the gig.


This isn't actually true, of course, but it is a quick 2 hour gig, minus some talking and announcements, so I figure it will work out. I'm a very experienced jazz guy (I'll be playing nylon stringed geetar) and could probably wing it with the top call reed/flute player I booked but would like to legitimately play some 'Asian' sounding music that won't be too stereotypical and will be fun. I've got some ideas already, aside from out of tempo pentatonic noodling, such as Bartok's childrens music (I realize this is not Asian music, but it is pentatonic stuff that will work), and some Chick Corea tunes etc.

So, who has suggestions for fake book type charts for 'Asian' sounds? I have literally hundreds of 'fake' books so I'm looking for a book of folk songs or some such. I looked a bit online, not finding much, and am hoping there is a gigging ethnomusicologist with a great suggestion or two for me.


tia

[ubertar]

Here are a few scales you can use... pretty much anything improvised in them will give you a quasi-Asian sound. What part of Asia? Did they say?

This one has a Chinese flavor:

1 2 4 5 6

This one sounds Japanese:

1 b2 4 5 b6

This one sounds kind of Indonesian:

1 b2 b3 5 b6

There are tons of Indian scales, of course, but here's one that'll stand out:

1 b2 3 #4 5 6 b7

Hope that helps...

[kweis7]

Here are a few scales you can use... pretty much anything improvised in them will give you a quasi-Asian sound. What part of Asia? Did they say?

This one has a Chinese flavor:

1 2 4 5 6

This one sounds Japanese:

1 b2 4 5 b6

This one sounds kind of Indonesian:

1 b2 b3 5 b6

There are tons of Indian scales, of course, but here's one that'll stand out:

1 b2 3 #4 5 6 b7

Hope that helps...

Yep, got the pentatonic area covered quite well, thanks though. Looking for some actual folk music or some such, printed music. The request was for 'Asian' themed music 'edit' but I would like to see if I cam scare up some real rootz type stuff.

[Z-Plane]

Drones! Get a backing track of some tambura sounds tuned to a root. So long as you drop a few notes from the harmonic minor scale every few minutes, that (unfortunately) equals "asian" to most western ears, especially if you throw in a few tabla hits, wind chimes and similar. I actually love many types of asian music, especially classical Indian, so forgive me for dumbing it down, but that really will do the trick for a generic asian theme.

[Meriphew]

If you have a sampler/drum machine that has any Eastern flavored drums/percussion, you could always play over the top of that.

[kweis7]

Thanks for the ideas! The drones idea is a good one and I plan on doing some such thing with my JamMan looper. I'll also go through the patches on my JV1010 to see what I can use there. I sort of have a 'no sequenced material' rule and use only loops created on the spot, generally, but I may have to bend that rule for this gig.

I'm gonna hit up some of the ethno-music professors I know of to see if there are any printed materials.

[Snarl 12/8]

Subcontract out to these guys?

http://www.bogofusion.com/Bogofusion/Welcome.html

Actually, their web site is atrocious, but if you can click through long enough to find some of the videos, it might give you some ideas. They do an "Asian" thing (heavy on the quotes) at times.

[capnreverb]

What is "Asian" music?

[kweis7]

What is "Asian" music?

People say 'Latin' music as well. What does that really mean? Bossa, Salsa, Tango, Flamenco??? Pretty different music, depending on the actual country/style you mean. The gig was this past Thursday and we ended up playing fairly regular jazz stuff, hitting on some Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter tunes, a bit of classical stuff (Faure) and a few 'Asian' sequences I put together, after talking to the caterer. The caterer wanted me to sing rat pack tunes and said to disregard the museum directors 'Asian' music request. Go figure. I'll post some links and maybe a sequence if I get the time.