Ever since I first put up Mirabai's poem "It's True I Went To The Market," I've been thinking about what music shuld go with this poem. She might have been beating a drum, but not just any drumming will do for this poetry.
People of a certain age remember the song Jingo by Santana. That song was a cover. The original version was recorded by Nigerian master drummer Babatunde Olatunji (1927-2003) in 1959, on the album Drums of Passion.
This is a mix of sounds from the track Shango (Chant to the Thunder God), from Drums of Passion, and Mirabai's poem, translated by Robert Bly.
This poem was translated from the Rajasthani language by Robert Bly, and it first appeared in the book Mirabai Versions
10/31/2012 UPDATE: Counters inform me that over the past two months, many people from India have visited this post, coming from the cities of New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Surat, Calcutta, Pune, Vadodara, Mahape, and many others. What joy I feel to welcome you here! It is my sincere hope that you will offer comment, either here or at SoundCloud. A wise man once wrote: "Better is open rebuke than hidden love." It is my sincere hope that more skillful creators than I will take the recitation of Mirabai's poem, and make more beautiful creations of words and music than this one. It is my sincere hope that you will visit the post with a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, and hear the story of my family connection with the great poet.
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