Album Description: This once in a lifetime event gathered musicians from wildly different backgrounds in a benefit for Richard Gere's Healing The Divide Foundation. Recorded live at Lincoln Center in NY, this CD features transcendental performances from Tibet's Gyuto Choir, India's Anoushka Shankar, genre-bending duets from Tibetan avant-garde musician Nawang Kechong with Native American master R. Carlos Nakai, and maverick composer Philip Glass with Gambian virtuoso Foday Musa Suso. The concert closer is a unique collaboration between musicians who personify the spirit of adventure in contemporary music, as Tom Waits performs four of his classic songs accompanied by Grammy winners the Kronos Quartet. Add a moving opening address by the Dalai Lama and you have the perfect musical embodiment of the Foundation's mission: to bridge cultural gaps and forge revolutionary new bonds between people around the world. Proceeds from sales will be directly applied to projects benefiting the peoples of Tibet and the Himalayan region.
Amazon.com: In September 2003, actor Richard Gere introduced a brief address by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, an evolved soul if ever there was one. The two men hosted a benefit concert at New York's Avery Fischer Hall to raise funds for Healing the Divide, a humanitarian organization founded by Gere and dedicated to fostering understanding between East and West. The Gyuto Tantric Choir's deep, overtone-laced throat singing opens the festivities. Appropriately enough, Tom Waits, hoarse and rumbly-tumbly as ever, is up next, appearing with the eternally questing and utterly fearless Kronos Quartet, as is Gambian kora (a West African harp-lute) virtuoso Foday Musa Suso. The latter also sits in with minimalist composer Philip Glass and his ensemble--an unexpectedly thrilling juxtaposition. The beautiful and brilliant young Indian mistress of the sitar, Anoushka Shankar (daughter of Ravi), shoots sparks while N. Carlos Nakai's Native American wooden flute is heard in an ineffably spacious and moving peace chant with Tibetan musician/composer Nawang Khechog. Each of the artists involved and the record label are donating all their proceeds from the sale of this commemorative CD to the Tibetan Health Initiative, a program providing health insurance and medical care for refugee Buddhist monks and nuns. But aside from offering a painless opportunity for accruing positive karma, these awe-inspiring live tracks would be a bargain at double the price. --Christina Roden
Disc 1:
Special Address - His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Invocation - The Gyuto Tantric Choir
Nivedan - Anoushka Shankar
Peace Chants - Nawang Khechog and R. Carlos Nakai
The Gambia - Philip Glass and Foday Musa Suso
Way Down In The Hole - Tom Waits and Kronos Quartet
God's Away On Business - Tom Waits and Kronos Quartet
Lost In The Harbor - Tom Waits and Kronos Quartet
Diamond In Your Mind - Tom Waits and Kronos Quartet
Superb Concert I just got this CD, and it's one of the best I've heard in a long time. A wonderful sample of world music, and Tom Waits playing with Kronos Quartet is just about the best in american music today.
There Be Giants Here As I began playing this CD, I was immediately struck by the crystal clarity and depth of sound, even in the introductions by Gere and the Dalai Lama; however, the sound was not natural but obviously amplified, with distant microphones, treble dominance, and hall echo. The listener seems to be at the balcony. This is easily forgiven because what follows are extraordinary sets of music by extraordinary artists. After a brief invocation by the Gyuto monks, Anouska Shankar, whose technique is a marvel and whose interpretative skills continue to mature rapidly, performs a gem. Then we have a peaceful duet by Tibetan and Amer-Indian flutists, but in this instance Nawang Khechong eschews his usual instrument at first for a monastery long trumpet and recitation to accompany Carlos Nakai's flute. In what I think is the best work of the CD, The Gambia, Philip Glass's keyboard and Foday Musa Suso's kora provide a most interesting sonic mixture and a beautifully crafted composition. The listener will certainly long to hear more of these masters in duet. The remainder of the concert features Tom Waits, whose gravel-throated, dramatic singing is accompanied by the Kronos Quartet and bassist Greg Cohen, whose arrangements match the wit of the lyrics. Waits also provides some humorous comments. The fact that sale of the CD will provide funds for medical care of Tibetan monks and nuns in India made my purchase even more worthwhile. The enclosed booklet includes some rather nice photographic portraits of the performers.
Loved it! This is great. Where else can you get chanting monks, Ravi Shankar's daughter, Nakai, and Tom Waits all rolled into one? Philip Glass has also been a fav since Kayaanisquatsi AND help others with the profits? Seemed a no-brainer.
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