Sursringar w/ Jody Stecher : Alam Khan + New Directions @ Freight (Berkeley): Music Classes (SF + Berkeley)

Jody is a renowned singer and multi-instrumentalist, whose recordings have been Grammy finalists, Indy Award winners and perennial favorites. In the mid 1960s he became interested in, and then devoted to, raag sangeet, the modal classical music of India, and had the good fortune to study intensively with the sons of Ustad Ziauddin Khan Dagar, the chief musician of the royal court of Udaipur. Jody learned sursringar, a rare string instrument now in the early stages of revival in India, from Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar during the decade spanning the mid 1970s-80s and later received significant input and guidance from Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar. Sursringar is a superb instrument for dhrupad alap, able to bring out the subtle microtonal shadings, long sweeping meend and curvilinear melodic contours of Dagar bani dhrupad.