Review: Happiness is Better (Lyrics/Poetry by Bhau Kalchuri, Music
by Gabriella Tal). 2 CD set, 2004.
Gabriella Tal is one gutsy woman. Wheelchair-bound (in body only),
with little financial backing, she was determined to approach a
musical feat that might well terrify the most accomplished Baba-lover
musicians. Gabriella was driven to put to music the moving poetry
(mostly in ghazal form) of Bhau Kalchuri.
To aficionados of the burgeoning musical creativity dedicated to
Avatar Meher Baba, Gabriella Tal is no stranger. Two previous Baba
albums--So Close (cassette) and Graceful and Magnificent (a recent
CD) feature primarily original songs and music that are lyrically
enchanting and especially vibrant in the use of richly varied arrangements
and orchestration. But Happiness is Better is even more wildly ambitious
and I think remarkably successful.
As a non-musician, even this reviewer can appreciate the challenge
of integrating the non-rhyming, non-Western, irregular meters and
irregular phrasing of the ghazal form into pleasing and credible
songs. Gabriella resists the temptation to compromise either by
taking liberties with the lyrics or by using abstract oratorio-type
approaches. Every track is a real song, with delightful melodies,
harmonies, and rhythms. Almost every syllable is married to a note.
Articulation is wonderful—we can understand every word.
Don’t think this is a monochromatic work. Gabriella’s
compositions explore individualized melodic and stylistic versions
of each ghazal. Remarkably, each song is satisfyingly accessible
to the Western ear. For example, try not to sing along with Gabriella
on Track 5 (Stay Away from Love) or hum the gorgeous melodic refrain
on Track 9 (The Pearl) delivered by an inspired Lisa Nelson. Other
listeners will be taken with the treatment of My Beautiful Message,
artistically delivered by Karina Miller’s vocal and Michael
Kovitz’ lush guitar (Track 13).
Extraordinarily, if you didn’t know better, you’d think
that all the tracks were original songs, perhaps even songs in which
the melodies came first with lyrics built to fit the music, not
the other way around.
Gabriella and her musicians use a variety of musical styles—you’ll
hear shades of folk music, country-western, pop, gospel, soft rock
and jazz. Gabriella is the primary vocalist on the album; her voice
is filled with drama, electricity and joy. Her vocal companions
are featured in solos as well as a variety of back-ups. In addition,
each song features one or more instrumental collaborations with
extremely accomplished players (on guitar, piano, harmonium, flute,
percussion, sax and cello). Arrangements, accompaniment and orchestration
are polished and constantly enjoyable. Sound technicians did a terrific
job with audio quality and balance. And happily, the liner notes
include complete texts of each ghazal and poem, with precise references
and engaging photographs.
But the comments above refer mostly to the creative success and
production qualities of this album. It is well to reflect that this
is true devotional music. Its essence is a direct meditative remembrance
of the One, specifically Meher Baba. Thus, we listen also on quite
another dimension. We understand why the natural styles and interpretations
of the singing feel more satisfying than highly trained “operatic”
voices. It seemed to me that the heart quality of the vocalists’
dedication and their understanding of the meaning of the ghazals
get communicated in subtle ways.
I offer as additional evidence a reaction by the “lyricist”—Bhau
Kalchuri, in an e-mail sent to Gabriella:
I received your CD containing ghazals written by me from Beloved
Avatar Meher Baba's instructions, and though I wrote the ghazals
I can not sing them, and what a gift Beloved Meher Baba has given
to you. You have a voice of a nightingale and you sing those ghazals
like a nightingale. I am really very much touched with your singing,
because they are full of love and express the beauty of ghazals.
I feel very much touched. I never thought that these ghazals will
be sung at any time, but you make it possible and you have started
singing, and not only singing but also making the CD so that people
may hear. I have no words to thank you for this work which you have
taken upon yourself, and you are doing it as a duty given to you
by Beloved Baba. I love you and I love your singing. It is just
like a nightingale because the singing is from the depth of your
heart.
[Permission granted for quotation.]
Be assured that the heart-felt quality of the CDs does not sacrifice
real musicality. Gabriella and her companions rolled the dice and
took a chance with Happiness is Better. One of the ghazals warns
to “Stay away from love if you do not have the courage.”
We are thankful that she did not stay away from love.
-----Allan Y. Cohen
Washington, D.C.
Graceful And Magnificent, a CD by Gabriella Tal and friends
review by Max Reif for the Glow Magazine
"The Avatar gives the wine
of his love to
his lovers...
And thereby they receive
The capacity for singing the song".
"Song for the Universe"
(words by Bhau Kalchuri)
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It's been nearly a decade since a friend played me two songs from
a new Baba tape on his car's tape deck, and said, "These are
by Gabriella Tal." After I heard them, he and I shared a recognition
in a glance: "There's something very special here." The
special "something", of course, is Meher Baba's Love.
"Graceful and Magnificent is the fifth collection of songs
through which Gabriella has shared her unique vision of Baba's Beauty
and her deep love for Him.
Qualities
that have delighted me in all Gabriella's music I've heard, also
grace this new offering. One is her talent for creating ensembles
of musicians and singers to forge exquisite settings for her jewel-like
voice and that of her longtime duet partner, Mark Malachi. Michael
Kovitz' steady guitar, Dorothy Kitchen's sweet violin, and Malachi's
piano (including one instrumental solo), synthesizer, and percussion,
surround Gabriella with seamless performances. Tim Smith's saxophone
caresses both ends of her voice on "You Are Nurturing Me,"
and his flute romps with her beyond the moon on "Falling".
In addition to these lovelies, a chorus of Chapel Hill Baba-lovers
does a smooth job on the refrains of several songs.
And then there is Gabriella's voice itself: rich, tender, or on
fire as the songs demand. Her renditions of her own lyrics, as well
as those by Baba, Rumi, Bhau, and poet Gareth Calway, echo musical
genres as various as scat singing, folk, folk-rock, and gospel.
Marilyn Siedes' cover collage and the entire lyric booklet,arranged
graphically by Wendy Savage, are treasures in their own right.
The album contains stirring remembrances of Mani and Mansari,
as well as a musical version of "Love and Devotion" (from
The Everything and the Nothing). The listener to this DC
receives the inspiring mosaic of Gabriella's heart--its vision of
God, its reminders of the responsibilities of the lover, and its
courageous effort to accept all of life as One, and as Divine.
Spiritual Basis of Polarity
Out
of the Source
Gabriella Tal, RPP. Music CD.
Reviewed by John Chitty, RPP, for "Energy" Magazine.
This new collection of devotional songs is a wonderful expression
of the spiritual basis for Polarity Therapy. Gabriella has beautifully
captured the simple wisdom of living in balance with self, others
and all nature. The tunes and lyrics (mostly written by Gabriella
herself, with additional offerings from Sanskrit and Native American
sources) are all sweetly reflective of a deep and authentic commitment
to self.
My favorite track initially is "Shudosi Budhosi" (You
are forever pure ... ) which Gabriella has performed numerous times
for various APTA audiences, and which has become for me a sort of
"Polarity national anthem" (if such is possible).
Energy. Summer 1998 pg. 4
I Won't Hold Back Life
by Naosherwan Anzar, of the Glow Magazine, May 1998, pg. 23
The
Persian poets, Rumi and Hafiz, have caught the imagination of the
western world. In the past few years there have been translations,
renderings and versions. Now Gabriella Tal and Mark Malachi have
put some of the poets' verses in song. While Gabriella provides
the vocals, Mark plays a wide range of musical instruments and breathes
a magical quality into these meaningful songs of love and longing
for the Beloved. Within the collection, the artists have included
a few verses by Bhau Kalchuri. Rumi's poems are a manual for seekers
of God. "Loving God is the only pleasure" says Rumi, and
Gabriella's songs and Mark's musical talents give the words a lyrical
cadence. The CD and cassette can be ordered from the artists.
Graceful and Magnificent, A New Album
by Gabriella Tal
by
David Silverman, 8-23-2000, for Lovestreet Lamppost.
Everyone who has enjoyed songwriter, poet, and performer Gabriella
Tal's previous albums will be delighted with her newest gift to
Baba and His lovers, entitled Graceful and Magnificent. Dedicated
to Baba's sister Mani, this CD covers a wide range of musical and
poetic ideas, moods, and styles. Gabriella's talented musical friends,
including pianist Mark Malachi, guitarist Michael Kovitz, and vocalist
Karina Miller, to name just a few, royally support the wings of
the songs flying out of Gabriella's heart.
This album begins with a chant song repetition of Baba's name,
which sounds like it could be issuing from the bema (raised dais)
of a synagogue, and seems to completely merge the river of 
Gabriella's
Jewish roots into the Ocean which is Meher Baba.
The second track is a love-paean to Baba's Mansari, ancient (though
ever-young in Baba's love), faithfully waiting on His hill for sight
of her Beloved and for reunion with Him. Then Michael Kovitz plays
a short guitar prelude -- a simple and touching arrangement of Bhau's
Hindi arti (Aadi Sachaytana) -- leading to "You Are Nurturing
Me", a song of acceptance and appreciation of Baba's ever-flowing
nurturing supportive love, even though His grace sometimes flows
invisibly within darkness and in silence.
A bouncy rhythm spreads over, envelops, and fertilizes the "Lord's
Garden", ostensibly Mehera's garden of love and care seen all
over Meherazad, but which extends to include the garden of all creation
-- Baba's face -- and all of us souls living in it. "Love,
Go Before Me" is dedicated to Marguerite Poley, a longtime
disciple of Meher Baba, dedicated to her love for Baba, a love guided
in the same way as the spring flowers bloom toward the life-giving
sun. Here, Tim Smith's flute reaches upward in spirals, like a bright
flowering vine toward the sun's light.
"Song For The Universe" is based on words of Bhau Kalchuri
in Meher Baba Manifesting. Mark Malachi's catchy piano rhythms
support the hand of Gabriella's voice in pouring the wine of this
song about love and wine and song, about the Avatar and His lovers,
and about the fire of His love that burns through them. Gareth Calway
wrote the words to the next track, "Angel", which Gabriella
set to a gentle lullaby of devotion and appreciation for her Beloved.
"Master Your Will For My Song" to me marches along somewhat
like a church anthem or chant, with choral
harmony and with a lovely soprano obbligato by Karina Miller. Listen
to some of the poetry in this song:
