Devotion and Sensuality

Light the candles, turn down the lights, put on the headphones or let the drones and chants of Music for Yoga and Other Joys by Jai Uttal and Ben Leinbach envelope the entire room with its sensual grace. Sit in quiet awareness, or slip into deep thought as Jai Uttal works his magic with his rich, velvety voice and his eloquent and mindful guitar and dotar playing.

Jai Uttal and Ben Leinbach composed all the material and did an excellent job of combining diverse elements like vocal chanting, ethnic instruments, banjo, synthesizers, keyboards, and electric guitars. This CD is filled with beautiful, long, flowing tapestries that continually evolve. All tracks contain Hindu chanting as well as long instrumental sections.  There is minimal percussion that seems to duck in and out of consciousness but is very effective at keeping the listener grounded in the rhythm. “Govinda,” track one, was captivating. It started out with a drone, then added some very articulate dotar in Indian modalities by Jai, and then seamlessly shifted to distorted electric guitar which created a psychedelic feel. Unless you are paying close attention, this transition may sneak right past you, as it is so deftly blended together.

There are only five tracks on this CD, but total listening time is almost 75 minutes giving the listener plenty of time to take a short vacation, or complete a full yoga routine. As a yoga practitioner, I find it to be a good balance of slow to moderate tempos and I have heard many others express the same. This music could be used for any kind of meditative movement such as Tai Chi, Chi Gong, or even something more personally expressive such as slow dance movements.

Jai Uttal’s voice has a divine quality about it, and his playing is so articulate and so well placed, that I consider him nothing short of a master. He is a big believer in the healing power of music and I think he and Ben Leinbach accomplished that with these compositions. I feel healed, rejuvenated and inspired after every listen.