 Phil Hollenbeck is the most senior western Pakhawaj artist and currently performs, teaches, records and researches the vast drumming traditions of North India. He is a professional accompanist in both the Dhrupad and Odissi styles of pakhawaj. Phil also is an accomplished Dholak player, and performs with South Asian folk and devotional artists (of all faiths), as well as with western jazz, world-fusion, and many other traditional musicians and dancers.
Phil Hollenbeck (aka Bhagavandas) began his studies in Varanasi in 1969 under the tutelage of late Pandit Amarnath Mishra of Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple. This environment is one of preservation of the ancient musical traditions of music and dance, and Phil was strongly influenced by this atmosphere and the dedication and energy of the old-generation of artists. He continued to study for more than 25 years with great master-drummers in the Khadao Singh Gharana (lineage), and was fortunate to perform many times with legendary musicians such as Dagar Brothers, Ustad Z.M. Dagar, Ustad Fahimuddin Dagar, Pt. Prem Kumar Mallik and their advanced students.
 Since 1997 Phil has been working on mastery of the Odissi (Orissa) style of pakhawaj playing (also called Madal/Mardala), and is very involved in developing the first American home-grown Odissi-dance accompaniment ensemble. He is associated with the Odissi Vilas Dance Co. located in California, directed by Vishnu Tattva Das. (Website: http://www.odissivilas.org)
In 2005 Phil began collaboration with a collectve of artists performing traditional Afghan music. In this context he performs on Dholak and Dholki (a hybrid Naal-Dholak). Phil travelled through Afghanistan 3 times in the late '60s/early '70s and has a deep appreciation of the people and their cultures, and finds expression of this passion working with the group "Zendegi", located in the Bay Area, CA.
Phil Hollenbeck has twice been awarded the prestigious American Institute of Indian Studies Fellowship for Artist Professional Development, in 1984 and in 1996, and earlier in his career received a grant from Intersection Foundation of San Francisco for Indian music studies.
Phil is also percussion master in residence at Kali Mandir, Laguna Beach, CA. (http://www.kalimandir.org)
The PAKHAWAJ (North Indian Mridang) is the venerable double-sided
classical drum which preceded the Tabla drums by several thousand
years, evolving continuously to the present with a vast repertoire
of styles, compositions, and forms being played by hundreds of
practitioners throughout the South Asia region.  Made from a hollowed
hard-wood trunk, each end having drum heads consisting of 3 layers
of skin and with application of iron and/or wheat-paste to the
surface, the pakhawaj produces more than 20 primary sounds from
striking the surfaces with fingers and palms in various ways. In the
Classical Dances, the Dhrupad music, in the temple/devotional music
and the solo performance, the pakhawaj maintains a strong presence
in the hands of inspired specialists to the present day, being well
loved for its deep, warm and expressive quality. In the hands of a
master, its rhythm is powerful and ecstatic, bearing the fruit of
the years of physical and inner discipline required of the player.
The DHOLAK is the essential drum for the folk, devotional, and pop
music throughout South Asia. Having a more purely percussive sound
than pakhawaj and tabla, it too is carved from hard-wood log but
having a tar application only on the bass side, the treble side
being plain skin like on a conga drum. Playing technique is very
different from pakhawaj, sometimes utilizing also a thumb-ring to
strike the wood. Dholak styles have many regional variations, and it
is an instrument which blends well with most types of traditional
world-music.
Phil Hollenbeck has studied with drum masters Pandit Amarnath
Mishra, Pandit Shankar Ghosh, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Raja Chhatrapati
Singh, Pandits Tribhuan Upadhya, Pannalal Upadhyay, Padma Ch. Dehuri,
Ramji Prasad, and Yudisthir Nayak.
 Performances with artists including Zia Mohiyuddin Dagar, N.
Zahiruddin & N. Faiyazuddin Dagar, Fahimuddin Dagar, Prem Kumar Mallik, Dr. Ritwik
Sanyal, Nancy Kulkarni/Lesh, Amelia Cuni, Gianni Ricchizi (-"Dhrupad"), Vishnu Tattva Das, Barbara Framm, Asako Takami, Mohini Pattnaik, Jyoti Rout (-"Odissi"), Manjushri Chatterjee, Pt. Chitresh Das, Nyssia & Yamuna Landsberg, Antonia Hussain (-"Kathak"), Sharmistha
Sen, Allyn Miner, Steven Landsberg (-"Hindustani sangeet"), Zakir & Diga Rhythm Band,
Zuleikah, Erich Avinger, and others, at major
venues in U.S.A., India, Canada and Mexico.
Based in Taos, New Mexico, U.S.A., Phil may be contacted for
programs, concert production, teaching/lecture, and recording, for
Indian or other traditional music projects.
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Want to learn more? Consult http://www.pakhawaj.net/
For an mp3 sample of Phil's playing, click here. |
