A visit with Ross Daly (by E. Powell)

Ross Daly is a very interesting man. Born in '52, arrived on Crete and began playing lyra in his early twenties - began playing Cretan music professionally about 5 years later. After 2 or 3 more years he was offered a record deal, and recorded an album of Cretan music which was very successful. In the meantime he has recorded an album each year and also managed to master Turkish Ottoman classical and folk music on several instruments including saz and oud. He has dozens of brilliant students, many of whom play with him in his group. He is widely recognized as the savior and innovator of the Cretan lyra.

Ross told me more about his musical life story; He began studying sitar in England, and studied it there for 3 years before going to India where he studied it for one more year before making the decision not to devote his life to mastering Indian music (Ross feels that in order to master a music one needs to actually decide to move to and live permanently in the country of that music's origin... and Ross didn't really feel "at home" in India - which was one of the reasons for his leave the study of sitar).

On that journey to India, Ross had gone overland via Afghanistan- staying there for extended periods studying Afghani music. After India, back in England, Ross played sitar on the streets and built Celtic harps to earn enough money to travel again. He decided to go to Crete just to travel and have a look around... so off he went. Two days after arriving he purchased a donkey and spent six months walking around the island on foot with his sitar, rabab, and recently purchased lyra on the donkey's back. Towards the end of that 6 months some friends offered to transport his sitar for him by car from Retimno to Hania... the result was a sitar with a badly damaged pumpkin - and that was after 6 months on a donkey's back without a scratch!

Ross then went back to England, had his sitar (which he had bought in an antique shop for 40 pounds---is the same sitar that Ross still has here at the museum, and the one that I am playing when I go there for practice-- is actually a very good sitar) repaired, then decided to come back to Crete for a while. Ross then didn't realize that he would end up staying in Greece (with many trips out of) for the next more than 3 decades. Ross began a long and intensive study of the Cretan lyra. The years passed and Ross ran his own music cafe in Hania. A place which supported him. At the cafe people took what they wanted (to drink), and payed what they wanted (just left the money on the counter), and brought their instruments to play Cretan music on lyras and lautos.

I asked him if he had always had the vision, goal, or dream to become a recording artist. He said that he never had any idea at all what he would do with the knowledge and instruments he was acquiring over the years. People thought he was crazy and would question him. His family, however, were very supportive -perhaps partly because he was fully self-supporting. He said that his recording career began 20 years ago when, since he was becoming somewhat known playing around at that time, someone offered to finance the making and releasing of an LP of his music. He made that record and it was apparently quite successful throughout Greece. So that was that, and he hasn't stopped making records since.

Reflection on Persian Music

When discussing the rabab Ross had some very interesting things to say about Afghanistan. Apparently there was a king who ruled about 100 years ago who at that time decided to bring about 100 Indian musician over from India (to 'Indianize the local music'), and gave them a whole district of town (in Kabul) to live in. This is why (something I have known and heard intuitively) Afghani (also west Pakistani) music is actually more like what Indian music was like 100 years ago than what Indian music is like now--- because music in India kept developing, whereas that small enclave of Indian music artificially created 100 years ago in Afghanistan, didn't develop, but rather maintained to itself the old style. I guess this is also why American English and Canadian French resembles more the pronunciation of the time at which most immigrants came over from those countries. Ross explained that before this 'Indianization' of Afghani music took place, the principle influence was Persian.

I asked him why the Afghan king had imported all the Indian musicians (by the way, the king had given the musicians "a quarter" of Kabul, meaning a "district" not "one fourth", of the city.). Ross says that at that time Indian culture was considered very high and therefore to be adopted. Ross makes the comparison to how The Czars in Russia in the 1700's adopted and imported French culture.

Recording tips

Just before and during Xmas, I occasionally sat with Ross listening to several of his old CDs. I had asked him for his advice on how to go about actually recording a CD. What he told me, I feel, was such clear, good, and valuable advice. What he said, which are all things that I have actually known but not been so sure of, is that the basic rule is that, as much as possible, the music must be recorded 'live', and with as few overdubs and edits as possible. And not to get caught in the trap which tempts one to sacrifice 'live playing' for sound clarity and track separation (which makes mixing and editing a breeze). Basically, he stressed over and over again that what is really important is to capture the live interplay which happens between musicians when they are actually playing together.

So, I asked Ross to play for me the CD which he has done which uses that MOST amount of overdubbing-- he agreed and played it for me. In his early career he went in for overdubbing wholeheartedly. Whole albums of super-multitracked music all recorded in the studio by himself alone with only a few minimal guests. He said that he has really been 'through' the overdubbing thing, and does not recommend it---although he admits that there are no fixed rules and that it is sometimes possible to create good music via modern studio techniques. I'll always remember those winter afternoons at the museum sitting with Ross listening to his old (and new) CDs.

In further long discussions with Ross he convinced me of the necessity of being able to reproduce 'live', the music which you have recorded on Cd. Ross also mentions the common trap of relying on flashy technique. This is something he rarely does.

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