Wynne Paris

Wynne Paris
Born (1964-06-22) June 22, 1964
Redstone Arsenal, AL
Genres kirtan, new-age, worldbeat
Occupation(s) singer, instrumentalist
Instruments guitar, sarod, harmonium, saz
Years active 1980s - present
Associated acts Groovananda (2005-present), Krishna Das
Website www.wynneparis.com

Wynne Paris (born June 22, 1964 in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama) is a new-age and world beat musician/producer with a special focus on yoga music and kirtan, the call-and-response singing of Bhakti yoga.[1] His live performance combines Kirtan chanting, American music (jazz, gospel music, blues and rock music),[2] world beat rhythms and raga scales. He sings in both English and Sanskrit, and plays guitar,[1] sarod (a 26 stringed, sitar-like instrument from India),[1] harmonium, saz[3] (a stringed instrument in the lute family) and percussion.

Career

Paris was a rock & roll and rhythm & blues guitar artist in the 1980s,[2] performing with artists like Rusted Root's Jim Donovan, and Mark Karan of the rock band RatDog.[4] In 1994, at the age of 30, Wynne took up Indian music and yoga, changing the direction of his music.[5] In 1996, one of the songs he co-wrote with Maura Moynihan, "Prayer for the Pure Land", won first place in the Songwriters' Association of Washington National Songwriting Contest. Also in that year, he met the Indian “hugging saint” Mata Amritanandamayi, known to her devotees as Ammachi or Amma, which inspired him to move to Marin County to study Indian music, shamanism, and yoga.[6]

Since 1998, Paris has primarily performed and recorded New Age and World Beat music with an Indian influence, performing kirtan chanting and playing both Western and traditional Indian musical instruments. He appeared on the first album of Krishna Das, Pilgrim Heart (1998), who is known for popularising kirtan music in the West. This album also featured Sting.[4]

Paris released his debut album, Ghandarva Café in 2004, which was followed by Emptiness and Ecstasy (2005) and Omspun, featuring Groovananda, in (2009).[6][7]

Over the years, Paris has recorded with many notable musicians in these genres including Krishna Das, Badal Roy (Miles Davis), Shahin and Sepehr, Sharon Gannon, Bhagavan Das,[8] David Newman, Wade Morissette, Rick Allen, Guru Ganesha Singh Khalsa, Mark Karan (Bob Weir & RatDog), Perry Robinson, Hans Christian, Dave Stringer, and Girish.

Paris played for a "Yoga Ball" celebrating President Barack Obama's second inauguration at St. Francis Hall in Northeast Washington, D.C. on January 22, 2013.[9]

Groovananda

Paris is the creative director of Groovananda (which means "the bliss of the groove"),[10] a collective of musicians formed in 2005[11] the core consisting of Paris, Rick Allen (Def Leppard) and John "JT" Thomas (Bruce Hornsby Band),[10] who play rock-and-jazz-influenced kirtan.[12] On May 14, 2010, he and Groovananda were part of a benefit in Washington, D.C. for the Bonobo Conservation Initiative.[13] They have produced a single, Tara Om, with Krishna Das, and one CD, Omspun, released in 2011, both by Auspician Records. Besides the core band members, it featured Badal Roy, Perry Robinson, Mark Karan, Hans Christian, John Wubbenhorst and several others, and vocalists including Krishna Das and Dave Stringer.

Performance venues

With Krishna Das

Discography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Raga rocked Americans now on kirtan craze". The Times of India. Oct 4, 2003. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  2. 1 2 3 East Indian Kirtan Comes to Taos – Tempo Magazine / The Taos News, Nov. 4-10, 2004
  3. ↑ AllMusic Artists Profile: Wynne Paris - Credits
  4. 1 2 Gebhardt, Sara (Oct 9, 2003). "Entrancing Chanting Holds Listeners; Former Rock Musician Uses Indian Music to Create Spiritual 'High'". The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
  5. ↑ Grooving with Jazz, World Beats and Spirituality by Patrick O'Shea, The Times of Trenton, Friday, July 29, 2005
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Honora Finkelstein (March 2010). "Wynne Paris and Friends - Kirtan Music". originally published in Pathways Magazine of Washington, DC,. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  7. ↑ "Artist: Wynne Paris: New Music And Songs". MTV. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  8. ↑ Marcus Ngbea (Nov 29, 2007). "Yoga celebration held at Greenbelt OM studio". The Gazette (Maryland), Business Gazette. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  9. ↑ Wetherbee, Brandon (Jan 22, 2013). "Yoga Ball Celebrates President Obama's Second Inaugural". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  10. 1 2 Omspun by Katherine Rae, Yoga Journal (February 1, 2012)
  11. ↑ Starwood Festival 2005 Website
  12. ↑ Concert Series To Benefit "Hippie Chimps" April 23, 2010 in HeadCount
  13. ↑ Concert Series To Benefit ‘Hippie Chimps’ April 23, 2010 in HeadCount
  14. ↑ Eventful.com Description of Karmapalooza
  15. ↑ Starwood Festival 2013 Website
  16. ↑ ChantLanta! Peace, Love and Kirtan in the South

Further reading

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