D16: Genghis Blues

Have you ever heard of throat singing? It's amazing stuff. I first learned about it from the wonderful and completely unique [Academy Award nominated] documentary called Genghis Blues. It's about a blind Blues musician who hears a recording of throat singing on shortwave radio one night. He then teaches himself how to sing this way and some years later reads that a Tuvan throat singing demonstration is going to be held nearby. He shows up, listens to the concert and then waits to talk to the singers afterwards. Without preparing them, he just starts belting out his own throat singing and blows them away so much that one of the singers invites him to Tuva, Russia to sing in the competition. It's a great story. You can rent it on Netflix or elsewhere. You can also get the soundtrack. But I thought I'd try embedding a YouTube video of throat singing. It's not from the film, but it will give you an idea. Here's a Wiki on throat singing and another on Genghis Blues. Paul Pena is dead now. But what a great thing to have happen in his last few years...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Blues



There's a better YouTube video here, but I can't embed it within this post because the author has locked it... It's better than the Letterman clip by far!