6. Ram Dass – The Evolution of Consciousness & Amazing Grace
I saw Ram Dass speak at this church in Chicago. There are two recordings from that time that really made a strong impact on me. It was a record that he’d made with his Sangha group, I don’t remember the name of it but it was a double LP and they were singing Kirtans. I was getting into all these things. I’d found a copy of his book Be Here Now, then later I found a copy of the record that he had put out, with him talking a bit but also the singing, chants and stuff and that was something I used to sit and listen to. That had a profound effect on me because it helped me to stabilise in this path, and it made me realise that I wasn’t alone, that there were whole communities who were into this thing. Also, just being able to listen to the voice of the person who wrote the book Be Here Now, had a very inspiring effect upon me. That introduced me to the whole practice of what is called Kirtan – ‘holy songs’ – with tabla and harmonium. One of the great Kirtan singers now is called Krishna Das. His career kind of came out of that with Ram Dass. Also, there was a violinist on the record, who was an African American – Charlie Burnham. Years later, we did a recording together. We met in other contexts too. One day, I saw Charlie, maybe five years ago and so I asked him: ‘Were you on that record with Ram Dass, that first recording he put out?’ He looked at me and said: ‘You know about that?’ I said, ‘yeah because I’m looking at you and I’m remembering your picture there’ and he teared up. I mean, no jazz musicians ever talked to him about that stuff.
