Megan Chaskey Modernizes Old-Style Chanting From India

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Megan Chaskey would like to take you to the "higher realms" with the music on her fourth album, Naam Radiance, which features her chanting and singing traditional Sanskrit lyrics to melodies she mostly composed with backing from top musicians. She not only is a vocalist-composer and a flutist, but also a Naam Yoga Therapies teacher, a published poet, a spiritual coach, a Harmonyum Healing practitioner, and a Universal Kabbalist.

On Naam Radiance Chaskey is joined by a stellar lineup of musicians: cellist David Darling (a New Age Album Grammy Award winner), guitarist and pianist Scott Petito (who studied at the Berklee College of Music), percussionist Mike Guglielmo (who attended Molloy College for Music Therapy and is a board-certified music therapist), Celtic harpist Aine Minogue (a popular Irish recording artist, folklorist and lecturer), and supporting vocalists Leslie Ritter (Amy Fradon, James Taylor, Shawn Colvin) and Beth Reineke (Rick Danko, Pete Seeger, Anne Hills).

More information on Megan Chaskey is available at her website (meganchaskey dot com). Her CDs - Golden Bowl of Naam, Surrounded by Naam, Light of Naam and Naam Radiance - and digital download tracks from those recordings are available at online sales sites such as CDbaby, Amazon, iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody and many others. Chaskey's books of poetry - Voice, Heartwood and the just-released Birdsong Under the Wisdom Tree - are also available at her website where she additionally offers one-on-one enlightened life coaching and Harmonyum healing treatments.

"My Naam Radiance album is structured similarly to one of my Naam Yoga therapy sessions which starts with a brief meditation, followed by time to get in touch with one's present state through meditative movement while singing mantras, then our movements become very rhythmic and energetic during the middle portion, and finally it winds down again until at the end we are relaxing and settling into a deep sense of release. Throughout we are moving in coordination with our breathing, " explains Chaskey.

"Practicing Naam Yoga promotes radiant health through asana postures, rhythmic movements, mudras which are hand and finger positions, breath, and 'naam' or sound to harmonize all levels of your being - physically, mentally and emotionally. It stimulates the life force within us and helps us develop intuitive awareness, spiritual intelligence and health.

"I wanted the album to serve as enjoyable music to listen to, but also as a relaxing and healing experience. You can simply listen or you can sing along. The music is as appropriate for a quiet, candelight dinner as it is for exercising, stress management or massage therapy. To make the music connect as fully as possible with the human experience, it is almost completely vocals and acoustic instrumentation including percussion for the rhythmic movement quality, " Chaskey states.

"The words for the chants are Gurumukhi, a form of Sanskrit that means 'from the mouth of the guru.' The words were written down about 600 years ago in a book of teachings by mystics and Sikh gurus, minstrel spiritual teachers, who traveled throughout India and sang their teachings in order for people to more easily absorb and remember them. These chants were passed down from generation to generation. In my own way I am trying to carry the teachings and chants forward by writing my own new melodies to allow the music to have broad appeal for modern audiences."

Naam Radiance begins with "Invocation, " the one piece in which she uses the traditional melody instead of her own. "This serves as an introductory prayer. I always start my personal morning meditation as well as my Naam Yoga sessions with this." Chaskey considers the rest of the album to move through three developments. "The next three tracks slowly lift us up. 'Aardas Bahee' and 'Aapa Sahaee Hoa' musically provide the sweet melancholy of a love song, and lyrically bring hope and blessings in the former and positive energy and opening of the heart in the latter." Between these two long tracks is the only instrumental on the album, the two-minute "Cello Interlude" in which David Darling overdubbed many highly-variant cello parts.

The second in the trilogy of tunes "gets into the energetic, dynamic, percussive pieces that represent the movement of Naam yoga." The final three tracks bring the energy level back down. "Haray Guray/Jazz Ballad" uses the same "Haray Guray" mantra as previously, but this time with a more lyrical arrangement that slows it down and presents it with piano-cello backing. Chaskey ends the album with the emotive, relaxing "Sat Nam" in which she overdubs her voice several times as if singing in a temple.

Chaskey brings to this project many years of experience as both a yoga teacher and a musician. As a youngster she gravitated toward folk music such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Peter Paul & Mary, Pete Seeger and Joni Mitchell. Megan started on violin at age 11, but was playing Baroque recorder in an ensemble when she was 14 ("which contributed to my life-long love of Baroque, Medieval and modal music such as the Aeolian scale."). Two years later she discovered the flute ("the instrument closest to my heart"). During high school in Pennsylvania she studied with the principal flutist of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Chaskey earned her BA Degree in Literature with a minor in Music at Bennington College in Vermont. During those years she also studied choreography, music composition, and jazz and classical flute. She went on to earn her Masters Degree in Education at Lesley College in Massachusetts.

She lived in England for eight years where she first learned about meditation, chanting and throat singing. After returning to the United States, Chaskey started Zen Meditation followed by Kundalini Yoga (she became a certified instructor), Naam Yoga and Universal Kabbalah. She eventually began teaching yoga on a regular basis not only to adults, but also to junior and senior high students. She now teaches privately and at workshops, summer camps and retreats. Her musical tastes have always embraced Irish folk and new age musicians such as Solas and Enya, and later Chaskey enjoyed Kundalini and Kirtan chants by artists including Snatam Kaur and Deva Premal.

Chaskey's form of meditation practice singing Naam "opened me to my true voice. I began singing at the end of my yoga classes, while people rested in deep relaxation, and their positive responses planted a new seed of creative expression which led me to capture and share this music by recording albums." She did some early recording with flutist Jay Loomis and practiced creating her own melodies behind traditional mantras. She met musician Steve Eaton who helped her create her first two albums - Golden Bowl of Naam and Surrounded by Naam - "sacred music based on the powerful mantras of Naam Yoga." Chaskey began to recognize the power of live percussion as the underlying foundation for the vibratory effects of sacred music. This led her to enlist music therapist and innovative percussionist Mike Guglielmo to work with her on her most recent recordings - Light of Naam and Naam Radiance. Guglielmo introduced Chaskey to multi-instrumentalist, arranger and recording engineer Scott Petito (Brubeck Brothers, Chick Corea, Stevie Wonder, The Band and numerous other major acts).

"Although there are different varieties of yoga and chanting, these practices have become beneficial to many people, " explains Chaskey. "The opening up to everyone of these once-elusive, sacred teachings that at one time were passed down only to the elect few in order to keep the traditions intact, has now allowed us access to ways to evolve spiritually by means of taking care of all levels of our being, physically and emotionally, in harmony with the universal laws of nature. My purpose for creating the music on Naam Radiance is to further propagate and enhance these practices, this beneficial personal journey that anyone can take.”

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