Jim Gelcer | |
|---|---|
 Jim Gelcer in 2014 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | December 16, 1961 Cape Town, South Africa |
| Origin | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | Kirtan, jazz, world, |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Website | gelcer |
Jim Gelcer (born December 16, 1961) is a Canadian jazz drummer, singer, musician, composer, and producer, also known for blending traditional kirtan, a genre of spiritual music from India, with modern influences like R&B, jazz, and rock.
Jim Gelcer was born in Cape Town, South Africa and moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1968. He attended Eastman School of Music in 1980, studying drums, vibraphone, arranging and improvisation with Ray Ricker, Bill Dobbins, Dave Ratajczak, and Lee Musiker. In 1984, Gelcer studied jazz with David Mott at York University. Soon afterwards he established himself as a professional musician.
Gelcer has performed, recorded, and toured with acts as diverse as Lee Aaron, and the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band. He has also worked with Lorne Lofsky, Paul Hoffert, [1] Don Thompson, Russ Little, Terry Clarke, Pat LaBarbera, Guido Basso, Steve Wallace, John Sherwood, Nancy Walker, Richard Underhill, George Koller, Reg Schwager, Dave Young and Bratty and the Babysitters. [2]
Early in his career, Gelcer composed music for film and television, including Price of Vengeance (1985), [3] The Journal on CBC (1985–89), and My Happy Days in Hell (1994). [4] More recently, Jim teamed with Donald Quan to form Gopher Lunch, a film music recording house and music library. [5]
He studied Sivananda Yoga and became serious about Kirtan after a visit to Sivananda Ashram in the Laurentian Mountains where he was invited to chant in the temple. [6] He completed yoga teacher training at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat in Paradise Island, Bahamas in March 2006, and shortly after that began leading Kirtan. His debut Kirtan recording "Bhagavan" was released in 2010 and hailed as one of the year's best by American radio shows in the Spirit – WRPI FM and Full Lotus Kirtan Show – WCOM FM. Yoga Chicago magazine called him "the perfect bhakti singer". [7]
In 2013, Gelcer released his second album, Bhakti Groove Machine, which was recorded with Grammy-nominated producer Ben Leinbach (Jai Uttal, Deva Premal, Snatam Kaur). [8]
He performs regularly at yoga studios and temples, [9] along with festivals such as Bhaktifest. [10] He also teaches a daily yoga class on the meditation app Insight Timer. [11] From 2012 to 2017, he was musical director for Shri Fest, a yoga, music and art festival held at Blue Mountain, Ontario. [12]
As side musician:
As producer:
Gelcer worked with the Harvard University digital media start up, Noank Media Inc., as the Vice President of Content Acquisition and Business Development [16] and later Chief Operating Officer. Noank Media Inc. aimed to license and distribute digital content globally while fairly compensating content owners, using the most efficient, sustainable, and effective business and technology systems. [17] [18] They successfully demonstrated their proprietary digital media exchange platform [19] and reached a partnership with CERNET (China Education and Research Network). [20]
He has served on the boards of several arts organizations including the Glenn Gould Foundation from 2010 to 2013 as Fundraising Chair, [21] Toronto Summer Music Festival, Via Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, and Mariposa in the Schools. [22]
Kundalini yoga derives from kundalini, defined in tantra as energy that lies within the body, frequently at the navel or the base of the spine. In normative tantric systems, kundalini is considered to be dormant until it is activated and channeled upward through the central channel in a process of spiritual perfection. Other schools, such as Kashmir Shaivism, teach that there are multiple kundalini energies in different parts of the body which are active and do not require awakening. Kundalini is believed by adherents to be power associated with the divine feminine, Shakti. Kundalini yoga as a school of yoga is influenced by Shaktism and Tantra schools of Hinduism. It derives its name through a focus on awakening kundalini energy through regular practice of mantra, tantra, yantra, yoga, laya, haṭha, meditation, or even spontaneously (sahaja).
Bhajan refers to any devotional song with a religious theme or spiritual ideas, specifically among Dharmic religions, in any language. The term bhajanam means reverence and originates from the root word bhaj, which means to revere, as in 'Bhaja Govindam' . The term bhajana also means sharing.
Kirtana, also rendered as Kiirtan, Kirtan or Keertan, is a Sanskrit word that means "narrating, reciting, telling, describing" of an idea or story, specifically in Indian religions. It also refers to a genre of religious performance arts, connoting a musical form of narration, shared recitation, or devotional singing, particularly of spiritual or religious ideas, native to the Indian subcontinent. A person performing kirtan is known as a kirtankara.
Swami Sivananda Saraswati, also called Swami Sivananda, was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of Vedanta. Sivananda was born in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of modern Tamil Nadu, and was named Kuppuswami. He studied medicine and served in British Malaya as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism.
Krishna Das is an American vocalist known for his performances of Hindu devotional music known as kirtan. He has released seventeen albums since 1996. He performed at the 2013 Grammy Awards, where his album Live Ananda (2012) was nominated for the 2013 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album. He's been described by the New York Times as "the chant master of American yoga".
Satyananda Saraswati, was a Sanyasi, yoga teacher and guru in both his native India and the West. He was a student of Sivananda Saraswati, the founder of the Divine Life Society, and founded the Bihar School of Yoga in 1964. He wrote over 80 books, including the popular 1969 manual Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha.
Bhagavan Das is an American yogi who lived for six years in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. He is a bhakti yogi, kirtan singer, spiritual teacher and writer.
Paul Matthew Hoffert, LLD, CM is a recording artist, performer, media music composer, author, academic, and corporate executive. He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Toronto. He later studied music composition with Gordon Delamont. In 1969, the 26-year-old Hoffert co-founded Lighthouse, a rock group that sold millions of records and earned three Juno Awards as one of Canada's leading pop bands. His film music earned him a San Francisco Film Festival and three SOCAN Film Composer of the Year awards and included films such as The Proud Rider (1971), The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972), Outrageous! (1977), High-Ballin' (1978), The Shape of Things to Come (1979), Wild Horse Hank (1979), Mr. Patman (1980), Deadly Companion (1981), Paradise (1982), Fanny Hill (1983), Bedroom Eyes (1984), and Mr. Nice Guy (1987).
Indradyumna Swami is an initiating guru in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which belongs to the Gaudiya-Vaishnava sampradaya. He is a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who introduced the Gaudiya Vaisnava, or Bhakti Yoga, tradition to the western world and formalized its spread by founding ISKCON in 1966.
Attila Cornelius Zoller was a Hungarian jazz guitarist. After World War II, he escaped the Soviet takeover of Hungary by fleeing through the mountains on foot into Austria. In 1959, he moved to the U.S., where he spent the rest of his life as a musician and teacher.
Jai Uttal is an American musician. He is a Grammy-nominated singer and “a pioneer in the world music community with his eclectic East-meets-West sound.”
Swami Krishnananda Saraswati (IAST: Swāmī Kṛṣṇānanda Sarasvatī, 25 April 1922 – 23 November 2001) was a disciple of Sivananda Saraswati and served as the General Secretary of the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, India from 1958 until 2001. Author of more than 40 texts, and lecturing extensively, on yoga, dharma, and metaphysics, Krishnananda was a prolific theologian, saint, yogi and philosopher.
Hans Christian is a German-born musician and producer now based in the U.S. in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Christian is a multi-instrumentalist usually associated with world music, ethnic fusion, chamber jazz and sometimes new-age music, but who also plays electronic and classical music. His solo concerts feature the cello, sarangi, sitara, and nyckelharpa with a technique called live looping, where he uses a customized system to record and overdub his live playing on stage. His production work includes projects in a range of genres, from Americana to bluegrass, folk, rock, and devotional chants. He operates a recording studio in Sturgeon Bay, WI called STUDIO 330 and a record label named Allemande Music.
Bhava Samadhi is a state of ecstatic consciousness that can sometimes be a seemingly spontaneous experience, but is recognized generally to be the culmination of long periods of devotional practices. It is believed by some groups to be evoked through the presence of "higher beings." "Bhava" means "feeling", "emotion", "mood", "mental attitude" or "devotional state of mind." "Samadhi" is a state of consciousness in which the mind becomes completely still and the consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object. Thus, "bhava samadhi" denotes an advanced spiritual state in which the emotions of the mind are channelled into one-pointed concentration and the practitioner experiences devotional ecstasy. Bhava samadhi has been experienced by notable figures in Indian spiritual history, including Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and some of his disciples, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his chief associate Nityananda, Mirabai, Kundalini Guru Shri Anandi Ma, and numerous saints in the bhakti tradition.
David Newman was a sacred chant master, recording artist, singer/songwriter, best-selling author, and inspirational teacher. David, also known as Durga Das, traveled extensively sharing his music and teachings on the path of love as a vehicle for spiritual awakening.
The Jivamukti Yoga method is a proprietary style of yoga created by David Life and Sharon Gannon in 1984.
Sharon Gannon is a yoga teacher, animal rights advocate, musician, author, dancer and choreographer. Along with David Life, she is the co-founder of the Jivamukti Yoga method.
Wynne Paris was 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. His live performance combines Kirtan chanting, American music, world beat rhythms and raga scales. He sings in both English and Sanskrit. Paris plays a variety of musical instruments which include the guitar, sarod, harmonium, saz and percussion. Wynne Paris died suddenly of a heart attack on March 22, 2021.
Bhakti Without Borders is a Mantra Music charity album by Madi Das. It was released May 12, 2015 and nominated for a Grammy award that year in the "Best New Age Album" category. At the time, this was only the third kirtan album received this honor. Bhakti Without Borders was listed as one of the "10 Best Yoga Tunes of the Year" by Yoga Journal. It also ranked third in the "Top 20 Conscious Music Albums for 2015" competition by Soul Traveller.
Jahnavi Harrison, also known by her spiritual name, Jahnavi Jivana dasi, is a British musician known for her Hindu mantra meditation music (kirtan). She regularly appears as a presenter on BBC Radio 4's Something Understood programme and BBC Radio 2's Pause for Thought.
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