Blast From The Past Vol 280

Peter Walker ‘White Wind’
from “Rainy Day Raga”
Vanguard
1966

The mid 60′s was a very exploratory age in sound. Larry Coryell and Miles Davis had hinted at the fusion that was on the horizon prior to 1966. The outlets bringing classical eastern forms of music to the west was growing stronger as the spiritual reawakening was occurring in full flight. Masters of the west and the east were starting to recognize one another and musicians like Peter Walker tapped into this collective growth in the mutation of cultural sounds diverging. Steeped in heavy influences of eastern, folk and Spanish flamenco guitar foundations, Peter Walker’s 1966 LP Rainy Day Raga laid down the tracks that would pave the way for John McLaughlin and the rest in the fusion world of the late 60′s and 70′s to follow.

Peter studied under Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan along with his musical director role he took on for Dr. Timothy Leary. His teachings gave him the sonic pallete that was needed to present eastern sounds in a powerful way to western audiences. With jazz flautist Jeremy Steig in his band, it was the type of meeting of great minds that was needed to branch something truly unique and new. What is so interesting about Peter Walker is the folk elements of his guitar style and how that reacts with the eastern elements. Finger picking in the same field as John Fahey, the back drop of Indian classical percussion gives it a very unique fusion of sound. The LP the song we included for our Blast From The Past series is called Rainy Day Raga and was put out by the famous Vanguard Records.

Vanguard was one of those labels during the 60′s that modeled itself around diversity. Blues, folk, Brazilian, jazz, fusion, they did it all. Acts like Joan Baez, Oregon, Bola Sete, Country Joe and The Fish, Skip James, Larry Coryell, John Fahey, Elvin Jones and so many more set the standard for high quality music from all over the world housed under roof. This is the type of label that we model our vision after. We will be presenting a series of Vanguard mixes at our Mixcloud page. Coming very soon. Enjoy this track, it’s one of the first windows into the world of fusion that was to dominate music culture for many years after it. The beginnings of anything are always lovely to see. – Erik Otis