S14 E6: Tashi Dorji

I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee

Over the last few years, I’ve been heavily influenced by some of the work that my partner has been doing around decolonisation, particularly in the field of yoga.
It’s led me to think about how this applies to music and my own relationship to music.
I’ve realised that my own classical cello training from way back when, the exams I did, the framework that I was expected to adhere to, were a western, colonised version of what the instrument represents.
Whilst it gave me a lot of technical abilities that have stayed with me through years of inactivity with the instrument, the restrictions of this approach has actually followed me through life and it has had some detrimental effects and I noticed this when I picked it up again a few years ago.
I’m still thinking within the confines of that framework.
But, when I first heard the music of cellists like Abel Selaocoe and the music of Tashi Dorji, I heard an unrestricted redefinition of their instruments and what their music can represent and a mind that’s free from so much of the colonised, capitalistic world.
It felt like their stream of consciousness was washing over me.
They have been inspirational for me to try harder to overcome the obstacles that I have with reconnecting with the cello and make it into an instrument that works for me, not for the establishment.
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