“Thunder comes resounding out of the earth.  The image of Enthusiasm.  Thus the ancient kings made music in order to honor merit … inviting their ancestors to be present.” 

- Hexagram Yu, I Ching

    A few months ago a phenomenal musical happening – the Monterey World Music Festival – occurred in Monterey, California.  Thirty years, nearly to the weekend, after the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, an exquisitely diverse array of high-powered world music talent took to the historic stages at the Monterey Fairgrounds to enact a rite of passage into the age of world music in much the same way that the 1967 festival heralded a then-revolutionary approach to pop. 

    Patrons left both festivals in altered conditions and various ecstatic states.  “An energy portal was opened over Monterey,” one New Ager confided.  Even sober, coffee-sipping fans stated that the music had transformed their lives – heady stuff, and gratifying too, given the comparatively sparse crowds who witnessed standout shows on four stages by nearly fifty groups.  Nevertheless, the artists gave peak performances, inspired by juxtapositions in a program that piled strength upon strength – Conjunto Cespedes, Laura Love, the Klezmatics, Fourth World, Hamza El Din, and Vasen, to name a few. 

    Someone commented that the opening acts at Monterey would be closers at any other festival.  How true, with C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band, and Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra leading off Saturday and Sunday’s shows.  Veteran stage managed Bill Welch marveled at the various and complex technical requirements of the eighteen acts on the main stage. 

    Some performers made obvious obeisance to the luminaries of 1967.  Los Lobos, backed by rack upon rack of guitars, lit into an homage to Jimi Hendrix that rocked Monterey in a way perhaps not heard in the intervening thirty years.  1967 had been sitarist Ravi Shankar with Alla Rakha on tablas in a performance that opened a generation’s ears to the mystical sounds of India.  1997 presented sitarist Shujaat Khan, bansuri flutist G.S. Sachdev, and Alla Rakha’s son, as well as Jai Uttal, who brought the purest modes of Indian music together with hybrid strains in an unprecedented display of virtuosity and inspiration. 

    Later, in an encore show dubbed “Inner Caravan” held indoors on the Café du Monde stage, fans witnessed Musa Dieng Kala, Shujaat Khan, Sachdev and the Persian emigres Axiom of Choice in performances that achieved music’s sacred function as a conveyor of ecstasy. 

    Originally called the Monterey World One Festival, the festival had to change its name just three weeks before showtime when it was threatened by a claimant alleging trademark infringement.  The old name, however, better described the festival’s ambition to celebrate world culture in diverse modes, with storytellers, dancers, and performance artists complementing the musical performances.  Cosmic dancer Zuleikha, world storyteller Laura Simms, and Celtic storyteller Mara Freeman worked magic on the Other Worlds stage, and performance artist Sha Sha Higby’s Balinese-inspired sculptural miming opened new vistas of space and gesture. 

    Back on the main state, veteran English folk-rockers Steeleye Span, with Maddy Prior, and Norway’s shamanic Mari Boine Band tore at the skies in sparkling, spine-tingling shows. Mari’s chillingly contemporary yet ancient evocations transfigured the consciousness of all present, an apt finish to a festival marked by sublimity and even transcendence.  As Boine finished her encore past midnight and the neighbors called the cops, a departing fan said, “I’ve been at history.”