Renton resident and jazz pianist Terry McCaw, known to many as Yogi McCaw, has found himself at the center of a new world music movement, with the success of The Yoginis Indian Jazz Project, his band.
McCaw, who formed the band around 2003, plays Indian jazz fusion music with a diverse group of musicians in the states and in India. They make up The Yoginis. The band was invited to play at a concert in New Delhi in March by the popular Indian fusion band called Advaita.
Advaita’s lead singer, Ujwal Nagar, originally sang on The Yoginis’ first album and has gone on to superstar success with his Indian band.
“That band, in the intervening years, has become the singular best-selling Indian fusion band in India,” said McCaw. “So people are like, ‘Oh, you’re using Advaita’s singer’ and I’m like, ‘Well, he was in my band first,’” he says laughing.
McCaw doesn’t mind being associated with his friend’s Indian band. Advaita received “Best Album” at the 2013 Jack Daniels Rolling Stone (India) Rock Awards.
Now, McCaw is working on a full album of Indian jazz fusion. The Yoginis first album, “Terra Shivaiya” features six Indian jazz fusion songs from his band in India, including Nagar’s vocals, and six Latin jazz tunes from his U.S. band.
Eventually, he wants to bring both bands together to create one multicultural band.
McCaw is a trained jazz pianist, who’s dabbled in classical music over the years, but is also influenced by world music. Born in Massachusetts, McCaw lived in Seattle for a long time and moved to Renton in 2010. He played in rock-n-roll and rhythm and blues bands growing up in the ‘70s and discovered Indian classical music when he was young through meditation. His nickname, Yogi, comes from his Indian spiritual master.
McCaw calls his late father a “career soldier,” who advised him to approach the world through a different path. Heeding his father’s advice, McCaw embraced music and opened himself up to the world.
“People are like, ‘I see you with a hip hop band; I see you playing rhythm and blues,’” he said. “‘I see you with the Indian guys; I see you with the African guys. What the hell?’ For me, it’s just all one thing. It’s just music, you know, the universal language.”
McCaw has always been a fan of Indian classical music for its “sense of melody and improvisation,” he said.
He’s quick to point out it has rules and scales like other types of music, but he likes the in-the-moment aspect of creating something new.
McCaw is fascinated by India’s on-going population growth and what he sees taking place in that country.
“There’s a whole new wave of young people in India right now and they’re transforming everything,” he said. “They’re restructuring the society; they’re restructuring the music. It’s a very exciting time over there.”
The music of the West is coming together with the music of the East because young people in India are discovering American classics like Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix and creating something new with the music they grew up with, McCaw said.
He challenges anyone in the states to go out and find music that sounds similar to the new genre he plays in with his Indian jazz fusion.
Most recently his band played at World Rhythm Festival at Seattle Center earlier in April.
To hear The Yoginis, check out their You Tube video of a house party concert they performed April 14.
Tracey Compton can be reached at 425-255-3484.