Maura Moynihan in the News
- - -
A Little Bit Of The East, July 1, 2001
YOGA HOTEL, August 31, 2003
The Terror In Nepal, May 7, 2002
Music and Mysticism, September 7, 2001
India Has Maura To Give Thanks For, August 2, 1996
Masala.com, September 7, 2001
Music Mysticism , Funky Rock and Social Activism
Maura Moynihan�s Yoga Hotel integrates classical Indian and Tibetan music with new age elements and a message of peace.
By Jim Bessman
Maura Moynihan�s remarkable journey has taken her from the privilege of being born the daughter of former New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to higher education at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D. C. and Harvard where she also performed in numerous alternative rock groups (most notably the Velvetones) as lead vocalist, drummer, and go-go dancer. But perhaps the most significant event in her life was a pivotal trip to India with her father in 1973 when she was 15 and he was the US ambassador to India.
She later studied Sanskrit and Urdu in India, along with ghazals and Bharatanatyam dance, yoga and Buddhism. She also pursued painting with masters in India and Nepal, and particularly Hindu and Buddhist iconography in Dharamsala and in the Kathmandu Valley. After a successful career as an actress and comedian (she appeared in several movies and on TV and had her own stand-up comedy show), the striking performer gave it all up, without regrets, to help Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal.
Having immersed herself in all aspects of South Asia, then, Moynihan is no culture vulture in the manner of a Madonna, say. And while she may not be as pioneering as Madonna when it comes to being ahead of everyone else in terms of musical trends, her own brand of dance music, as demonstrated on her eclectic album Yoga Hotel, is just as listenable, more substantial (World peace through dance is its motto), and a whole lot warmer though not at all lacking in sex appeal.
The songs involve Moynihan�s life in South Asia including the spiritual aspects and were mostly written while walking the streets, visiting Buddhist temples, or even attending discos in India, Nepal, and Tibet. The divine lead track Vision of the Light seeks guidance from the Boudha Stupa in Nepal, and showcases Moynihan�s lovely, unaffected singing voice in an entrancing new age-y context. But next cut Khampa Boy, about the warriors of Eastern Tibet who saved the Dalai Lama by smuggling him into India years ago, takes on a lively, rhythm guitar-driven funkiness, with Moynihan sounding more like a seductive Debby Harry.
Next comes the title track, which is about a friend�s house in Nepal and features a fusion groove with its electric rock guitar parts flying above an Indian drum-Indian percussion and bordering on cute, but Moynihan brings such a sense of innocence and playfulness that she pulls it off.
Sexy Tsering also risk dismissal over its cuteness quotient, but Moynihan�s hip-hop whisperings again work because of her winsome vocal presence and the jazzy guitar track�s subtle techno enhancements. Tell Me (How to Say It) offers a sort of Indian Go-Go in building upon the native Washington, D.C. funk/dance go-go style, so known to Moynihan�s chief collaborator on the album, the D.C.-based guitarist/vocalist/arranger/producer Wynne Paris.
Chakra Chant was inspired by Monihan�s visits to Pashupatinath, and is her most successful assimilation of Eastern and Western musical elements. Green Cards and Blue Jeans is again Blondie-esque, this time with more of a Caribbean calypso flavor. Take Me Home is more traditional ballad pop in its approach, while Five Days and How It Feels (Ode to Kathmandu) bear remnants of the alternative guitar rock of her formative music years.
But the album�s most emblematic track is Purify Me. A plaintive Chinese-sounding lament combining the Tibetan tanyen lute and flute with sisterly backup vocals resembling the Roches, the song is �a prayer for the pure land,� according to the lyric sheet, and pleads for Tibetan liberation. As such, it most fully integrates �Indian and Tibetan music and mysticism with funky rock and a sense of social activism,� which as cited in the CD booklet, is what Yoga Hotel is really all about.