Taos Mountain Meditations

Paul Livingstone and Pete Jacobson offer soulful musical meditations on beauty and tranquility that help the listener or yoga practitioner balance their inner world. Pete and Paul draw inspiration from the Hindustani musical tradition and from Paul's teacher and mentor Ravi Shankar, who so eloquently collaborated with Yehudi Menuhin on the violin and helped popularize Hindustani music in the West. Pete and Paul also draw inspiration from American jazz improvisation. You may have heard Paul on his various Hindustani classical or "ragajazz" crossover recordings, as well as on the Sangam release of Yarlung in 2022. Pete is a cello rock star you may know from his tours and recordings with Rhye, Dr. Dre, Kamasi Washington and the West Coast Get Down, The Talking Strings, Quartetto Fantastico, and Aux Cerna. You may also know him from film and television, including The Walking Dead, Motherland and The Twighlight Zone. Paul and Pete have appeared on GRAMMY® award-winning records by Ricky Kej, Ozomatli and Quetzal Taos evokes magic, mystery, art, multiculturalism and majesty. Taos has been home to the Tiwa-speaking Red Willow people of the Taos Pueblo for more than a thousand years and is also home to Spanish settlers who founded the Spanish village of Taos in 1795. Taos offers breathtaking scenery, refreshing air and light, and the wonderful smells of clay, pine, and sagebrush. The area inspired some of the most creative artists of the 20th century, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams and D. H. Lawrence. The indigenous Red Willows people, the Tiwa Indians in Taos, now practice a blended religion that combines the conflicting teachings of their native religion with the Roman Catholicism imposed on them by the Spanish padres over hundreds of years. Ask a devout Tiwa friend about the conflicts, and he or she might shrug and say that one can follow both truths. This ability of the people of Taos to unite different theologies and worldviews will help us understand the diverse spiritual inspirations for the music on this recording. (Bob Attiyeh, Producer)