Guy Beck

Guy L. Beck is a scholar, author, musician, educator, historian of religions, and musicologist. A Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (Oxford University, UK), he is Lecturer in Philosophy, Religious Studies and Asian Studies at Tulane University, and Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at Loyola University New Orleans. As a scholar and historian of religion, Guy Beck is the first to publish a comprehensive study of the nature and function of sacred sound (Nada-Brahman) in the Hindu religion, which was developed by applying the category of 'sonic theology'. In a sequel work, he has provided the first extensive analysis of ritual and music in Hinduism through the paradigm of 'sonic liturgy'. As an educator, he has created the first college textbook on music in the major world religions with an accompanying CD of recordings. As a musician, Beck is the first American performer of Hindustani vocal music, the first to earn a vocal music degree in India, and the first to perform vocal music in an all-India conference of Hindustani classical music. As a musicologist, he has produced the first and most complete collection of field recordings, translations, and annotations of the hymns and religious songs of the Radhavallabha Sampradaya, a Vaishnava or Krishna sect based in Vrindaban in northern India.

Born in New York City as Guy Rice Sincock on 3 August 1948, Beck was brought up in a musical family in the Forest Hills area. With English roots on his father's side extending back to the 17th century, and Swedish on his mother's side, in Minneapolis, he was exposed to classical and popular music from an early age from his natural father, Harold Rice Sincock (1915–1994) a noted New York pianist, vocalist, and vocal arranger for Broadway and night club acts in the 1940s and 1950s. Known professionally as Harold Cooke or Harold Cook, Guy's father worked for composer Harold Arlen (Wizard of Oz) in Broadway shows (Hooray For What?), accompanied a young Judy Garland, and did vocal arrangements for Kay Thompson and songstress Kate Smith ("God Bless America"). He was the vocal arranger for the 1940 Broadway musical Two For the Show, starring Betty Hutton and Eve Arden, which introduced the popular standard, "How High the Moon," sung by Alfred Drake. As a vocalist, Harold sang in several quartets including the one known as "The Martins" with composer Hugh Martin ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas") and lyricist Ralph Blane. After serving in the Navy in WWII, Mr. Cooke was featured as staff pianist and master of ceremonies at the Blue Angel night club in Manhattan where he used to accompany celebrity singers, including Pearl Bailey, Kaye Ballard, Russell Nype, Andy Williams, and the young Harry Belafonte. As a composer, he wrote the popular, "Moonrise," "People Like You," and "It's April Again," the latter song being recorded and broadcast on radio by friend and mentor, piano legend Cy Walter, also from Minneapolis. His song "People Like You" was featured in the 1951 film, Casa Manana, starring Robert Clarke. Inspired and taught by his father, Guy developed a professional piano style of his own as he played several venues in Syracuse in the 1980s, including forming a jazz trio, which led to his position as lobby pianist at the Hotel Syracuse (1989-1990). His repertoire included many songs of the Syracuse-born Oscar-winning composer Jimmy Van Heusen. While in New Orleans (since 1995), Beck played in the French Quarter for several years at Mr. B's Bistro and the Pelican Club, incorporating blues and jazz elements into his playing.

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