Trilok Gurtu - Usfret (1988)

Tracklist

1. Shobharock (Trilok Gurtu) - 7:35
2. Shangri La / Usfret (Trilok Gurtu & Walter Quintus / Trilok Gurtu) - 13:00
3. OM (traditional, arranged by Trilok Gurtu) - 7:09
4. Deep Tri (traditional, arranged by Daniel Goyone) - 7:02
5. Goose Bumps (Trilok Gurtu) - 4:22
6. Milo (Trilok Gurtu) - 4:15

personnel :

Trilok Gurtu: percussion, drums, tablas, congas & voice
Shobha Gurtu: voice
Ralph Towner: acoustic guitars, keyboards on "Goose Bumps"
Don Cherry: trumpet
Shankar: violin
Daniel Goyone: piano & keyboards
Jonas Hellborg: bass on "Shobharock" & "Deep Tri"
Walter Quintus: tambura on "OM"

Recorded by Walter Quintus at Ztudio Zerkall 1987/88
Produced by Kurt Renker & Walter Quintus with Trilok Gurtu

Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu (1951), the son of vocalist Shobha Gurtu, who had played with Don Cherry (1976), with Oregon (1984) and with John McLaughlin (1989), perfected a technique that draws equally from Indian tabla and dhol drums, from jazz music (cymbals, hi-hats) and from other ethnic cultures (gongs, congas, cowbells, snares). He even dipped resonating instruments in buckets of water to produce sounds that he could not produce with traditional instruments. He began his mission with the intense mixture of Indian music, jazz-rock and world-music of the CD Usfret (1988), featuring the likes of trumpeter Don Cherry, guitarist Ralph Towner, Indian violinist Lakshminarayana Shankar, Swedish bassist Jonas Hellborg, French keyboardist Daniel Goyone and his own mother, vocalist Shobha, although the album still downplayed the exotic overtones and emphasized instead supernatural spirituality.