Trilok Gurtu
Trilok Gurtu ( born October 30, 1951 in Bombay ) is an Indian percussionist and singer who has become famous mainly as an intermediary between Indian and Western music traditions. While you have seen him in the mid -1980s as belonging to the world of jazz, he has applied since the mid-1990s as a representative of world music. In the 21st century, he is looking more than ever to work with musicians from his home, but remains true to his adopted hometown of Hamburg.
Childhood and youth
Trilok Gurtu was born into a musical family in Bombay. His grandfather called Gurtu as a very good sitar player, but says that this grandfather has waived appearances, there was no need for it from a financial perspective. His mother, Shobha Gurtu, however, came with their art, the light classical, North Indian singing publicly. It is considered the most famous singer in the semi-classical thumri style.
Gurtu reported in several interviews that he was constantly around music around during childhood, and that he was stopped by his environment to musical exercises. At the age of five he began to play the tabla. Important suggestions for this came from his older brother, Ravi, who had already been laid before him on the percussion. The brother brought from time to time, to plates with Latin music into the house, and as a child tried Gurtu, nachzutrommeln the Conga Parts from among Latin pieces.
At the age of ten he had with his brother, a percussion group, and there were engagements for concerts at universities. At this time he had also learned alongside the tabla to deal with bongos and drums. When he was sixteen years old, so about in 1967, he took work in cinemas and hotels. The work in west oriented hotels offered him more than ever the opportunity to familiarize yourself with western music. When it comes to the musicians who influenced him at the time, then he calls especially John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown and The Supremes.
At his father's request he began studying, but could not enthusiastic about the course content. Was more important for him that he could join a group called the Waterfront in 1969. Waterfront played in discos and sometimes on pop concerts. Since you could earn as a musician in India is not good money, they gave performances on in 1973. For Gurtu those were the times when he could not afford their own drums, and therefore had to borrow his instruments with friends.
Contact recordings with musicians from the Western world
In 1973, at the age of 21, he left India and traveled through Europe, first with the band Waterfront and later as part of the popular music troupe of Rahul Dev Burman and the film music singer Asha Bhosle. He lived for some time in Italy and then returned to India. About this time he says: "I knew how to play pieces of Hendrix on the tabla, but no one cared. "
When he was back in Bombay, he played on the Jazz Yatra festival along with Charlie Mariano. Mariano was the first Western musician with whom he could perform together. Gurtu applied with a recommendation of Charlie Mariano in the United States at the Berklee College of Music, but was rejected. When years later the international attention and many honorary awards had set, he got the same college honorary membership offered, and it was he who refused.
In 1977 he traveled with Asha Bhosle to New York. He then went to Germany and played with the German rock band embryo together. Since it is not allowed to earn enough money with these engagements, he went to Sweden to work there with the jazz trumpeter Don Cherry.
Jazz and classical
Since 1977, he starred in the Family of Percussion of the Swiss percussionist Peter Giger. About Don Cherry he came into contact with jazz musicians such as Archie Shepp, Jan Garbarek, Philip Catherine, L. Shankar, Gil Evans, Airto Moreira and Paul Bley. He took pieces on with Catherine and L. Shankar, Mariano, Bley and Barre Phillips. It worked for two years.
After that he went to Karl Berger Woodstock, New York, to give lessons. There he met the jazz musician Jack DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, Naná Vasconcelos, Collin Walcott and. In the group Oregon he succeeded Collin Walcott after he was killed in a traffic accident. From 1984 to 1988, he traveled the world together with Oregon. Together with Jan Garbarek and Zakir Hussain, he was also a quartet of L. Shankar. With Garbarek, he played a 1985 his album Song for Everyone.
Mid 80 's Gurtu a fixture in the music world. In addition to his performances with jazz artists, he moved again to cooperate with representatives of classical music, such as piano-playing Lebèque sisters or the cello virtuoso Yo- Yo Ma.
In 1988 the guitarist John McLaughlin became aware of Gurtu, as this occurred along with Charlie Mariano at a festival in Germany. He invited him to the McLaughlin Trio musical supplement. For four years, he was an integral part of McLaughlin's band included were several world tours and album recordings. There were at that time working with Joe Zawinul, Bill Laswell, Maria João Gilberto Gil, Pharoah Sanders, Annie Lennox and Pat Metheny.
In 1988, he joined European festivals, with his own band. His first LP was Usfret. The music of Usfret session is music, in which only the percussion had been set in advance. It involved Don Cherry, Ralph Towner, L. Shankar, Jonas Hellborg and Gurtus mother. The album proved to be unsuccessful. The criticism and the fans were able to his vision of music not to follow.
This was followed in 1991 by the more structured album Living Magic. Were involved as a saxophonist Jan Garbarek and Nana Vasconcelos as a percussionist. With this album, he got more than before into the world of jazz. In the summer of 1993, Gurtu was with his own trio on the road to promote his own album The Crazy Saints. In The Crazy Saints Joe Zawinul and Pat Metheny were at the forefront. The music linked subtle Indian rhythms and Indian singing with elements of modern jazz and rock.
The following year, the band was expanded to a quartet. Among the players on the next albums were Neneh Cherry, Angelique Kidjo, Salif Keïta and Steve Lukather. The fifth of Gurtus albums released in 1996 titled Bad Habits. These are live recordings of two concerts in Cologne's city garden. An unusual for him recording was in 1996 the album Tabla Tarang - Melody on Drums, in which he, the last great Indian master Kamalesh Maitra accompanied cautious on the Tabla Tarang.
" World Music "
Around the year 1996, Gurtu turned to the world music circles. On his albums sizes are now not primarily represented from jazz and rock, but increasingly also in the popular music scene famous artists who do not belong to the western culture.
His band from 1999 consisted of three Indians and two Africans. With this group he recorded the album African Fantasy, the first publication with which he addressed himself clearly of African music. There are Indian song to hear sitar and sarangi sounds and a wide range of percussion instruments from around the world. The sales figures of the African- Fantasy - CD exceeded the previous all albums.
In a time in which he completed many performances with his group, for him there was also prestigious solo performances and guest appearances on albums by John McLaughlin, Pharoah Sanders, Nitin Sawhney, Lalo Schifrin, Gilberto Gil and Bill Laswell.
The music traditions of Africa and India were once again decisive for the following in 2001 album The Beat of Love. He gathered together for this album some of the most respected African singers of our time. These include Salif Keita ( Mali), Angélique Kidjo (Benin), Wasis Diop (Senegal), Jabu Khanyile ( South Africa) and Sabine Kabongo. Many pieces were recorded in India. Dance with My Lover is a piece that is composed in African juju- style; it was recorded exclusively with Indian musicians.
Remembrance of 2002 is the first own album, Gurtu has recorded exclusively with Indian musicians, including with his mother Shobha Gurtu and the tabla player Zakir Hussain. The Music of Remembrance is Indian music that makes some concessions to the listening habits in the Western world.
There was sensational music events in which Gurtu was involved. So he played in London's Hyde Park on the 50th Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, as well as at a concert in Bombay on the 70th anniversary of the BBC World Service with Baaba Maal and Youssou N'Dour. In the harbor of Copenhagen, he drummed with the Korean percussion ensemble SamulNori on a floating stage.
For his eleventh solo album Broken Rhythms of 2004 he engaged alongside the Irish blues guitarist Gary Moore, the Italian Arke String Quartet, the Tuvan Overtone Huun - Huur -Tu, the " devil's fiddler " Ganesh Kumar, sitar master Ravi Chary, as well as several Indian vocalists.
A special feature of Gurtus appearances is that he often gathered his percussion instruments on the floor around him. Mostly are represented: pool, hi-hats, snare drums, tom-toms, congas, tablas and Indian dhol drums, gongs and bells, as well as in most cases also a bucket of water, in which he keeps echoing objects, so as to achieve sound effects.
Discography
Own productions:
Awards
Trilok Gurtu has won in each of the years 1994 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2002 the Critics Award Downbeat magazine as the best percussionist of the year. He was chosen by the readers of Drum Magazine for best percussionist of the year 1999.
Quotes
"When I came to the West in 1977, I only played with jazz musicians. That was a very creative phase and jazz musicians were also viewed as Pop. Meanwhile, jazz has evolved into an intellectual music for a small audience. But I 'm not a jazz musician, but an Indian musician who plays contemporary Indian music, specifically for young people. "