Trilok Gurtu
Crazy Saints

Okay, I labeled it "contemporary" as a possible genre because it's really difficult to define this album or place it on the shelves of a music store.

Trilok Gurtu is Indian, a percussionist "all around" and a tabla player of exceptional taste and value. He has contributed with his "colors" to enrich the works of many major artists; among them Pat Metheny, Joe Zawinul, Annie Lennox, etc. (also see this beautiful interview from 2004).

What makes the album in question absolutely "unique"? The fact that you find a perfect and balanced blend of genres (and respective musicians) that ranges from Indian and oriental "flavors" to Western (USA) and Mediterranean-Central European ones, thanks to the presence of Daniel Goyone, a "huge" French jazz pianist, Marc Bertaux also a French bassist, Ernst Reijseger on cello, Louis Sclavis, who is featured with bass clarinet - clarinet - soprano saxophone, and "none other than" Joe Zawinul and Pat Metheny!!! The two tracks recorded in duo with Zawinul alone would make the entire album worthwhile.

Small digression: can I swear? I'd think (my negligible opinion) that after the end of Weather Report, these two pieces are the best thing the old Viennese has done, since all his albums recorded after W. R. fundamentally continue to "reignite" different versions of the same track, sterilely based on a single chord. "Stories of the Danube" is perhaps the only exception; otherwise, two big "beautiful balls"! Don't shoot me, I love him deeply but... that's what I think. I pay taxes, so let me say it!!!

As for the presence of Pat Metheny, he agreed to participate in the album's recording (recorded in Germany in 1993) only on the condition that Shoba Gurtu, Trilok's mother and traditional Indian singer, would also take part, who from the first notes of the album immediately baffles all our usual, consolidated Italian melodic taste. Daniel Goyone offers a breathtaking performance, when present, Bertaux is a bassist with significant attributes, and the last track features an even more unusual and intelligent arrangement, as there is no use of double bass for the counterpoint but, instead, the incredible cello of Reijseger is used in that sense.
Sclavis carves essential niches in the song structures from which the album would lose much of its charm without his sounds.

It is certainly a piece that, listened to for the first time (as indeed all new and valuable things), leaves you a bit baffled; even if you already have a solid musical culture behind you. BUT YOU ALREADY KNOW YOU'LL RETURN TO IT, AND IMMEDIATELY! In fact, it gradually gets into your blood, to the point of keeping the disc in the player on your nightstand or in the car for several weeks. It's definitely a classic. Beautiful, very beautiful; and moreover, it's found on E-bay for peanuts.

Gurtu is not an impromptu percussionist or anything like that: the use of tabla requires many years of meticulous study, in terms of "paradiddle" and possible sounds (see Badal Roy, esteemed master). To the tabla, Trilok adds a wise and distributed use of the entire percussion park, including the drums, of course. Moreover, unlike Han Bennink, a technically and academically ignorant confessionally (but happily and lovingly in his collaborations: he's really good!), Gurtu is a MUSICIAN WITH GREAT AND DEEP MUSICAL CULTURE in a specific sense: apart from the two compositions improvised and created by Zawinul, the melodies and arrangements of the album are his or arranged in collaboration with Goyone, see the traditional Indian.

Definitely a TRUE EXAMPLE OF EXCELLENT TIMELESS WORLD MUSIC. To buy sight unseen. Immediately.