Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu (born in Mumbai in 1951), the son of vocalist Shobha Gurtu, raised in Hamburg and discovered in Sweden by
Don Cherry in 1976, joined Oregon in 1984 to replace
the late Colin Walcott and in
1989 was drafted by John McLaughlin in his trio.
Gurtu 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 double-CD Usfret (recorded in 1987 and 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.
Shobha opens in an atmosphere of mystery before percussion, trumpet
and violin launch in an Indian frenzy and the plaintive cantillating soars
from the jungle.
Electronic strings float around Shobha's intense Om.
Cherry's dreamy trumpet phrases and Shobha's ecstatic laments hypnotize
Shangri La, another track soaked into metaphysical suspense; it segues
seamlessly into Usfret, a mixture of wordless chanting and rhythmic and quasi orchestral emphasis.
The album exceeds in variety with the
surreal funk music of Goose Bumps and the
loungey piano sonata Milo.
His world horizons further expanded on Living Magic (march 1991), performed by a multinational septet with Goyone, Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, Belgian bassist Nicolas Fiszman, British kora player Tunde Jegede and Indian veena player Shanthi Rao.
Electronic keyboards and a lot more jazz reduced the world-music element on the trilogy that followed, starting with Crazy Saints (june 1993), featuring Goyone, keyboardist Joe Zawinul, guitarist Pat Metheny, Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger, French bassist Marc Bertaux.
Believe (july 1994) was another spectacular tour de force, but this time Gurtu led a more regular combo: Vietnamese bassist Chris Minh Doky, French keyboard player Daniel Goyone and USA guitarist David Gilmore (of Lost Tribe). And the partners often stole the show.
Bad Habits Die Hard (october 1996 - CMP, 1996) documents live performances with Andy Emler replacing Goyone on keyboards and Bill Evans (sax) and Mark Feldman (violin) guesting.
However, Gurtu later embarked on a project to fuse African and Indian music while retaining the western song-oriented format on the following trilogy.
The Glimpse (september 1996 - Verve, 1997) was performed by an Oregon-like ensemble that featured Bulgarian flutist Teodosii Spassov, Indian-American guitarist Jaya Deva, Indian sitar player Ravi Chary, etc.
Kathak (december 1997 - Efa, 1998) was an Afro-Indian-jazz jam with Swedish bassist Kai Eckhardt de Camargo, Deva, Chary and vocalist Neneh Cherry.
African Fantasy (Blue Thumb, 2000) offered a song-oriented fusion of African and Indian motives performed by a mixed African-Indian ensemble (Chary, Fiszman, Deva and several African vocalists).
Gurtu also played with Philip Catherine, Shankar, Charlie Mariano, Paul Bley, etc.
The Beat Of Love (january 2001) was a mediocre Afro-pop effort which was partly composed by Squeeze's pop songwriter Chris Difford and by pop producer Wally Badarou for mass consumption. Ditto for Remembrance (2004).
Miles_Gurtu (Salt, 2004) was a collaboration with electronic musician
Robert Miles.
Farakala (february 2005) was recorded in Mali with African musicians.
20 Years Of Talking Tabla is a career retrospective.
Massical (august 2008) features Jan Garbarek (sax), Carlo Cantini (violin, keyboards), Roland Cabezas (electric and acoustic guitars), Kai Eckhardt and Johan Berby (both on bass), and vocalist Sabine Kabongo.
21 Spices (may 2010) documents a collaboration with 20 musicians: rock drummer Simon Phillips (Peter Gabriel, Gary Moore, Who, etc.), bassist Michel Alibo, guitarist Roland Cabezas, and the NDR Big Band conducted by Joerg Achim Keller.
Trilok Gurtu (percussion, vocal) and Simon Phillips (drums) collaborated on
21 Spices (Koch, 2012) that also featured
Roland Cabezas (guitar), Michel Alibo (bass) and the NDR Big Band.
Spellbound (december 2012 - Moosicus, 2013)
features the trumpets of Nils Petter Molv‘r, Ibrahim Maalouf,
Hasan Gozetlik and Paolo Fresu.
God Is A Drummer (Jazzline, 2019) featured
Jonathan Cuniado (bass), Sabri Tulug Tirpan (keyboards), Zara (lead vocals), Christophe Schweizer (trombone) and Frederik Koster (trumpet).
One Thought Away (2023) contains the No Fear Suite.
