Oh, just one other observation...one of the most facinating things about this album is that neither artist had played with the other. So, on the first track, you can feel the two getting to know each other. If you listen, you can hear that Ry is a bit out of his element playing indian raga style. And even a little bit sloppy. Bhatt is very conservative on this first track too. The second track they get it together pretty well. But on the third track, they are completely jivin and the result is incredible. So this is really kind of microcosm/musical analogy to any other cross cultural interaction...learning each others language and then beginning to discuss fluently and then laughing and shouting together. Check it out.
A meeting by the River....
Sayas here on Audiogon recommended a to me a CD called "A Meeting by the River" featuring Ry Cooder on Bottlenect Guitar and V.M. Bhatt on Vina. I found this recording to be facinating. It's a real cross cultural dialogue through music. Ry plays a bluesy riff and Bhatt compliments it with blues a la vina. Then Bhatt plays a raga and Ry plays that bottleneck like a Vina...complete with drone chord. There is even interesting cross dialogue between Joaquim Cooder, backing his father on dumbek and Bhatt's tabla player. The result culiminates in the incredible track "Ganges Delta Blues." This is really a fanstastic piece and magical playing. My hat off to Sayas and I would like to know if any of you have similar suggestions...not necessarily Indian-American dialogue, but some other cross cultural exchange that is magical. By all means, try this record, unless you can't stand Sitar/Vina...otherwise, I highly doubt that you'll be disappointed...au contraire.