SNJO 21 Spices with Trilok Gurtu
Tonight’s concert has its roots in an invitation that came Scottish National Jazz Orchestra founder-artistic director Tommy Smith’s way almost thirty years ago.
In 1995 Trilok Gurtu had released his Bad Habits Die Hard album and in putting a band together to tour this music across the US and Europe the following year, he asked Tommy to play saxophone.
“It was an unforgettable experience,” says Tommy. “Trilok is a genuinely unique musician and his music is exciting and brilliantly imaginative.”
Audiences in Scotland knew about Trilok’s powers of percussive invention by then. His appearance at Glasgow Jazz Festival with guitarist John McLaughlin’s trio in 1988 had been sensational and further visits shortly afterwards, both with McLaughlin and in a duo with Weather Report’s keyboard maestro, Joe Zawinul, confirmed his status as a major league musician and a veritable sonic poet.
The son of vocalist Shobha Gurtu, a legendary figure in Indian classical music known as the Thumri Queen, Trilok began playing music at the age of six. His training in India’s musical traditions, allied to a natural sense of enquiry brought him to the attention of world music pioneer, trumpeter Don Cherry. A completely one-of-a-kind playing style, incorporating tabla, a customised drum kit, an array of shakers and gongs, and a bucket of water with which he creates all sorts of tones and timbres, was introduced to a wider audience when Trilok took over the percussion chair in chamber jazz group and ECM Records artists Oregon following the sudden death in a road accident of Collin Walcott.
Tours and recordings with McLaughlin and Zawinul followed, as did collaborations with guitarist Pat Metheny and saxophonist Jan Garbarek, with whom Trilok has worked for many years. There have also been appearances and sessions with myriad other international stars of world renown, including Dame Evelyn Glennie, Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare, Angelique Kidjo, Omara Portuondo, and Tuvan throat singers, Huun Huur Tu. A project with Italian virtuosi, the Arke String Quartet, which is shortly to be reconvened, brought further magic.
For this meeting with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Trilok’s compositions have been arranged by the German percussionist, pianist, composer and conductor, Wolf Kerschek, who has worked in situations from jazz big bands and philharmonic orchestras to conducting football’s World Cup anthem and participating in Sesame Street.
“Kerschek is an amazingly versatile musician and arranger and we’re really looking forward to bringing his orchestrations of Trilok’s music to the stage,” says Tommy Smith. “Knowing his work and having played with Trilok, I’m sure tonight’s concert will be exhilarating.”
