Wild Call Entry

The Paul Winter Consort is an American musical group,led by alt saxophonist Winter. The music is mostly inspired by the sounds of animal and nature and mixes elements of classical,jazz and world music. It was founded in 1967 and had previously won three Grammy awards,the last one being in 2007 for Crestone. There have been several changes in line-up since its inception; the group that recorded Miho includes,besides Pt Ghosh and Winter,Arto Tuncboyaciyan on vocals and sazabo,Paul McCandless on woodwinds; Steve Gorn on bansuri,Eugene Friesen on cello,Glen Velez on percussion,Don Grusin on keyboard,Yukiko Matsuyama on koto and Yangjin Lamu on vocals. The music was recorded at the Miho museum in Japan’s Shigaraki Mountains.

Pt Ghosh,who heads the Sangeet and Nartan Peeth of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,recalls,“Paul asked me if I had ever heard recordings of bird songs and I informed him that even if such recording existed in India,I was not aware of them. He then told me he would send me some whale songs to listen to.” It was a first-time for the sarangi-player,but he was instantly smitten. “Humpback whales use these sounds to communicate with one another,that may only be three or four notes,but they’re so melodious. It was one of the most beautiful and touching sounds I’ve ever heard.” He went on to compose what would be called the Whale Raga,which was one of his two contributions on the album. His other track is a solo sarangi piece,called Sarangi-Dawn Raga,composed in the Ahir Bhairav raga.

This is not the first time that Pt Ghosh has collaborated with musicians from other countries. He was instrumental in forming the World String Orchestra in Japan,which involved using the traditional string instruments of Japan,China,Korea,Uzbekistan and India. He has also worked with musicians like baroque musician Philippe Pierlot cellists Jean Paul Dessy,Francoise Deppe and Justin Pearson,and world music exponents such as Trilok Gurtu and DJ Robert Miles.

Does he feel that collaborating with international artistes is the only way to make Indian music globally popular? “That is one of the ways,” he says,“The problem is that Indian classical music is not yet able to stand completely on its own and the reason for that is lack of awareness. It’s the responsibility of us musicians to go abroad and talk about our musical traditions. When awareness grows,so will curiosity and then Indian classical music will be as prestigious as European classical music.”

For now,Pt Ghosh has been intrigued enough by his work with the Paul Winter Consort to explore the possibility of further such projects. He enjoyed his duet with the whales so much that he’s asked to use their recordings in future concerts in India. He also hopes to use recordings of Indian fauna in music. “I’ve asked the Natural History Society if any bird sound recordings exist in India. Let’s see what comes of it.”