THE BEAT OF LOVE
Understanding Trilok Gurtu - the person - is like trying to figure out what came first - the chicken or the egg. But even a tone deaf person would find a nuance of Trilok Gurtu - the music - an exhilarating experience

In a nutshell, Gurtu is the most successful blender of Eastern and Western fusion music. Born in a prominent musical Mumbai family (his mother Shobha is a celebrated vocalist and his grandpa a concert sitar player), Gurtu's fundas began with tabla classes, and progressed to international instruments where he collaborated with the legendary trumpeter Don Cherry, and a band with Shankar, Jan Garbarek and Zakir Hussain. He's also performed with John McLaughlin (the fusion guitar virtuoso) in albums and on their world tours, and has people like Joe Zawinul (Weather Report), Pat Metheny, Neneh Cherry and Angelique Kidjo working with him - on albums and on his tours.

Britain and Europe have lapped up every single one of his music creations. Young Asian stars like Talvin Singh and Asian Dub Foundation have cited Gurtu's debut album Usfret as a prime influence, and Trilok as an inspiration and mentor. Trilok's music is even used as samples in UK's hottest dance clubs today. JAM caught up with India's biggest musical export in between his world gigs to review his latest album The Beat of Love.

Which cities have you lived in? Bombay, Paris, Zurich, Florence, Milan, New York, Munich, London, Hamburg...
Okay, so you are really from...? Bombay
That's physically. What about musically? Actually, still Bombay. I've lived here, had my roots here and still derive most of my inspiration from here.
But aren't you known as the pioneer of fusion music, blending African and Indian elements? Yes, but I had to start with my Indian roots, and imitating them. To gain recognition, you first imitate. Then to lead the pack, you must innovate.
What do you think about the innovation of the Internet and Napster? I know a little bit of the Internet - downloading and stuff - but I don't spend much time because I've got to earn a living. But Napster's bad, because we artistes only get money from royalties of albums sold. So how can anyone say that it's good to download songs onto a CD?
But isn't it good that the Net allows more people to access your music? Nope - live performances allow more people to access my music. And not many people HAVE my music from the Net, coz I perform live. So they need to visit my live shows.
Do you listen to other music styles? Yes, I listen to everything initially - then I filter out the stuff I like. As a band in college called Waterfront we started out playing Traffic, Jimi Hendrix and Dylan (which no one could understand anyway).
Would you play for Bollywood movies? Sure. I've been approached to do movie scores. For Mira Nair's Kamasutra too. But people think I charge too much...
How do you plan to get more of today's youth to listen to your music? I shall be returning in December to perform here -but it still has to be worked out. My music is simple. It has all the elements of life, and it's old, but I've made it sound modern. That itself is educational, which is good for the evolution of music, which people say that I've been doing since I started out. Evolving music, I mean.