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Although Steve Gorn and Benjy Wertheimer had not yet met, they'd been hearing about each other for nearly 20 years. Finally, in January of 2001, Krishna Das invited them both to Los Angeles to record on his CD, "Breath of the Heart." During breaks in the recording schedule, they instantly began to play together. Music without words...esraj and flute weaving the melodic contours of a raga...flute and tabla meeting in a spontaneous rhythmic dance. It was clearly the beginning of a deep and powerful musical relationship. Their bond and mutual respect grew as they toured the Northwest in 2002-03, and culminated with this exquisite recording of Indian ragas, along with Priyagitah, an original piece for esraj and clarinet.

Musicians

Benjy Wertheimer : esraj, tabla, vocals, keyboards

Steve Gorn : bansuri bamboo flute, clarinet

David Michael : zither

Michael Stirling : tamboura

Artist Bio:

Benjy Wertheimer

An award-winning musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist (playing tabla, congas, percussion, esraj, guitar, and keyboards), Benjy Wertheimer has toured the US, Canada, Europe, Central America and Japan, and has opened for such artists as Carlos Santana, Paul Winter, and Narada Michael Walden. A founding member of the groundbreaking Ancient Future World Fusion Music Ensemble, he now tours and records regularly with such artists as Krishna Das and Deva Premal. He studied Indian classical music for over 25 years with some of the greatest masters of that tradition (including Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan and Z. M. Dagar).

Steve Gorn

Steve Gorn has performed Indian Classical Music and new American Music on the bansuri bamboo flute, soprano saxophone and clarinet in concerts and festivals throughout the world. Well known to audiences in India and the west, he has been praised by critics and leading Indian musicians as one of the few westerners recognized to have captured the subtlety and beauty of Indian music. He is currently featured on Paul Simon’s new CD, You're The One. He has toured and recorded with Jack De- Johnette, Tony Levin, Glen Velez, Simon Shaheen, Peter Kater, Alessandra Belloni, Layne Redmond, Badal Roy, and Nana Vasconcelos.  He was featured in Jerome Robbins' Ballet, "Watermill", and Julie Taymor's "Transposed Heads".  He has received critical acclaim for his Indian music recordings, Luminous Ragas, and Parampara, and the classic world music recording, Asian Journal.

 

Review:

Priyagitah: the Nightingale

John Friend

"Priyagitah is a perfect blend between the mystical sounds of the esraj and the soul elevating music of the Bansuri bamboo flute. Mixing other instruments such as tabla, keyboards, and tamboura help to make this an amazingly evocative musical CD."

Product SKU: AH-02582-PRIYAG