Becalmed upon the sea of Thought,
Still unattained the land it sought,
My mind, with loosely-hanging sails,
Lies waiting the auspicious gales.
On either side, behind, before,
The ocean stretches like a floor,---
A level floor of amethyst,
Crowned by a golden dome of mist.
Blow, breath of inspiration, blow !
Shake and uplift this golden glow !
And flll the canvas of the mind
With wafts of thy celestial wind.
Blow, breath of song ! until I feel
The straining sail, the lifting keel,
The life of the awakening sea,
Its motion and its mystery !
I’ve always been interested in music from all over the world. I began learning piano at age six and grew up studying classical music and listening to rock & roll. When I was 13, I fell passionately in love with jazz and spent the next few years teaching it to myself mainly through rather fanatic listening. By the time I was 20, jazz piano had become my life and profession. From the moment I was exposed to music from non-Western traditions, it seemed perfectly natural to me to focus on its beauty rather than its foreignness. In those years, we rummaged through record bins to find LPs of African and Asian music, and the term World Music hadn’t been invented yet.
My curiousity drove me to journey overland from Europe to India spending a few months in each country. When I arrived in Afghanistan, I was so taken by the music, that I decided to learn an instrument. The rebab with its hypnotic yet percussive sound especially caught my ear. By some stroke of luck, I was lead to the greatest rebab master, Ustad Mohammad Omar, in Kabul’s old city. His teachings were a strong basis on which I could build for years to come. I was incredibly fortunate to have experienced Afghanistan’s Golden Age.
I was 25, when I got back from India. My musical world had been transformed, broadened, and enriched. I was able to work a lot playing the rebab as well as the sarod which I had also studied in Delhi. For a Western musician, especially a pianist, it is wonderfully satisfying to delve into music absent of harmony where every note is measured against the drone. It becomes addictive. The modes, rhythms, and resonance of the rebab can inspire trance, which I discovered as a new musical element. I found that this informed my approach to piano, which became more melodic and transparent.
Over the years, I have played and composed for both instruments in many different settings. I’ve tried to develop my Eastern and Western sides on separate tracks, so as not to lose sight of their essence. When the moment was right, however, I would let them fuse and in doing so strive to create something with its own integrity. Successful fusion comes about through knowledge and respect for both traditions. I’ve become more and more fascinated by this idea recently and hope to devote the next years to realizing a more perfect synthesis of East and West. Nowadays when World Music is more or less a synonym for pop music, it’s all the more challenging.