Chaurasia

Exerpts from an interview:


"I am playing for the audience. But between us, I can see Lord Krishna. And the audience can also see him." Even in the west? "They cannot explain why but they go into a kind of meditation." He played a festival a few years ago, where "people were lying on the grass. For one and a half hours, I played just one raga and the entire crowd did not want it to end."

Back to poking fun at western musicians. How the famous Irish flautist and "very nice man" James Galway must rue the day that he had Chaurasia round for supper. It ended in a battle of the flutes.

"He was not able to blow my bamboo instrument, but I was able to blow his flute. He had three gold flutes and I had only one bamboo flute. I said: 'Why don't we exchange? That way you can practise on bamboo.'"

The swap didn't happen, of course - but how Chaurasia must have relished attempting it.
"
James Galway's flute is amazing; just runs through the spine! Especially those beats that he creates. Listen to him here and hear!

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/dec/14/worldmusic