One Thought Away

If you’re not familiar with Gurtu's remarkable versatility as a tabla maestro and composer who has played with everyone from jazz legends Don Cherry, Jan Garbarek and John McLaughlin to African singers Oumou Sangaré, Angélique Kidjo and Salif Heita, check out our Beginner's Guide feature in Nov/Dec 2006 (#40). Since then he's added another half dozen albums to his prolific catalogue and One Thought Away is his 21st release as a band leader in a career stretching back 35 years. Except this time he has done it pretty much solo, playing tablas, drums, keyboards, electric bass and the Basic 1, a revolutionary string-percussion hybrid, with assistance only from co-producer Carlo Cantini on keyboards and vocals from former Zap Mama member Sabine Kabongo on two tracks and Hindustani classical singer Devaki Pandit on another.

The four-movement ‘No Fear Suite’ and three-part ‘Chalo Chalo Chalo’ are avant-garde percussion jams with frenetic grooves augmented by extemporised chants. The seemingly infinite possibilities of the Basic 1 are explored intriguingly on the avant-garde drones of ‘Behind the Screen’ over which Pandit's voice soars hauntingly, while ‘Gluten Free Song’ and ‘So Happy’ are more conventional jazz-rock songs with Kabongo singing English lyrics.