The following is a review taken from the April issue
of Gramophone, a British classical music magazine,
which I thought might be of interest.

[Alice Coltrane I haven't heard, but she is the daughter
of jazz saxophonist, and master, John Coltrane.]


'Sangam: Michael Nyman meets Indian Masters'

Nyman/Misra: Three Ways of Describing Rain
Nyman/Shrinivas: Compiling the Colours

Rajan Misra, Sajan Misra, Ritesh Misra, Rajnish Misra vocs;
Sanju Sahai tabla;
U Shrinivas mndl;
Michael Nyman Band / Michael Nyman

Warner Classics (E) 0927-49551-2
(59 minutes: DDD)

Indian music and Nyman combine with
at times stunningly beautiful results

Think Alice Coltrane or John McLaughlin's
Mahavishnu Orchestra and you'll get something
of the flavour of this meeting between Britain's
leading minimalist and a clutch of Indian virtuosi.

Indeed, when Nyman first saw him play, Shrinivas
was a member of McLaughlin's Remember
Shakti. Yet this comparison scarcely prepares
you for the literally breath-catching moment
early in the third section of Describing Rain
when, as Nyman's band wells up, weaving voluptuous
melodies around the soaring vocals, all
the constituent parts of the music fuse into an
expression of pure, transcendent exultation.

'Sangam' (Hindi for 'a coming together') is
being promoted as 'ground-breaking' but it
does have precedents, notably the collaboration
between Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass on
Passages (on Private Music in 1990-nla) where
each submitted material for development by
the other. Nor is this the first time Nyman's
works have incorporated elements of Indian
music and dance, although they have not
involved quite this type of interactive musical
partnership before.

For Describing Rain the framework was created
by the Misra brothers, principally from
improvisation. Nyman added piano accompaniment
from which his own Band's parts were developed.
For Colours, effectively a concerto for
Shrinivas's mandolin, Nyman contributed a
pentatonic bass riff and the piece developed by
what he describes as 'a dialectical process...it's
difficult in places to tell what is me and what is
him'. Shrinivas plays continuously throughout
the 31 minutes of Colours. Nyman's Band sometimes
shadows, sometimes engulfs, sometimes
dances with him, but always inspires him to further
displays of stunning articulation. The
Misras perform no less impressive feats of vocal
articulation and expressive emotion throughout
Describing Rain.

Barry Witherden