The Indian Core

On this new recording the critically acclaimed Norwegian contemporary jazz group The Core has joined forces with renowned traditional Indian music performers. The collaboration grew out of a tour of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh by The Core in 2006 , where they found three musical soul mates in the Indian performers Prasenjit Mitra, Kanchman Babbar and Fateh Ali. The desire to play together seemed completely natural as both sets of musicians have a common point of departure in their own folk music and to a large extent utilise improvisation. The Core consists of five young musicians who met through their dedication to 1960s. Last autumn they were sent to India by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to create a commissioned work together with Prasenjit Mitra, Kanchman Babbar and Fateh Ali. In the course of a week's work they had created sufficient material for an extensive tour of Norway which took place in November 2006. According to the critics this tour was an experience above and beyond the ordinary, a beautiful interaction between saxophone, flute and sitar, and double bass, piano and tablas. The climax was the recording session for this CD which captures the magic of the musical collaboration between East and West with its mix of contemporary jazz and traditional Indian music. Personnel: Prasenjit Mitra - (tablas) Kanchman Babbar - (flute) Fateh Ali - (sitar) Espen Aalberg - (drums) Erlend Slettevoll - (piano) Kjetil Moster - (saxophone) Steinar Raknes - (bass)