Berger Knutsson Spering to India for concerts in honor of Pandit Taranath
Posted 2015-09-28
NO ALBUM DELIVERIES FROM C&E UNTIL OKTOBER 20 BECAUSE OF OUR TOUR TO INDIA. Sorry about that, you can buy stuff but we can’t send it until second half of October.
100 years ago our guru Pandit Taranath was born and his students from India and all over the world is celebrating him with concerts during all of this year.
Pandit Taranath with shishyas at departure for U.S. in 1967
50 years ago I hitchhiked to India in order to learn tabla after hearing an LP with Ravi Shankar and Chatur Lal. Without knowing anything or anybody I came to Bombay and was lucky enough to meet sitar and surbahar maestro Chandrashekar Naringrekar who introduced me to my guruji. I stayed for three months studying with him all day and when my money ran out I returned to Sweden to work and save money for two years until I could return for a longer stay in India. His teachings have meant the world to me, not only the tabla playing but just as much to the general approach to rhythm and music and to life itself. It’s an honor to be able to bring my two closest musician friends the great saxophonist Jonas Knutsson and double bass virtuoso Christian Spering in order to present our music as a small celebration of Pandit Taranathji in the fabulous company of all our gurubhais.
Berger Knutsson Spering 2015
20 years ago we started playing together as the Berger Knutsson Spering trio. Our music is jazz and we have our own personal way of playing it: we never decide what to play beforehand but any one of us can pick one of the c:a 100 compositions that we know and start playing it in any fashion or speed that he wants. The other two members will pick up on what he is presenting and hopefully take us all on a trip thru musical soundscapes where we have not travelled before. Also anyone is allowed to stop playing or change the tune at any time, making our concerts something like a friendly conversation between three friends that can take any direction depending on the mood of the moment.
The tunes we pick from are of many different kinds. There are standard jazz tunes, well known to the seasoned jazz listeners, there is the blues, there are tunes based on Swedish folk music as well as some Hindustani, Karnatic and otherwordly material and quite a few pieces that we ourselves have composed in various genres, including quite a lot of modal music inspired by studies of Indian raags. In some of these pieces we hope we will have the opportunity to invite some gurubhais to play together with us to enable us all to give a fitting tribute to our guruji’s teaching across all borders. Swedish government agency Kulturverket has graciously provided us with funding for this trip.
We will play concerts in the company of many gurubhais at Manipal, Mangalore, Anandashram, Parse, Panaji and Calangute from October 2 – 15
Here is a documentary about Pandit Taranath:
Some links with more info, sounds and video with us:
Pandit Taranath, one of his senior students Sadanand Naimpalli
Berger Knutsson Spering – Download Berger Knutsson Spering presskit
Jonas Knutsson, Christian Spering, Bengt Berger
Country and Eastern has recently released two albums with Pandit Taranath, one where he accompanies Ustad Z.M. Dagar on pakhawaj and one solo album where he demonstrates tabla, Live in Stockholm 1969 and the digital-only Tabla
