His father is a concert pianist, and while he himself had a jazz background playing mostly wind instruments like saxophone, clarinet, the western flute, what fascinated Steve Gorn initially was the shehnai. Today he is easily one of the most gifted Bansuri exponents in the
world, blending in a richness of sound, melody and magic, that transports his audience into a world resplendent with the essence and dripping with the nectar of Hindustani classical music that Lord Krishna made immortal centuries ago. He has collaborated with many western artists and the first sounds that you hear on Paul Simon’s highly acclaimed album “Graceland” are of Steve’s flute.
So saxophone to Shehnai, how did that happen?
I think that for me the initial interest in Indian music was the jazz saxophone players that I was following like John Coltrane, Yusuf Latif and Charles Lloyd. They had been listening to the Shehnai music of Bismillah Khan and that seemed to have had a tremendous effect on the way they were developing their music, and it was that quality that caught my attention. So when I went to India that was the first instrument of choice for me to learn. I got to India in 1969 and traveled over land and these were fantastic travel years as I took the trade route of thousand years ago and actually waded into India through Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. I went to Banaras and it seemed like a living opera, teeming with life. I went again after 25 years last year and though it has changed tremendously but when you are down there by the ghats and see people and the beauty, it remains the same. The richness is in the humanity, in all its suffering, pain and joy and so much of the music arises out of that. When I go to India I feel as if I am tasting the source that this wonderful music arises from. I don’t think I could play the kind of music I do otherwise. I knew nothing about India when I first arrived other than having this western notion that somehow that music was connected to jazz and so I studied Shehnai. The first of many pivotal experiences happened when I went to a mela in Maihar and Allauddin Khan Sahib was alive then. We stayed throughout the2-3 day festival and heard sitar maestro Nikhil Bennerjee play Bhairav. And I knew I wanted to sign up for this musical journey for life.
How did you switch to Bansuri?
It was in Calcutta the following year and then it was purely by chance that I was introduced to Guru Goswami a disciple of flute maestro Pannalal Ghosh . He played something and I responded to his depth. He had a quality of playing that was so olde world resonating with depth of feeling, that essence and that was what interested me more than the virtuosity or technique. It’s an interesting how these days there seems to be a lot of emphasis on technique. I started in Banaras with the flute but quickly moved to Calcutta and had an important one-year with him and then came back. Since then I have gone back to India many times.
As a non-Indian how easy has it been to learn and how was the response from the Indian audience when you first played before them?
I have tremendous respect for the tradition of the music and even today after so many years there are times, I will be playing something and suddenly I will understand something about a raga that someone was telling me 10 years ago. There is a never-ending journey of going deeper into it and one’s musical maturity keeps ripening. The beauty is a child like quality of beginning over.
I have been so moved by the support I have had from people in India. When I do something that pleases them, their way of complimenting me would be to say “I close my eyes and I didn’t know it was not an Indian playing.” I did have a review once in Calcutta, which ended in the socialite segment of the paper talking about this western flute player attracting gopis. They took a picture of me my legs crossed like Krishna’s !Playing this music as a westerner is a very interesting situation. I know more then anybody that I’m not Indian and that when I play there is no way I can sound a 100 percent Indian because I have so many other musical influences in my life. I think over the past few years I have really tried to blend things. I am a curious mix of someone who grew up in the west with western sensibilities but has a deep connection with this music. My music may be a little bit different but I am most pleased with my playing when what comes out is the effortless quality instead of my trying to show you what I have learnt, just sending notes into space that make people feel a connection to life and the earth.
I do have one complaint though. In India I feel people have become addicted to music that is too loud. Every concert I heard in Calcutta was distorted .You could not hear the sound of the instruments and it’s a disappointing trend. At the same time you go to someone’s home you hear the real thing. Here there is a really growing audience for fine music. Samir Chatterjee, the tabla maestro, and I organized an all night concert last month in New York, which was sold out. When Rashid Khan was singing the early morning raga at 7 -8 in the morning there were still about 450 people there, half Indian and half American. The idea of a nightlong concert is so wonderful but happens so rarely. Its definitely a different time and when you hear that olde world music that takes so long to unfold it takes a lot on the part of the listener to drop his modern day agenda. I think a lot of the artists compromise their work because they are afraid the listeners will run away but if you really want to create the kind of magic then it has to be done in the traditional way.
It seems like more and more people are showing interest. I think when the craze for Indian classical music started in the 60s it was a lot more superficial thing than it is now. Today there are people who are studying it, there are more opportunities to see concerts and there seems to be a real genuine appreciation of this magnificent music.
(For more information on Steve’s amazing music write to him at: steve@stevegorn.com)