Kolkata :
He was born in Woodstock and became a raga exponent in Kolkata, his bansuri featuring in a Grammy-winning album and Oscar-winning film along the way.
Flautist Steve Gorn is in town to perform at a concert presented by Calcutta Classical Guitar Society in association with Flute Lover’s Association on Wednesday.
Gorn had first come to India in 1970. He visited Kolkata a year later. “I had a Western music background. My father was a pianist and I played jazz saxophone and Western flute. During the late 1960s, though, many in our generation got influenced by Ustad Bismillah Khan’s shehnai. I came to Varanasi to explore Indian classical music and even tried the the shehnai. But since I was already playing the flute, I shifted to bansuri,” he said.
Gorn next travelled to Kolkata and began learning bansuri from Gaur Goswami, a disciple of the legendary Pandit Pannalal Ghosh. “I stayed around Gariahat and would take a tram to Shyambazar. That year, 1971, was a troubled time because of the Bangladesh war. Bombs were going off, curfews were imposed and thousands of refugees strea- med in. But I was young and couldn’t gauge the political situation. Now of course I know things better,” he told TOI.
“But back then, the music used to be a lot different from what it is now. Kolkata had an old-world charm and the music I love comes from that era — the music of stalwarts such as sitar maestro Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. For me, it is the ‘bhav’ or ‘ras’ of Indian classical music that is more important than anything else,” he said.
By 1972, Gorn and his wife had spent about 16 months in India. Then came a long gap and he returned again in 1986. “But Indian classical music continued to influence my compositions for films, dance shows and theaters,” he said. It also took him around the globe. Last year, he performed in China, Japan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Holland. “That’s why I speak only smattering of Hindi and Bengali,” he says apologetically.
Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia heaps praises on Gorn. “He is a very good musician and a nice human being. We are very good friends and I have visited his home many times,” the flute maestro told TOI on Tuesday.
In 2004, Gorn played the flute for “Born Into Brothels” which was shot in Sonagachi and bagged an Oscar. “One scene is very close to my heart — a boy flies a kite and the flute melody also rises with its flight,” he said.
In 2011, he featured in the Grammy-winning album “Miho – Journey to the Mountain”. “Dhruba, the nephew of Pannalal Ghosh, played sarangi in the album. Miho is a museum in Japan and the music director was invited to visit and create music reflect the Asian artworks that were on display,” he told TOI.
Gorn has also been a part of several Grammy-nominated albums, including two this year.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Shounak Ghosal, TNN / March 11th, 2015