I had forgotten all about the disc until back in beloved Bombay, Sanket told me that he was blown away by the music. "It is brilliant fusion", he chimed. Now Sanket Chavan is a man who knows his music. So when he says something is unlike anything you have heard, you have to listen to it. And listen I did.
Prem Joshua and friends put me in a musical spell that brought memories of Goa and other journeys flooding back to me. So when I heard that these folks were going to be Bandra for a free music concert, I was ecstatic.
On November 22nd, 2009 at the Celebrate Bandra festival, inside the decadent Bandra fort, Prem Joshua and friends performed live to an audience that comprised of an expatriate population, Indian families, young students & some hippies.
The open air amphi-theatre, the palm and coconut trees that surrounded the artists and the crescent moonlight all added a slightly surreal feel to the entire event. The music was beautiful, melodious, soaring, swerving, at once taking you on a journey and then suddenly making you ponder.
Prem Joshua had the audience in splits with his funny takes on India. Another concert was playing about a stone's throw away. He quipped, "We have competition today. You know in India everything has to be loud." The crowd cheered, because it sounded more like an Indian's rant!
The sitar playing was taut, the tabla,the percussion and the entire music sounded exactly as it sounds on the disc. But the thing that stayed with me was the Soprano Sax, a hauntingly beautiful sound that pierced my heart.
The concert ended, but a lot of us wanted some more.A standing ovation and a few moments later we ended up meeting Prem Joshua himself. I had heard this line somewhere, "You never choose the music you listen to, its almost always that the music chooses you." That line struck a chord inside me that night.
P.S.A big thank you to Sanket for the concert pass. I am adding a link to Shiva Moon just in case you want to sample some of Prem Joshua's music.
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