The jazz-oriented Triloka Records successfully entered the worldbeat realm with
Jai Uttal's Footprints, a hauntingly tranquil CD that finds the student of Indian great
Ali Akbar Khan combining Indian music with American pop. The largely instrumental
Footprints isn't modern secular Indian pop, but rather, is best described as an early-'90s approach to traditional Indian spiritual music. Soulfully blending tradition and technology,
Uttal lets loose on acoustic instruments like the dotar, the harmonium and katrals as well as electronic synthesizers.
Uttal has inspired company in jazz trumpeter great
Don Cherry (who is best known for his assocation with avant-garde innovator
Ornette Coleman), vocalist Lakshimi Shankar, tabla player Daniel Paul Karp and bassist Jerry Watts. ~ Alex Henderson