Ry Cooder & V.M. Bhatt - A Meeting by the River (2008) {Analogue Productions 45rpm 180g} 24-bit/96kHz Vinyl Rip plus 16/44

is an album by Ry Cooder and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, released in 1993 through the record label Water Lily Acoustics. In 1994, the album earned Cooder and Bhatt a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album. American composer, musicologist and guitar legend Ry Cooder teams with North Indian musician Vishwa Mohan Bhatt to create an exquisite musical realm, with both musicians playing exceptional slide guitar. Their collaboration evokes musical elements from many cultures and styles. Percussion by Sukhvindar Singh on tabla and Cooder's 14-year-old son Joachim on dumbek. Ry Cooder has long had an interest in other people's music, from the blues and gospel of black America through classic jazz and the music of Cuba. Even by this standard, his meeting with Mohan Vishwa Bhatt is certainly a departure. He is neither a serious student of Indian music nor in any way a master of its intricacies. Yet on his improvised session (this album was recorded without rehearsal in one evening), he and Bhatt truly collided musically and created moments worthy of the world-music Grammy they received for it. Bhatt is an iconoclastic character himself. He plays a modified box he calls the Mohan vina that is a hybrid of a classical Indian instrument and slide guitar. He is long trained in the arduous classical style, yet his work has always demanded a lot of freedom. His duets here with Cooder are completely unique, liberating both artists from the usual constraints and creating a new musical style that is unlikely to be repeated or imitated. --Louis Gibson on amazon.com Professional ratings Allmusic 4.5/5 stars

Track listing

Side One

1. "A Meeting by the River" (V.M. Bhatt, Ry Cooder) – 10:03

Side Two

1. "Longing" (V.M. Bhatt, Ry Cooder) – 11:56

Side Three

1. "Ganges Delta Blues" (V.M. Bhatt, Ry Cooder) – 9:57

Side Four

1. "Isa Lei" (Lieut. A.W. Caten) – 7:39


Released 1993
Recorded September 1992 at Christ the King Chapel, St. Anthony's Seminary, Santa Barbara, CA
Genre World Music
Length 39:35
Label Water Lily Acoustics
Producer Kavichandran Alexander

Personnel

* Ry Cooder - bottleneck guitar
* Vishwa Mohan Bhatt - Mohan vina
* Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari - tabla
* Joachim Cooder - dumbek