As many as 120 musicians worked for two years on Winds of Samsara to get a cross-pollination of music into it.
Amongst the 14 tracks that his award-winning album offers, there are tracks with predominantly Indian music strains with the track Madiba bringing in African flute from Wouter Kellerman and Hindustani strains, alaaps and the veena. And Nocturne has the Seattle Pro Musica choir blending aesthetically.
“Don’t forget I have a strong classical music background being a student of Prakash Sontakke in Hindustani, who is a master at playing slide guitar, and Neecia Majolly in Western music who is truly wedded to her classical background.”
Other favourites of Ricky include Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for his powerful voice and Peter Gabriel for his spirit of experimentation.
And, in Bollywood? “It’s Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy, and Vishal Bharadwaj!”
