I ANSWER THE QUESTION: WHY DO I TRAVEL TO INDIA?

I enjoy traveling. I am fortunate to have been able to travel more than the average American. My world travels began when I traveled to Germany in 1969 at age 21 to study for a year in Kiel, Germany. (I am still reasonably fluent in the German language.) That was the time of the civic turmoil caused by the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War protests reached their worst chapter when the US military opened fire on protestors demonstrating at Kent State University, killing four students. Hopefully, Trump’s military show of force in putting soldiers in American cities won’t lead to a similar or worse tragedy!

I didn’t want to return to the US as long as the Vietnam War was raging. I left Germany and relocated for seven months to Stockholm, Sweden. I enrolled in a course in Swedish for Immigrants. It was a total immersion situation since most of the students were from countries that spoke languages other than English. I will always admire Sweden for its role as a global refuge for political refugees from anywhere in the world. One of my friends was an American who had served one tour in Vietnam. When he received orders to return to Vietnam, he decided to move to Sweden. His parents paid for his plane ticket because they didn’t want their son to risk his life again in the Vietnam War. He’s never returned to the US.

MY FIRST TRIP TO INDIA

I’m still very close to friends that I met during my time in Germany and Sweden. These friendships have endured for over fifty years. During the 1970s, there was “the hippie trail,” which was identified as “hippies” (mostly Americans) traveling overland to India. Since I smoked pot and had long hair, I qualified as a hippie.

Together with my German friend Gert, we flew on cheap student airline tickets from Berlin to Istanbul. From Istanbul, we traveled overland through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, to land in Bombay, India, where I stayed for several months. It was during this first India trip in 1971 that I discovered the beautiful Indian bamboo flute, the bansuri. Thus began my lifelong affection for India and its music. I was 23 years old.

That time period of my 1971 initial visit to Bombay/Mumbai is affectionately referred to as “old India.” I was told how proud Indian people are of their acceptance of different religions. Hindu temples are next to mosques, which are next to churches and synagogues.  This was an idealistic claim, since at times India has suffered from “communal violence,” primarily conflicts between Hindus and Muslims, with Muslims losing the most since Hindus greatly outnumber them. Due to improvements in technology, communications, education, and accessibility to travel, “old India” has transformed into an aspiring world power that sees China as its main competitor.

MOVING FROM GEORGIA TO CALIFORNIA

When the Vietnam War ended in 1972,  President Jimmy Carter offered amnesty to Vietnam War evaders. I had been out of the country for three and a half years. So I was never “served” with a formal draft notice. Therefore, I was not in any legal danger. I returned to my hometown of Columbus, Georgia. A friend of my father’s owned the Bekins Moving Van Company franchise in Columbus. I had worked for him as a mover for two summers during my high school years.

In 1973 he offered me a job as a long-distance Bekins van driver. I drove thirty thousand miles in five months. But the driving was the easy part. The hardest work was loading and unloading the furniture we moved. I earned more money than I had ever earned before. But I also decided that I would rather be a poor musician than a rich truck driver.

With money from my Bekins job, I bought a Volkswagen van and my first soprano saxophone. With some friends, we drove down through Mexico to Guatemala. Instead of returning directly to Georgia, I drove up the west coast of Mexico to California. I immediately liked California more than Georgia. When I learned that there was a college for studying Indian music, Ali Akbar College of Music in Marin County, California, I decided that I would move to California. I enrolled in AACM in January of 1975. I’ve been a resident of California and Nevada ever since.

ALI AKBAR COLLEGE OF MUSIC

I lived in Marin County, California, from 1975 to 1985. While studying Indian music at AACM, I built my professional music career, playing in different bands in different settings. I taught private lessons while being mentored by star saxophonist Alfred “Pee-Wee” Ellis. I also recorded for various recording projects, leading to my first album credits. I became an artist on Rising Sun Records, which led to the release of my first solo album, Stellar Voyage.

While I was gaining professional experience playing jazz, rock, and pop music with various bands, I attended evening classes at Ali Akbar College of Music. Having classes with music master Ali Akbar Khan was like having classes with Beethoven (or some comparable great master). The famous tabla master Zakir Hussain was my rhythm class teacher. G.S. Sachdev was my bansuri teacher. I performed with the musicians playing for the dance troupe led by master Kathak dancer Chitresh Das.

MY SECOND TRIP TO INDIA

My second trip to India was in 1982. The impetus for the tour was to perform with Chitresh Das’s American dance troupe. Besides his American dancers, Chitresh was also an incredible solo dancer. We started the tour in Calcutta (now named Kolkata), which was plagued by air pollution. (It is much better now.) We also performed in Delhi, Jaipur, and Bombay (now known as Mumbai).

When the dancers’ tour brought us to Bombay, Zakir Hussain was there. He introduced me to master keyboardist Louiz Banks, the “Godfather of Indian Jazz.” Thus began my continuing engagement with Indian jazz musicians. Louiz took me into the Bollywood film music industry to work for noted music producer R.D. Burman. Burman basically invented the distinctive Bollywood sound. He’s as well known in India as John Williams is known in America for his soundtracks.

I had taken my Lyricon Wind Synth into the film studios. Because that was a unique instrument, I was not taking work away from the Indian woodwind musicians. That year, I made more money in India than I was making in California. My Indian colleagues joked that I should move to Bombay and go on my vacations to California. I returned to India on my third visit in 1983, working again with R.D. Burman, as well as joining a fusion band called Ji-Whiz. Ji-Whiz would go on to record an album in Holland in 1984.

Under R.D. Burman, I played on a recording by Lata Mangeshkar, a famous singer who holds the Guinness World record for the most recordings by a single individual. This week in 2025, I am invited to record a flute track for an album by singer Baiju Mangeshkar, Lata’s nephew.

Louiz Banks is now 84 years old and still in top form as a world-class performer and composer. I will be performing with him this October 31 at the Blue Bop Jazz Club in Mumbai. Having a strong musical bond creates a strong and lifelong friendship with Louiz.

MY 1980s CULTURAL REALIZATION

In the 1980’s I had a film camera, long before our current cell phone cameras. When I got back home to my home in Marin County, California and developed my film, I was puzzled. The streets of Calcutta were completely devoid of trash. But Bombay’s streets were dirty with trash.  Upon reflection, I realized that the people were so poor in Calcutta that every piece of paper, trash, and even cow dung was collected by children to be used as fuel for cooking or heating. But Bombay was richer.  So the trash was left on the roads uncollected.

I photographed people in the slums of Calcutta. Upon viewing my photos, I realized that the people I photographed in Calcutta’s slums showed more joy and happiness in their expressions than the average Americans did, even though the Americans were much richer and vastly more secure materially than the poor Indians. That was when I realized that Indians may be poor materially, but they are rich spiritually. They survive their poverty through the strength of their communities and their spiritual beliefs. This spiritual positivity exists despite the lingering caste system, which is technically illegal but still exists in practice and tradition to this day.

NO INDIA TRIPS FROM 1983-2002

My life changed when I met harpist Susan Mazer in July of 1984. We married in 1987. Susan and I pursued our music careers together, which included touring with the great jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal.  We toured and recorded our own albums, performing long engagements at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe hotel. We founded our company, Healing Healthcare Systems (www.healinghealth.com), in 1982. Running HHS was our full-time occupation for thirty years. One result of that work was that there was a nineteen-year gap between my third trip to India in 1983 and my fourth trip, a quick trip to Bombay in 2002 with Susan.

MYNTA

In 1984, several months before I met Susan, I met Christian Paulin, leader of the Swedish jazz band Mynta (Swedish word for mint) for a tour in Sweden. At that point, Mynta was a typical jazz-fusion band. But between 1984 and 1999 (my next trip to Sweden), Mynta had transformed itself into an Indian-Jazz-Fusion band. One of its members was Fazal Qureshi, Zakir Hussain’s younger brother, whom I had met in Bombay in 1982.

In 2005, the Swedish flutist-saxophonist member of Mynta left the band, which led to my being invited to join Mynta. I was a member of Mynta for ten years, 2005-2015. Besides touring Sweden every year, we toured India for a few weeks every year for ten years. Our Indian manager, Manish, booked Mynta into jazz clubs and large festivals.

I’ll never forget when Mynta was booked into a fusion festival in Calcutta (my first visit to Calcutta since 1982), and in the taxi on the way to our hotel, there was a large billboard with our group picture advertising the festival. I felt like we had “made it.” We were stars in India! Mynta ceased touring in 2016 when Christian began to suffer from poor health.

MY INDIA VISITS CONTINUED FROM 2016 INTO 2025

Because I love visiting India, I have continued to travel to Bombay with Susan to play with my musician friends there. Chief among them is an American bass player, Dee Wood (originally from San Francisco), who has lived in India for many years. Through Dee and his musician friends, I’ve continued to play in jazz clubs, restaurants, and concert halls around Bombay every year when I visit, including this year.

There is a vibrant music scene for jazz musicians in Bombay. Innovative fusion music is being created that expands the jazz genre by including tablas and other Indian instruments. But like in so many industries, it’s “who you know” that creates the opportunities to perform. I’ve been very fortunate to know enough musicians over the years that I’ve come back to India many times for great music performances. This year is my seventeenth visit to play music in India. My life is blessed that I have been able to do this for so many years.