A Conversation with John Kruth (continued)

JK: In the midst of all that I went to India.

PM: Whoa.

JK: And I studied Carnatic mandolin.

PM: What does that mean?

JK: There are two forms of music in Indian traditional music. There's Hindustani, which most of us are aware of, like Ravi Shankar.

PM: Right.

JK: But in South India they don't play Hindustani music, they play Carnatic music.

PM: I've heard South Indian music, but I've never heard it called Carnatic before.

JK: It's sometimes spelled with a "k," most often spelled with a "c." But Carnatic is based on the spiritual music of the 16th and 17th century. And they're almost like what you would consider to be like their versions of gospel songs and hymns. But they also use the Raga, have a lot of very similar approaches, but the pieces are much shorter. They're like five, seven, eight minutes long. They're not a half hour long, they're not in three or four different steps or phases. So I went there and played with U. Rajesh, who I can actually send you a picture of, me and Rajesh. You know flickr.com?

PM: Uh-huh.

JK: You go to flickr.com and put in "John Kruth." And his name is U. Rajesh. And you'll see a picture of myself and Rajesh together in India, with his band. I played one concert with Rajesh, who was spectacular. I mean, he is the younger brother of Shrinivas who plays with John McLaughlin in the new Shakti. And Shrinivas is--as he was known, the adorable child prodigy. He is a world class mandolin player who is a classical musician, and absolute virtuoso. And Rajesh plays with Shrinivas.

PM: Right.

JK: They have a little school there. I didn't go to their school, I studied with a percussion master. And then I played one concert with Rajesh, and it was unbelievable. It was just incredible, because it was like going jogging with a guy from Kenya.

PM: Yeah, right.

JK: The first mile he's polite and smiling at you and everything, and after that you can't even remember what he looked like.

PM: He's got to get going, yeah, right.

[laughter]

JK: Yeah, he's got to get going. "That's great, thank you. I've got to get going." Like playing tennis with Agassi. If you can return the ball, you hope that you don't break your wrist.

[laughter]

JK: So he was very gracious. And I played this gig with him. And here's the funny part: We had this tremendous rhythm section of three Indian drummers, tabla and redondum, and I forget the name of the other drum. But we had this tremendous rhythm section. And at one point, which was--I've kind of taken a shot here, because even though there's improvisation in the music, I was a guest, and I didn't know if it was really called for or anything, but I reached in my pocket and I pulled out my harmonica--

PM: [laughs]

JK: --and right in the middle of this incredible drum solo that they were playing I started chugging a train beat--

PM: Oh, my God.

JK: --and people went wild. So two weeks of practicing every day, five to six, seven, eight hours a day--between five and eight hours a day on my mandolin made absolutely no difference. Pulling a harmonica out of my pocket and playing a little bit of a train rhythm that I've been playing since I'm 16 years old--

PM: Yeah, there's a moral to that story.

JK: These guys are incredibly spectacular musicians. So that's my wild world, Frank, cowboy and Indian music.

[laughter]

JK: I love them all--and some Croatian thrown in the middle.

PM: Well, I guess that's what makes you John Kruth.

JK: I guess so.

PM: You're a very global character.    continue

print (pdf)     listen to clips      puremusic home