This happened long back in January 2000. I was in Mumbai and visited a Music instrument dealer (Ganesh Vidialay) located in a suburban area in Malad, as told by my teacher Sri Hanuman Jee to fix a couple of drum-heads (puras) and also acquire a pair to myself. I met this young musician there who was testing Tablas for himself and we engaged in a friendly conversation. He happened to be a disciple of the great Ustad Allah Rakha Khan Sahab. Later he invited me to his place which was not very far from where we were.

It was a warm welcome and he gave me some Tabla lesson and then along with his brother Devanand (keyboard player) played some soulful music too. Before I left, it was wonderful to see a string instrument was developed by his father Pt. Babulal Gandharva. He went on to demonstrate it and I was astonished by that other-worldly sound… This was pre-internet time but thanks to Facebook, we connected again a couple of years ago and I was happy to learn he’d pursued a musical career in both instruments.

As Bianca Gismonti and myself were preparing a repertoire for a recent musical project, I showed her a clip of him playing and she was mesmerised. We’re very honoured to have Naviin Gandharv as our featured guest on “Celestial Spheres”, playing the exquisite Belabaharr, along with our dear friend and BG Trio partner Paolo Andriolo on bass

Cheers

Julio Falavigna