Light for the Masters is a dedication to Alice and John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and great Indian musicans Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Ustad Sultan Khan . I was blessed to study and perform with the Indian masters. Jazz is what I have studied most of my live and for the last 15 years I also play world music. The Indian instrument Sarangi is a cross between a cello and a contrabass with its own reverberation, but with gut strings which give a human vocal sound. I thought playing jazz on Sarangi would be a great sound to workout the new idea. To me all music is a spiritual journey to keep creating one’s music to the highest level possible in life. I am trying to take Bass and Cello technique together and use it on the Sarangi. It sounds like cross blends of jazz and Indian music and a spiritual deep meditation. I would like to thank Susan Pearlstine for inspiring me to go to Womex in 2008 which led to my great friendship with my producer Jay Visvadeva and the wonderful and original tabla player you hear on Light for the Masters, Pritam Singh. It was no coincidence that Jay and I were in a hotel next to each other and Jay heard me playing the Sarangi and we learned that we both considered Ali Akbar Khan our guru and good friend. This personifies the unity found in world music. My introduction to Pritam was also unique in that from the moment we met we were immediately performing at the West Midlands World Music Consortium music booth. Our musical blend was instant. On a visit to the UK , Jay produced and arranged for Pritam and myself to record at the studio of Christoph Bracher, and the result is LIGHT FOR THE MASTERS. Strange Strings, Kash Killion There is a place in deep improvisation where jazz and classical Indian music meet, and that is where Kash Killion plays. A San Francisco-based cellist, bassist, player of sarangi and bolong, vocalist and composer, he began his professional music career at the age of ten. Kash is a visionary musician who stretches the boundaries of bowed string instruments to produce something unique and extraordinary yet still authentic within the jazz and Indian classical traditions. KASH KILLION has recorded and/or performed with the Sun Ra Arkestra , Chocolate Armenteros, Richard Egues ,Cecil Taylor, B.B. King, Billy Higgins, Eddie Palmeri, Tom Waits, Reggie Workman, Bobby Hutcherson, Pharoah Sanders, Larry Willis, Francisco Aquabella, Quincy Troupe and Roberto Borrell. Having developed an outstanding reputation as a virtuoso jazz player, Kash performed and recorded with the Masters Ali Akbar Khan and Sultan Khan and became committed to the development of a new world music that incorporates many genres and is played for listeners of all ages and cultures.