For Baluji Shrivastav to be such an accomplished and respected musician is a minor miracle.
Blinded as a child, Baluji was not afforded the privileges of the guru-shishya (master-disciple) system by which most Indian musicians inherit their knowledge, as his blindness prevented him from carrying out certain duties upon which the system is based. Instead Baluji is largely self-taught, excelling in sitar, surbahar, dilruba, pakhavaj and tabla, but possessing a seemingly innate ability to play almost any instrument. His skill, as well as his versatility, is what makes Baluji shine as a musician; peerless and prodigious.
Baluji has released several albums of Classical Indian music and Indian world music fusion, and has accompanied such major stars as Coldplay, Massive Attack, Annie Lennox and Noel Gallagher.
In Re-Orient, Baluji is accompanied by his wife, jazz singer Linda Shanovitch, and multi-instrumentalist Chris Conway, who (with 90+ solo albums under his belt) quite possibly holds a legitimate claim to the title of the UK’s most prolific songwriter. Re-Orient perform a unique blend of jazz/world music fusion to stunning effect.
