To say that Mumbai (Bombay) is a musical city is to state the blindingly obvious. With over 16 million inhabitants, India's most-Westernised, teeming metropolis has a population bigger than many countries and hundreds more arrive from the hinterland each day seeking a better life. It's where the contrasts of India are seen at their most extreme and right alongside each other. The distance from the filthiest, shanty-town squalor to the glamorous appartments along Juhu Beach is no more than a few kilometres. The whole industry of Bollywood is, of course, fuelled by the desire to escape reality. It's a potent dreamworld and one that dominates musical life, not just in Mumbai and in India at large, but reaches millions of others across the world.

Trilok Gurtu was born into a musical family in Bombay. His passion for percussion, though, and adventurous musical tastes have taken him all around the world with a proselytizing zeal, "In Western music rhythm is not so developed," he says. "The West doesn't understand how great and sophisticated Indian rhythm is. One of my missions is to show that." For his latest CD Remembrance, he's firmly back on Indian territory and that is what he's performing in Mumbai. Recorded in India with Indian musicians and designed for the Indian market, it has had rave reviews in Europe. "It's dedicated to my guru in Bombay, Ranjit Maraj, and it's a sort of journey through India, including Assam and Darjeeling, Calcutta, Gujarat and Bombay. My aim is to show how modern and dynamic India is. People haven't really discovered India. You don't really get it from TV or a computer. We want to show India in more depth."

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Trilok Gurtu: Awards for World Music