Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1151132
August/September 2019 23 art & soul MUSIC Reflections of the Taj Mahal: A Tribute To Paul Horn, by Gary Stroutsos S erene. Spacious. Celestial. These words describe the highly acclaimed flute artist Gary Stroutsos's new India-inspired album, Reflections of the Taj Mahal: A Tribute To Paul Horn. Each track provides deeply relaxing backgrounds for prayer, meditation, contemplation, and a variety of other activities, ranging from sleep to mindful movement to the healing arts. Praised by Ken Burns, featured on NPR, and invited to perform at the White House for President Bill Clinton, Stroutsos has been creating meditative music and telling time-honored stories that evoke the lands and cultures that he has studied over the course of his 35-year career. Today he is, perhaps, best known for his haunting work on Native American Flute and is acknowledged to have made a significant contribution to the preservation of American Indian music and culture with record- ings such as People of the Willows and The Elder Speaks. On this new album, Stroutsos pays tribute to his longtime mentor — the highly innovative and jazz-minded improviser Paul Horn. Often referred to as "the grandfather of New Age music" — though he never liked that title — Horn took a life-changing journey to India in 1968, where he met The Beatles and Donovan at the ashram of the late guru Maharishi. During this trip, he recorded his legendary album, Inside The Taj Mahal, using the hallowed spaces of the iconic structure as part of his sonic palette. On Reflections of the Taj Mahal, Stroutsos offers soaring, heart-opening interpretations of several Paul Horn classics, as well as some of his own original compositions (performed with various flutes, including the Hopi one that Horn loved). Each song helps the listener breathe in a healing inner light for their soul. (White Swan Records) — Julia Jones REVIEWS