The story behind Amano Wudd’s live clarinet and flute recording.
On my last trip to India I decided, as a woodwind instrument maker, to take a restored ebony transverse flute and a Bb clarinet with me and try out some of the extraordinary acoustic places there.
After an echo valley in the mountains of Mahabaleshwar and sound recordings in the Agha Khan Palace in Poona, I was talking with my late friend Amareesh Leib, who suggested I get ‘rolling’ during the upcoming full moon at the Taj Mahal.
Thought, and done! Soon I was on my way to Agra. It turned out that the officials in charge of the ancient tomb for a great love were so corrupt that they demanded thousands of US dollars from me, which of course I did not have. So an undercover recording was decided on, and I’d do it single-handedly, me alone.
The day before full moon was the first attempt. At the opening time of 6 am, the snow-white marble building lay dreamily before me, bathed in bright but smooth, silverish light, and I stormed in cheerfully.
The first obstacle appeared as the shoe baba. For a small fee I had to leave my sandals with him. On increasingly wet and cold, morning dew-soaked socks, more and more disturbed and annoyed, I hurried up the last steps… When the lower part of my flute tumbled out of a pocket of my jacket onto the marble slabs – with a bright, metallic sound – I knew immediately: That’s it! I should have carried the instrument in its case and hidden it under my lungi!
A fragile silver mechanism like that can never withstand such a terrible tumble undamaged! Back at the nearby hotel, I got out some tools and spent the following day doing emergency repairs.
Next morning I was finally successful: a huge full moon was still shining in the early morning sky, and I played out of an inner calmness the sequence of notes you hear, and I still cannot say where they came from…
Under Silver Light – Live at Taj Mahal
Full Moon Live Recordings 1990
for Osho’s Farewell
in the Great Hall of the Taj Mahal
by Amano Wudd
• Invocation (Solo Carinet) (Live)
• Under Silver Light (Solo Clarinet) (Live) 7:10
• Longing (Solo Flute) (Live)
• Gratitude (Solo Carinet) (Live)
• Farewell (Solo Flute) (Live) 6:56
• Bird Choir (Live)
Label: Bellaphon
Copyright: ℗ 2018 Bellaphon records © 1990 Amano Wudd
Total length: 53:37
Genre: Ambience / Chill-Out Sounds
ASIN: B07GSXLST7
Available directly from the musician: en.taj-mahal-music.de – open.spotify.com – sannyas.wiki
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