Why do a recording in India? There are so many great musicians and interesting instruments in the Indian tradition, and I like working with musicians who speak a different language. The idea for this project began as a dream that drummer Lewis Pragasam and I shared when we first met in 1982. We both have a great love and respect for Indian music as well as jazz and all kinds of music around the world. Our idea was to do a recording featuring the beauty and energy of Indian instruments in a somewhat Western setting: some chord changes (Indian music does not have harmonic progressions), tunes that are not too long, and a basic Western rhythm section-- keyboard, bass, drums. Mridangam player Madurai T. Srinivasan said to me after finishing A Piece in Our Time, "You are Ali Baba and we are the forty thieves." I later found out that he meant, "You lead us into this cave (the studio) and we go through these crazy adventures (the music)." I want to thank all the "thieves" on this recording. With everyone's help we were able to "steal" a few magic moments and put them on tape.