About This:
The idea for this CD was born in conversation between the Tibetan Buddhist monk, Geshe Gyatso Gendun, and me in the late 90's. We had met at a Buddhist-Christian conference in 1996 and then co-led some Buddhist-Christian retreats at the Empty Bell in Watertown, MA. We wondered about bringing together my Zen shakuhachi with some Tibetan musicians. When Gendun moved away from Boston we kept in touch by phone, and then one day in the spring of 2003 we decided to meet at the recording studio of Rob Ignazio near Porter Square in Somerville, MA. Gendun brought two friends, Jim Smith, a musician, composer and professor at Berklee School of Music in Boston, and Debbie Szabo, a cantor from Newburyport. Suddenly, instead of simply integrating the shakuhachi with Tibetan chants, we were co-creating a community celebration with new friends from different traditions. Gradually, the vision for this CD expanded to other musicians. We are grateful for the additional contributions of Debbie�s daughter , Vivien (age 5, Ya Se Shalom), and my friends, Mike Dwan (Ali Maula), June Boyce Tillman (Give Thou to Me and Oh Virtue Sapientia), Jacynth Hamill (Pie Jesu) and Robert Honeysucker (Precioius Lord). Special thanks to our fantastic engineer, Dan Cantor who plays melodica on Ali Maula. And, oceans of gratitude to Jim Smith who plays his lovely and sometimes haunting percussion--mallets, marimba, drums and chimes--on many pieces. Many Paths, One Joy is a journey through distinct sacred spaces of the body, mind and heart. There is no one theme or musical genre represented here. Instead, we hope that listeners will enjoy the respect, love and care-full sensibility that streams through each piece and connects them in the cave of the heart. --Robert A. Jonas, May, 2005