Sitar maestro Purbayan Chatterjee found himself to be in a bit of a soup in January this year. He had about 25 per cent of a new album he was working on framed in his head. And he then had a 10-minute phone call with UK-based label Sufiscore, after which he gave them a wish list of global collaborators he was keen to work with to finish the project. These names included the who’s who of improvisational music — Ustad Zakir Hussain; keyboardist Jordan Rudess of progressive metal act Dream Theater; Antonio Sanchez, who composed for the hit musical Birdman; Michael League, founder of modern jazz pioneers Snarky Puppy; and banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, among others.

By the end of the month, all of them were on board, thanks mainly to Hussain putting in a personal word about Chatterjee’s prowess to these musicians. And the soup that the sitar player found himself in was this — “How do I direct someone like Béla Fleck or Zakir Hussain? How do I wear both hats, of the project being my own vision and letting these artistes bring their own magic into the picture?”