Although Oregon was founded as an ensemble of soloists, their strength has always been their ability to integrate as a band, a result of their unusual combination of talent and curiosity. None of the members was content with just one instrumental style, but instead developed connections with classical Indian and European music, bluegrass, folk, jazz and experimental avant-garde. With such a solid musical foundation, the Oregon four needed to do little more than appear within a zeitgeist that welcomed improvisational and chamber jazz sounds, and before an audience that valued their wild mix of characters and compositional talents.

The 20 years referred to in the title of this 2CD collection is only the length of the Bombay-born percussionist's solo career. Gurtu was already beginning to play Indian classical tabla at the age of six, eventually opening his jazz-fusion phase by gigging with Oregon and Don Cherry. This set's subtitle blurb reads 'the serial collaborator in full flight with…', then proceeds to list a highly impressive gathering of guest artists, hailing from both jazz and global music zones. There's always the danger, particularly with drumming leaders, to be subsumed and sidelined by your singers, guitarists and horn players, but Trilok always invites his collaborators into his own universe, retaining a strong sense of Indian classical tradition. Often this will be pleasingly filtered via a fusion with jazz, funk, soul, hip hop, African, Latin, Far Eastern or Western classical musics, but Gurtu usually tends to emerge unscathed and undiluted.