Gretta18W5803957 at 06:48, 29 April 2026

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{{Short description|1993 studio album by Ry Cooder and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name = A Meeting by the River
| type = studio
| artist = [[Ry Cooder]] and [[Vishwa Mohan Bhatt]]
| cover = A Meeting by the River album cover.jpg
| alt =
| released = April 1993<ref name=Essential>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CsooY_e1w8kC&pg=PA233|title=The Essential Rock Discography|page=223|first=Martin Charles|last=Strong|publisher=Canongate U.S.|year=2006|isbn=9781841958606|access-date=September 16, 2011}}</ref>
| recorded = September 1992
| venue =
| studio =
| genre = [[Blues]], [[World music|international]], [[New-age music|new-age]], [[pop rock]]<ref name=Allmusic/>
| length = {{Duration|m=39|s=35}}
| label = [[Water Lily Acoustics]]
| producer = [[Kavichandran Alexander]], Jayant Shah
| chronology = Ry Cooder
| prev_title = [[Little Village (album)|Little Village]]
| prev_year = 1992
| next_title = [[Talking Timbuktu]]
| next_year = 1994
| misc = {{Extra chronology
| artist = Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
| type = studio
| prev_title = Gathering Rain Clouds
| prev_year = 1993
| title = A Meeting by the River
| year = 1993
| next_title = [[Mumtaz Mahal (album)|Mumtaz Mahal]]
| next_year = 1995
}}
}}
'''''A Meeting by the River''''' is an album recorded by [[Ry Cooder]] and [[Vishwa Mohan Bhatt]]; it was recorded in September 1992 and released in April 1993 through the record label [[Water Lily Acoustics]].<ref name=Allmusic>{{cite web|url=https://allmusic.com/album/a-meeting-by-the-river-r183309/review|title=A Meeting by the River|publisher=[[Allmusic]]|access-date=February 18, 2011|first=Daniel|last=Gioffre|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219113123/http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-meeting-by-the-river-r183309/review|archive-date=December 19, 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> This improvised, collaborative album features Cooder on [[slide guitar]] and Bhatt on the ''[[Mohan veena]]'', a stringed instrument created by Bhatt. ''A Meeting by the River'' was [[Record producer|produced]] by [[Kavichandran Alexander]] and Jayant Shah, [[Audio engineering|engineered]] by Alexander, and [[Audio mastering|mastered]] by Kevin Michael Gray and Paul Stubblebine. It peaked at number four on ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]''{{'s}} Top World Music Albums chart, and earned Cooder and Bhatt [[Grammy Award]]s for [[Grammy Award for Best World Music Album|Best World Music Album]] at the [[36th Grammy Awards]] in 1994. The album is included in Tom Moon's 2008 book ''[[1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die]]''.

==Composition ==
[[File:Pt Vishwamohan Bhatt.jpg|thumb|[[Mohan veena]] performer [[Vishwa Mohan Bhatt]] in 2006]]

''A Meeting by the River'' was recorded in September 1992; it features Cooder solely on slide guitar and Bhatt on the ''Mohan veena'', a stringed instrument he created.<ref name=Allmusic/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2005/02/04/stories/2005020402580300.htm|title=Meeting by the backwaters|date=February 4, 2005|access-date=September 15, 2011|work=[[The Hindu]]|publisher=[[The Hindu Group]]|location=Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India|issn=0971-751X|oclc=13119119|first=Sanjay|last=Kumar|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211122106/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2005/02/04/stories/2005020402580300.htm|archive-date=February 11, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Allmusic]]'s Daniel Gioffre described the instrument as a hybrid between a guitar and a ''[[vichitra veena]]'';<ref name=Allmusic/> it is played with a metal slide moving across steel rods along the neck.<ref name=Margasak>{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/07/22/ry-cooder-and-vm-bhatta-meeting-by/|title=Ry Cooder and V.M. Bhatt A Meeting by the River...|date=July 22, 1993|first=Peter|last=Margasak|access-date=September 16, 2011|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]|issn=1085-6706|publisher=[[Tribune Company]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007045720/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-07-22/features/9307220085_1_star-ry-cooder-tex-mex|archive-date=October 7, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Cooder had heard a recording of [[Hindustani classical music]] performed by Bhatt and was impressed by his playing and the "haunting clarity" of the ''Mohan veena''.<ref name=Plasketes>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nzsJUVS4ODIC&pg=PA92|first=George|last=Plasketes|pages=92–93|title=B-sides, Undercurrents and Overtones: Peripheries to Popular in Music, 1960 to the Present|year=2009|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|isbn=9780754665618|access-date=September 16, 2011}}</ref> Cooder and Bhatt met for the first time less than one hour before recording began; they improvised much of the set; the album's liner notes state, "this recording was unplanned and unrehearsed".<ref name=Allmusic/><ref name=Margasak/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5pxTb3YtB-gC&pg=PA284|title=The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock|series=[[Cambridge Companions to Music]]|page=284|first1=Simon|last1=Frith|first2=Will|last2=Straw|first3=John|last3=Street|access-date=September 16, 2011|year=2001|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=9780521556606}}</ref> The album was produced by Kavichandran Alexander, founder of [[Water Lily Acoustics]],<ref name=Morris>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9gsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA55|title=Musical Hybrids Thrive at Water Lily|first=Chris|last=Morris|date=May 4, 1996|access-date=September 16, 2011|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|pages=55–56|volume=108|number=18|issn=0006-2510|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.}}</ref> and Jayant Shah. It was engineered by Alexander, and was mastered by Kevin Michael Gray and Paul Stubblebine. Cooder and Bhatt are accompanied by Cooder's then fourteen-year-old son Joachim on ''[[Goblet drum|dumbek]]'', a Middle Eastern drum, and by Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari on ''[[tabla]]''.<ref name=Plasketes/><ref name=Credits>{{cite web|url=https://allmusic.com/album/a-meeting-by-the-river-r183309/credits|title=A Meeting by the River: Credits|publisher=Allmusic|access-date=September 15, 2011}}</ref>

The collaboration between Cooder and Bhatt is Alexander's first attempt to record musicians of different cultures together, one of his goals when he founded the record label.<ref name=Morris/> Author George Plasketes described Bhatt's playing as "highly nuanced" and said, Cooder performs in a more "loose-jointed, slip 'n' slide style".<ref name=Plasketes/> According to Gioffre, Cooder and Bhatt use improvisation and "voice-like" phrasing, showing melodic performances in an alternating fashion and in unison.<ref name=Allmusic/> The album contains four tracks, three of which are credited to Cooder and Bhatt; tracks range in duration from approximately seven-and-a-half minutes to twelve minutes.<ref name=Allmusic/> "Longing" has a structure similar to a ''[[raga]]''. Author Tom Moon said Cooder takes the lead on the hymn "[[Isa Lei]]" as Bhatt contributes "elaborate squiggling asides" and "swooping nosedives".<ref name=Moon>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMQF9tRD8zEC&pg=PA86|page=86|title=1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Listener's Life List|first=Tom|last=Moon|access-date=September 16, 2011|year=2008|publisher=Workman Publishing|isbn=978-0-7611-3963-8|oclc=179803341}}</ref> In 2011, Bhatt performed "A Meeting by the River" at a music festival in honor of [[guru]] [[Kelucharan Mohapatra]]. Bhatt said of the song, "Music has no religion and no geographical or linguistic barrier. It speaks a universal language. My composition – 'A Meeting by the River' – aims at explaining this."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-otherstates/article2444121.ece|title=Grammy award winner pays tributes to Guru Kelucharan|date=September 11, 2011|access-date=September 15, 2011|work=The Hindu|publisher=The Hindu Group|location=Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India|issn=0971-751X|oclc=13119119|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103012238/http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-otherstates/article2444121.ece|archive-date=November 3, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Bhatt has said he considers working with Cooder his "most special" collaboration.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/12/spotlight-soulful-stirrings.html|title=Spotlight: Soulful stirrings|first=Shahzeb|last=Sheikh|date=December 12, 2010|access-date=September 16, 2011|work=[[Dawn (newspaper)|Dawn]]|publisher=[[Dawn Group of Newspapers]]|location=Saddar, Karachi, Pakistan|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110119184512/http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/12/spotlight-soulful-stirrings.html|archive-date=January 19, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Reception==
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| rev1 = [[Allmusic]]
| rev1Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref name=Allmusic/>
| rev2 = ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''
| rev2Score = {{Rating|4|4}}<ref name=Margasak/>
| rev3 = ''[[Rolling Stone]]''
| rev3Score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref name=Guide>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t9eocwUfoSoC&pg=PA189|title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide|pages=188–189|first1=Nathan|last1=Brackett|first2=Christian David|last2=Hoard|year=2004|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|isbn=9780743201698|access-date=September 16, 2011}}</ref>
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Gioffre wrote a positive review of the album and called Cooder and Bhatt "genuine masters" of their respective instruments.<ref name=Allmusic/> He described the musical interplay between the musicians as "nothing short of astounding" and the album as a rare instance in which a combination of genres works. Gioffre also wrote, "this album is masterfully recorded; each instrument is clear, distinct, and three-dimensional sounding. ''A Meeting by the River'' is a must-own, a thing of pure, unadulterated beauty, and the strongest record in Cooder's extensive catalog."<ref name=Allmusic/> Peter Margasak of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' awarded the album four stars out of four, describing Cooder's performance as "arresting" and Bhatt's as "haunting". Margasak wrote that the fusion revealed a "rare, often transcendental beauty" as the two artists "gently and intuitively" found common ground.<ref name=Margasak/> ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' called the album "fruitful" and awarded it three stars out of five.<ref name=Guide/>

==Chart performance and recognition==
''A Meeting by the River'' reached a peak position of number four on ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]''{{'s}} Top World Music Albums chart.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://allmusic.com/album/a-meeting-by-the-river-r183309/charts-awards|title=A Meeting by the River: Charts & Awards|access-date=September 15, 2011|publisher=Allmusic|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318072351/http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-meeting-by-the-river-r183309/charts-awards|archive-date=March 18, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> In [[36th Grammy Awards|1994]], the album earned Cooder and Bhatt [[Grammy Award]]s for [[Grammy Award for Best World Music Album|Best World Music Album]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/03/arts/the-grammy-winners.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm|page=2|title=The Grammy Winners|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=September 15, 2011|date=March 3, 1994|issn=0362-4331|oclc=1645522|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024074702/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/03/arts/the-grammy-winners.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm|archive-date=October 24, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Bhatt became one of a few Indian musicians to have received a Grammy Award until [[A. R. Rahman]] won at the [[52nd Grammy Awards]] in 2010. Previous Indian award winners had been recognized jointly with Western artists.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-02-02/india/28117723_1_world-music-category-grammys-planet-drum|title=Rahman's individual Grammy a first for India|date=February 2, 2010|access-date=September 15, 2011|first=Bhama Devi|last=Ravi|work=[[The Times of India]]|publisher=[[The Times Group]]|oclc=23379369|location=New Delhi, Delhi, India|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120926145028/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-02-02/india/28117723_1_world-music-category-grammys-planet-drum|archive-date=September 26, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> The February 25, 1995, issue of ''Billboard'', which featured the annual "Indies Spotlight" and covered independent music between the January 29, 1994, and January 21, 1995, issues of the magazine included ''A Meeting by the River'' at number ten on its list of the "Top Indie World Music Albums".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4gsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA126|title=Charting the Best Indies: Top Indie World Music Albums|first=Geoff|last=Mayfield|volume=107|number=8|issn=0006-2510|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|magazine=Billboard|date=25 February 1995|page=126|access-date=September 16, 2011}}</ref> The album is included in Tom Moon's 2008 book ''[[1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die]]''.<ref name="Moon" />

{| class="wikitable"
!Chart (1993)
!Peak<br />position
|-
| ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]''{{'s}} Top World Music Albums
| align="center" |4
|}

==Track listing==
[[File:Ry Cooder playing.jpg|thumb|[[Ry Cooder]] in 2009]]

All tracks by [[Ry Cooder]] and [[Vishwa Mohan Bhatt]] unless noted otherwise.

# "A Meeting by the River" – 10:03
# "Longing" – 11:56
# "Ganges Delta Blues" – 9:57
# "[[Isa Lei]]" (Caten) – 7:39

Track listing adapted from Allmusic.<ref name=Allmusic/>

==Personnel==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Kavichandran Alexander]] – [[Audio engineering|engineer]], [[liner notes]], [[Record producer|producer]]
* [[Vishwa Mohan Bhatt]] – [[Mohan veena]], performer, [[slide guitar]]
* [[Joachim Cooder]] – [[Goblet drum|dumbek]]
* [[Ry Cooder]] – bottleneck guitar, [[guitar]], performer
* [[Tim de Paravicini]] – technical consultant
* Kevin Michael Gray – [[Audio mastering|mastering]]
* Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari – [[tabla]]
* Rumi – liner notes, quotes
* Mike Sexton – cover photo, photography
* Jayant Shah – producer
* Leslie Shirack – [[Art director|art direction]]
* Gus Skinas – authoring
* Paul Stubblebine – digital mastering
* Susan Titelman – photography
{{div col end}}

Credits adapted from Allmusic.<ref name=Credits/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|India|Music}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120204002323/http://www.jazz.com/music/2008/11/20/ry-cooder-v-m-bhatt-a-meeting-by-the-river Jazz.com review by Ted Gioia] (2008)
* [http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/how_high_do_you_want_your_fi/index.html "How high do you want your fi?"], a 2009 ''[[Stereophile]]'' article featuring ''A Meeting by the River''

{{Ry Cooder}}
{{Good article}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meeting By The River}}
[[Category:1990s instrumental albums]]
[[Category:1993 collaborative albums]]
[[Category:Blues albums by American artists]]
[[Category:Blues albums by Indian artists]]
[[Category:Grammy Award for Best World Music Album]]
[[Category:Hindustani classical music albums]]
[[Category:New-age albums by American artists]]
[[Category:New-age albums by Indian artists]]
[[Category:Pop rock albums by American artists]]
[[Category:Pop rock albums by Indian artists]]
[[Category:Ry Cooder albums]]
[[Category:Water Lily Acoustics albums]]
[[Category:World music albums by American artists]]
[[Category:World music albums by Indian artists]]

A Meeting by the River - Revision history

Gretta18W5803957 at 06:48, 29 April 2026