Welcome to Horizons.

I'm Chris Moore.

Pittsburgh is known for a lot of things.

Its rivers and bridges, our sports teams.

But it also has a rich tradition in jazz music.

Tonight we're giving you a sneak peek at a new orchestra that's rehearsing right here in Pittsburgh.

What makes this group so different is that it's creating a new and unique sound, one that combines jazz with music from Asia.

The result is a cross-cultural experience that entertains and enlightens.

It has all the makings of a jazz band.

But there's something to this sound that many of us haven't heard before.

There's a string of Asia, and a beat of India.

Put all of these sounds together in one room and you have something called silk sound.

That's the name of the six member Asian American Fusion Jazz Orchestra.

The idea came from Harish Saluja, the executive director of Silk Screen, the Asian arts organization.

The basic philosophy of silk screen Asian sound is that we fee that there is too much ignorance and prejudice and hatred and negativity in the world.

One of the things we strongly believe that can be done is to hav more cultural exchanges and more art, more music.

It would counteract some of the negativity that we see in us.

Harish, who's also a filmmaker and an artist, is no stranger to music.

I have been volunteering at the WDUQ.

Music from India, this is Harish Saluja.

No on WESA, doing the music from India program for last 41 years.

For more than a decade, he's been thinking about a music project like this one.

The goal is to produce a new song, to produce a new, beautiful sound, which the world has not heard before.

One of the things we wanted to do was to take old, beautiful music from Asia, China and India, particularly a few hundred, if not a few thousand year old music, and then combine it with jazz.

For one of those old sounds.

He turned to Samir Chatterjee.

Music means everything to me in my life.

And this one note, which is born in Kolkata, India Samir is a professional musician who leads the rehearsals inside Margaret Morrison Hall on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University.

He plays a traditional instrument from India called the tabla.

I'm told that I starte playing the drums when I was two and a half years old.

For another one of those old sounds.

Local architect Mimi Jong plays a traditional Chinese instrument.

This the Erhu, the Erhu has two strings that is tuned to D and A that's like the two middle strings of the violin.

Four local jazz musicians complete the orchestra.

David Pellow plays the double bass.

Jeff Berman is a percussionist who plays the vibraphone.

Ben Opie is on the saxophone and Chris Parker plays guitar.

Harish says the nature of jazz, combined with Pittsburgh's rich history, made it a good fit with the Asian sounds of all the music.

There is jazz is perfectly suited for improvization.

The ability to improvise is one of the things that make these musicians and this new music sound unique.

The idea was to, introduce a few melodies about 3 or 4 melodies from India, 2 or 3 from China.

Let them get used to thi melody, which would be the base, you know, and then let them slowly if they get more comfortable, you know, go wherever they want to go with it.

It's something that flows out of the voice, but rhythmically it's rarely tricky.

There's a mutual understanding that we're building, arrangements out of traditional material, and that, the material is to be is to be, respected.

But that the way that we play it needs to have our particular identity, our imprint on it, that it reflects the people that we're playing.

Playing together took a little getting used to.

So just one last question about the c section of this.

At first we were struggling with the language.

We were all coming from very different places and relating to the music very differently.

And I think now that we're starting to get a little more comfortable with it and relaxing with it, that they're also more comfortable with Samir's method of creating music.

There is nothing written.

I don't bring any music written down.

We just, created on the flow.

When musicians were expecting some written score.

And then I sing that to them and I play to them, and they find that it's easier to learn music that way than anything to be written down.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Da da da da.

That was definitely different.

There was a lot of just learning stuff by ear.

Can you play me that A?

this music, there's nothing.

It's it's not limited to, the paper.

It's coming from the heart.

So and to start involving the heart from the inception, it was a great fit.

When the eyes close the hands beat and the feet tap.

These six musicians become one.

You feel the difference.

You feel it in the room.

You feel how the air moves in the room.

When people are on the same page and rhythmically things start to come together.

Nothing is more beautiful.

And musicians from all over the world get together and and sing their voice.

It can be done.

I mean, it has no limitation.

It's just like laughing and crying.

We can all laugh together and cry together.

Creating a new sound that is pushing and crossing boundaries.

This project is hopefully is an example of, you know, how music can bring us together and help us to understand each other without the burden of language.

We always have this choice of looking at the differences or the similarities.

Here we are giving them an example of looking at the similarities to make them realize that we have one.

We want listeners to be joyous.

We want them to say, wow, this is something new.

Especially those who are willing, to appreciate a new sound.

This is.

Yes, we have been listening to jazz all these years.

And here's a whole new take on jazz.

Here's something we never heard before and built on them.

Their hearts filled with happiness and tranquility.

And go home smiling.

Well that's the way I feel right now.

Harish Saluja says his ultimate dream is to travel the world with this orchestra.

But they will start in Pittsburgh.

Silk sound will hold its first concert on Friday, February 28th at 8 p.m.

at Bellefield Hall in Oakland.

They hope to play at least eight pieces.