June 16, 2012: had a lovely musical dialogue with wonderful Pipa player Wu Mann at the Museum of Making Music in Oceanside, California. We shared several ideas about our respective traditions (India and China), two ancient cultures that have shaped their musical language with great care. What excites me about these exchanges are not only the meeting points of these great musical worlds but the contrasts in ways musical ideas are treated making each of them distinctly unique. Such interactions always prod questions in me about the very ideas centered around “fusion” (the new going term for collaboration): a further affirmation that there is a greater need to be even more responsible in ways traditions are nurtured and the end result is not one that suffers from dilution.