Sweden and India find a common place in music through the ears and imagination of the group Mynta. Founded in 1979, the group has created their own genre of music, while preserving the integrity and traditions of their root sounds. The Swedish-Indian fusionists define world music, by extracting the organic elements that runs through the vein of centuries-old musical histories. MYNTA is led by the Indian musician Fazal Qureshi (tabla) who have performed all over the world with such famous musicians as Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shivkumar Sharma. Fazal is the younger brother of Zakir Hussain, who belonged to John McLaughlin's famous group Shakti, one of the earliest fusion bands in Europe. On Indian Flute, Soprano and Clarinet Mynta features Dallas Smith from Reno, Nevada. Dallas has studied Indian Classical Music at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Francisco and has also lived in Bombay and recorded for the Bollywood Film Industry. Representing the Swedish alliance are veterans of the Swedish music scene - Santiago Jimenez (violin), Max Åhman (guitar), Sebastian Printz-Werner (percussion) and Christian Paulin (bass). Together the four musicians slant the music in the Nordic direction, inflecting a cool jazz feel into the mix. MYNTA have come to be respected in the music world for years of making music that is honest and refreshing everytime. John Baxter of Option magazine praises the world-class performers for their expansive view of music: "Qureshi and Mikael Nilsson lay down some of the most electrifying percussion grooves I've heard in years; and in it's blinding, effortless speed, Max Åhman's guitar pays homage to John McLaughlin. Mix in Swedish hammered dulcimer, the Indian santoor and tanpura, and the North African saz and this becomes an exotic sort of orchestra. With groups like Mynta, it's clear that Scandinavia is turning out the most fascinating and enjoyable world fusion around. MYNTA started as a regular jazz-group playing blues, jazz and latin-rhythms. During the 80's the sound of MYNTA turned in to more fusion and jazzrock. Some of the former members, like alto-player JONAS KNUTSSON and guitarist MAX SCHULTZ, are today some of the most famous improvisation-musicians in Sweden. For several years MYNTA also toured and recorded with the wellknown Swedish vocalist MARITZA HORN. In 1987 MYNTA toured in India and met tabla-player FAZAL QURESHI and South-Indian classical singer SHANKAR MAHADEVAN. This meeting became the start of a very exciting musical experiment, to let the Swedish jazz meet the Indian classical music. This meeting have today resulted in 8 CD:s, TV and Radio-broadcasts and more than 400 concerts including festivals in Sweden, Europe, India and in November 1998 "The Beijing International Jazz Festival" in China. The music of MYNTA is a lovely mix of Indian classical, African and Latin-American rhythms, Arabic sounds and Scandinavian Folk Tradition - all together "worldmusic".