Kerry Kriger

Bamboo Flute

Hi, my name is Kerry Kriger. My main instrument is the bansuri, the bamboo flute of northern India. Since 1999 I have been fortunate enough to study North Indian Classical music with one of India's greatest flute masters, Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao. If you play Indian Classical Music, be sure to check out my 203-page book "Compositions for Bansuri".

You are now listening to me playing Bhairavi, joined by Travis Jenkins on guitar and Chrispy Lait on djembe. Recorded in Brisbane, Australia May 2007. I'll have more music up later, so check back. You can purchase my mp3's here for only 99 cents each.

Flute photos

Jamming on top of Mt. Gower, Lord Howe Island, Australia, overlooking the world's most southerly coral reef:

Bamboo Flute - Mt. Gower

A sunset Marwa jam in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea:

Bamboo Flute - Milne Bay

Taking a flute break going up Venezuela's Mt. Roraima, (Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lost World"), one of the oldest places on the planet, and home to some of the best acoustics:

Bamboo Flute - Roraima

Another day on the beach, in Santa Teresa, Peninsula de Nicoya, Costa Rica:

Bamboo Flute - Costa Rica

Brewing up a storm on top of Little Devil's Tower, in the magnificent Black Hills of South Dakota:

Bamboo Flute - Black Hills

Flute under the midnight sun in Stikkysholmur, Iceland.

Bamboo Flute - Iceland

Some afternoon flute action above the Kaieteur Falls, in the Pakaraima Mountains of central Guyana:

Bamboo Flute - Kaieteur Falls

Jamming raga Simendra Madhyam, Miami style, no place like South Beach:

Bamboo Flute - South Beach

A fantastic day on the South Sister in central Oregon (well worth a 6-hour hitchhike):

Bamboo Flute - South Sister

Playing flute in the stream after a long day looking for jaguars in the Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke, Central Amazonas, Brazil:

Bamboo Flute - Amazon

Flute jam amidst the 2,500 year old ruins of Aspendos, in southern Turkey:

Bamboo Flute - Aspendos

Some bansuri action on the banks of the Ganges, at the Dasaswamedh gat in Varanasi, India:

Bamboo Flute - Varanasi

A smoking crater jam on top of Mt. Ngaurahoe, in Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand:

Bamboo Flute - Tongariro

Enjoying the afternoon sun at Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming:

Grand Tetons - Flute Jenny Lake

Throwin down at the Selfoss waterfall in Jökulsárgljúfur National Park, Iceland:

Bamboo Flute - Selfoss

No sellouts here. Playing raga Madhuvanti in the the 2300yr old Grand Ampitheatre of Ephesus in western Turkey:

Bamboo Flute - Ephesus

High Plains Drifter - New Year's morning flute jam in the geysers of one of the world's most spectatular places, Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni:

Uyuni Bamboo Flute

Sunset jam in Panama's San Blas Archipelago, looking out at Kuanidup Chico, the island I had to myself for a few nights:

Kuanidup - San Blas Archipelago

Midwinter's flute jam under the Big Waterfall in Croatia's fabulous Plitvička Jezera National Park:

Croatia Bamboo Flute Music

This one's from a concert I played with Jay Parikh on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C. one hot October day:

Bamboo Flute - Jefferson Memorial

Flute videos

Here's my flute response to that Sarah Palin woman:

Here's me and my brother Chad playing a quick rendition of raga Madhuvanti at the Aspendos ruins in Turkey:

Tabla

I also play tabla, the most common drum of northern India. More info coming soon...

Darabuka

I also play the darabuka (a.k.a. darbuka, dumbek, Egyptian tabla), which is the most common drum throughout the Middle East and North Africa. My favorite darabuka is my smallest, which I got in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey. It's portable, and perfect for walking and drumming.

Christmas day drum jam at Baska Beach, Krk Island, Croatia:

Darbuka

Enjoying the sunshine high in Slovenia's Julian Alps, with Mt. Triglav in the background:

Darabuka Slovenia

Darabuka Videos

Here's a sunset drum jam on the beach I camped at for three nights, in front of Cabo Matapalo, on the Peninsula de Osa in Costa Rica:

Drumming for Obama - Part 1 (like nothing you've seen before):

Drumming for Obama - Part 2:

Drumming for Obama - Part 3:

Want to play some music?

If you are a talented, motivated musician and would like to play some music, contact me. I can play classical or fusion. It is fine if you have no training in Indian Classical Music so long as you are into experimentation and improvisation, and have the ability to jam in unusual scales and/or rhythms (I could teach them to you). I am open to playing with any capable musician(s), regardless of instrument, acoustic, electric or percussion.

Where am I?

I'm in northern Virginia, USA. I travel a lot, so I may be coming to your town soon enough...

My musical influences & inspirations

The following are people or bands that have either taught me to play, inspired me to play, blown my mind in some way, expanded my conception of what music is or can be, or passed on their knowledge to people who in turn have influenced or inspired me:

Vijay Raghav Rao, Phish, Led Zeppelin, Ravi Shankar, Hariprasad Chaurasia, The Beatles, Ali Akbar Khan, The Doors, Stevie Wonder, Funkadelic, Neil Young, Jeff Lang, John McLaughlin, Devendra Murdeshwar, Panallal Ghosh, Allaudin Khan, Bismillah Khan, Zakir Hussain, Anindo Chaterjee, Nikhil Banerjee, Alla Rakha, that dude with the flute on the ferry in Greece, Raghunath Seth, Bhimsen Joshi, John Coltrane, Wazir Khan, Mian Tansen, Swami Haridas, Bilaskhan, ZM Dagar, Billy Cobham, Black Sabbath and anyone else I've enjoyed listening to or playing with.

SAVE THE FROGS!

I am also an ecologist, and am the Founder & Executive Director of SAVE THE FROGS!, a nonprofit organization dedicated to amphibian conservation. You can learn more about my scientific research here. You can support SAVE THE FROGS! by buying one of my 24" x 36" Frogs of Australia posters, or a 100% organic cotton SAVE THE FROGS! t-shirt. Thanks!