Rough Guide to Ravi Shankar

Description

It is a fitting metaphor for this now-elderly sitar virtuosos career that he should have fathered a Western pop star (Norah Jones) and one of the younger generations most high-profile Indian classical musicians (Anoushka Shankar). He himself has been both, beginning with his apprenticeship in his brother Udays dance troupe and culminating in a legendary collaboration with former Beatle George Harrison. But although Panditji (an honorific capped by an affectionate diminutive) has experimented widely, he never abandoned the disciplines of his youth and his mastery of the hypnotic, multi-stringed sitar continues to awe and inspire. The present selections range from full-length, lushly sensual examples of ragas (which are bound to provoke patchouli flashbacks in sixties veterans) to less traditional excerpts from Transmigration Macabre. Another high point: a thunderous tabla solo from Concert For Peace, wherein Panditji graciously ceded the stage to Zakir Hussain, son of his longtime drummer Alla Rakha. --Christina Roden Review: Five Stars - Excellent Review: Rough Guide to Ravi Shankar - There are some excellent gems selected here from different periods of Ravi Shankar's career. The first track is an early song featuring a cacophony of different Indian instruments in a fast and energetic song. The second track is a short sitar solo from a film soundtrack and then it moves into long Indian ragas. Dhun Man Pasand is particularely good and is followed by another dhun. "Reflection" is a very reflective track from another film but the melody is not particularely Indian. Raga Patdeep/Gat Sitarkhani Taal is an intruiging track from his early career of unknown date and it's followed (somewhat unexpectedly) by a rousing tabla solo of Zakir Husain with Shankar playing the rythmic scale. But Bilashkani Todi, a jugalbandi duet with Ali Akbar Khan, is easily the best track. The beautiful, reflective and deep twenty-minute raga seems shorter, as it just slips by. An excellent inclusion on this Rough Guide, it features probably the two finest Hindustani classical musicians playing together at the height of their careers, and they work together wonderfully. The whole thing probably takes a few listens to appreciate, but it's indispensible for any fan or beginner to Ravi Shankar or Indian classical music. The liner notes are very thorough, if not somewhat odd, and give a whole history of Ravi Shankar's career and background on his music. Ali Akbar Khan deserves a Rough Guide to him as well.