Raga | |
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Directed by | Howard Worth |
Written by | Nancy Bacal |
Produced by | Howard Worth |
Starring | |
Cinematography | James Allen |
Edited by | Merle Worth |
Music by | Ravi Shankar |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Apple Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 97 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Languages |
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Raga is a 1971 documentary film about the life and music of Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar, produced and directed by Howard Worth. It includes scenes featuring Western musicians Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison, as well as footage of Shankar returning to Maihar in central India, where as a young man he trained under the mentorship of Allauddin Khan. The film also features a portion of Shankar and tabla player Alla Rakha's acclaimed performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.
The majority of the documentary was shot in the late 1960s, during a period when Shankar's growing popularity saw Indian classical music embraced by rock and pop musicians and their audiences. Financial problems then delayed production until Harrison provided assistance through the Beatles' company Apple Films. In addition to actively promoting Raga, Harrison produced the soundtrack album – a project that led directly to he and Shankar staging the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971.
The film's working title was alternately East Meets West and Messenger Out of the East. In 2010, to coincide with celebrations for Shankar's 90th birthday, East Meets West Music released a fully remastered version on DVD, titled Raga: A Film Journey into the Soul of India. The expanded soundtrack album was also made available, via digital download.
New York film-maker Howard Worth began work on Raga, a documentary film on Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar, in 1967, during the height of what Shankar describes in My Music, My Life (1968), the first of his two autobiographies, [2] as "the great sitar explosion". [3] The latter term reflected the interest that had grown in the West for Indian music and its extended works, known as ragas, over 1966–67, [4] following the Beatles and other rock bands' adoption of the multi-stringed sitar into their sound. [5] [6] Aided by his befriending George Harrison of the Beatles, [7] this phenomenon resulted in Shankar achieving pop star status. [8] [9] Music critic Ken Hunt describes him as having become "the most famous Indian musician on the planet" in 1966. [10] [nb 1] Shankar was uncomfortable with this development, [9] since his training had instilled in him a sacred purpose for India's musical heritage [12] [13] – namely, Nada Brahma ("Sound is God"). [14] [15] The film documents Shankar's concern that while old traditions were dying in India, they were simultaneously being misappropriated by America's youth culture, [16] particularly through many in the West choosing to associate Indian classical music with psychedelic drugs. [17] [18]
Speaking in 2010 of his involvement in Raga, Worth recalled that he disliked Indian music initially, but soon changed his view. [19] At the request of Canadian television producer Nancy Bacal, he attended a private recital by Shankar, in the company of singers Judy Collins and Leonard Cohen, a performance that convinced Worth that he wanted to direct the planned Shankar documentary after all. [19] Worth also served as producer, [20] and he and Bacal worked on a script at Collins's house in California. [19]
The film was originally called East Meets West, according to author Peter Lavezzoli; [21] Messenger Out of the East was an alternative working title. [22] The first of these titles referenced West Meets East , Shankar's 1966 album with American violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and the winner of the 1967 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance. [23]
To be received like this in a foreign land – my God, it is overwhelming. I never felt so much warmth and openness, so much love for our music ... But I wonder how much they can understand, and where all this will lead to. [24]
– Shankar's opening narrative in Raga
Much of Raga was shot during the first half of 1968 in India, particularly Bombay, [19] home to Shankar's Kinnara School of Music since 1963. [25] Among the scenes filmed in India, Shankar directs musicians such as Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Kartick Kumar in a Bombay studio and, in a scene titled "Vinus House", enjoys a casual musical get-together with singer Vinay Bharat Ram and violinist Satyadev Pawar. [24]
Early in the film, Shankar travels by train to the Madhya Pradesh town of Maihar, to see his father-in-law and esteemed music teacher (or guru), Allauddin Khan, [26] known affectionately as "Baba". [27] [28] Worth recalls this visit as a nervous occasion for Shankar, [19] who states in his role as narrator: "Whenever I think of [Baba], I have a mixture of fear and awe. For us, guru is sometimes greater even than God." [24] [nb 2] Another scene features dancers from the South Indian kathakali tradition, [21] reflecting Shankar's early career as a dancer with elder brother Uday's pioneering troupe during the 1930s. [10] [30]
According to Worth, the emotional highpoint of filming was when Shankar visited his spiritual guru, [19] named Tat Baba. [31] [32] In his own teaching activities, Shankar is shown mentoring students at Kinnara, [24] adhering to the strict guru-shishya tradition he had experienced under Allauddin Khan. [33] Shankar later reflects on the comparative rush to master the intricacies of Indian music by his Western students in Los Angeles, [24] where he opened a branch of the Kinnara School in May 1967. [34]
Raga includes footage of a pair of celebrated live performances by Shankar from 1967, a year that Lavezzoli describes as the " annus mirabilis " for Indian music in the West. [35] The first performance was from the Monterey Pop Festival in northern California on 18 June, where Shankar was accompanied by his longtime tabla player, Alla Rakha. [36] The film shows Shankar and his companion Kamala Chakravarty [37] [38] circulating among the crowd before his performance, [24] and American musicians Jerry Garcia and Jimi Hendrix among "the enthralled spectators" while he plays, according to Lavezzoli. [39] The second of these 1967 performances, a recital featuring Menuhin and Shankar, [40] was filmed six months later on Human Rights Day, at the United Nations building in New York. [41] [nb 3]
Another milestone for the popularity of Indian music was the June 1967 release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, [44] the "spiritual centerpiece" of which, Lavezzoli writes, was George Harrison's Indian composition "Within You, Without You". [45] Harrison joined Shankar in Madras in April 1968, following the Beatles' stay at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's meditation ashram in Rishikesh, [46] but a bout of dysentery prevented him from participating in filming for Raga. [47] Worth subsequently filmed Harrison's contributions at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, [48] on 10–11 June 1968. [49] In one of the scenes, Harrison receives sitar tuition from Shankar; in another, they both participate in a singing class [21] with students from Kinnara. [50] While his immersion in Indian music had been the most significant factor behind Shankar's recent rise to international fame, [44] [51] [52] Harrison would later cite this visit to Esalen as presaging the end of his commitment to the sitar. [53] [54] [nb 4] As of 2006, the scene in Raga featuring Shankar instructing Harrison was the only known film footage of Harrison playing the sitar during his years as a member of the Beatles. [58]
California was also the location for the film's penultimate scene, in which Shankar, looking out over a windswept beach, questions the validity of his attempts to bring Indian culture to America. [59] In his narration for the scene, he reads out a passage adapted from My Music, My Life, reaffirming his belief in Nada Brahma. [59]
After the main filming over 1967–68 in India and the United States, [60] financial and technical problems interrupted production on Raga. [61] According to Worth's recollection, the original financier for the project, whom he describes as "Ravi's manager", was forced to back out, having been committed to a psychiatric ward. [19] In Raga Mala , Shankar says that he financed the film himself, adding: "which was rather sad because it cost a large amount and I only realised this later!" [40]
Once back in New York, Worth contacted Harrison, hoping to secure support from United Artists, [19] the film studio responsible for the Beatles' feature films A Hard Day's Night , Help! and Yellow Submarine . [62] Late in 1970, [nb 5] Harrison attended a special screening of the assembled footage and was so moved, according to Worth, that within days he offered the services of the Beatles' own Apple Films as a distributor. [19] Worth credits Harrison with saving the production and thereby "chang[ing] my life". [19]
Raga | |
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Soundtrack album by | |
Released | 7 December 1971 (US) |
Recorded | April–July 1968; June–July 1971 |
Genre | Hindustani classical |
Length | 39:34 |
Label | Apple |
Producer | George Harrison |
The majority of Raga's musical soundtrack was recorded between April and July 1968. [66] Aside from the recitals featured in the film, Shankar provided incidental music, [40] the co-ordination of which was credited to his sister-in-law Lakshmi Shankar (for pieces classed as "East") and American musician Collin Walcott ("West"). [67] [nb 6] Among the notable Indian musicians contributing to the soundtrack were Bismillah Khan (shehnai), Shivkumar Sharma (santoor), Hariprasad Chaurasia (bansuri), Aashish Khan (sarod), Shankar Ghosh and Zakir Hussain (both tabla), and singer Jitendra Abhisheki. [67] For a scene that Shankar describes in Raga Mala as "reflect[ing] all the distortions in that period – Indian music mixed up with rock, hippies and drugs", Walcott created a piece titled "Frenzy and Distortion", using "a profusion of electronic sounds". [40]
In June and through to July 1971, Harrison, as producer, prepared the recordings for release in conjunction with the movie. [69] [70] While Shankar and Harrison were working in Los Angeles, news broke of the atrocities being committed by West Pakistan against the people of Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan, and before that, East Bengal). [22] [71] In response to a plea for assistance from Shankar, a Bengali by birth, Harrison set about organising the Concert for Bangladesh, held at Madison Square Garden, New York, on 1 August. [72] [73] Work on the Raga soundtrack was completed in mid July, [69] around the time of sessions for Shankar's Apple Records EP Joi Bangla . [74]
Raga received a limited release in November 1971, solely in the United States. [20] Harrison helped promote the film, starting with an interview for New York's WPLJ Radio, [75] and he attended a press screening at Carnegie Hall Cinema on 22 November, along with former bandmate John Lennon and their wives. [49] While Shankar attended the premiere there the following night, Harrison instead appeared on The Dick Cavett Show , discussing Raga and bemoaning the delay surrounding the release of the live album from the Concert for Bangladesh. [76] [77] [nb 7] Shankar joined him late in the show, during which Harrison also plugged Concerto for Sitar & Orchestra , Shankar's recently released collaboration with André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra. [80]
On 24 November, Shankar and Harrison filmed an appearance on The David Frost Show , [81] where they again discussed the film and Harrison gave a rare demonstration on sitar. [77] [82] Two days later, Shankar performed at Carnegie Hall, accompanied by Rakha and Chakravarty, giving his first New York concert since the Concert for Bangladesh shows in August. [83] Writing in The New York Times in November 1971, film critic Howard Thompson described Raga as "quietly penetrating" and "beautifully made", adding: "Everything about it is admirable." [84]
On 7 December 1971, Apple Records released the soundtrack album (as Apple SWAO 3384) – like the film, in America only. [85] Billboard 's album reviewer commented on the packaging's "superb photo folio showing the sitarist's career" but said that, due to the fact that only portions of ragas were present, the soundtrack's "greatest attractiveness may be to those who see the movie or are Shankar collectors". [86]
In August 1972, Harrison screened Raga for select guests at a cinema in Mayfair, London, to coincide with Shankar's upcoming appearance at Southwark Cathedral. [87] According to a report in Record Mirror in early November 1973, the film was due to open in London later that same month. [88]
When asked at the press conference for his and Shankar's 1974 North American tour whether the attendant publicity was likely to lead to a re-release for Raga in the US, Harrison expressed his hope that it would, but lamented that the restrictions imposed on cinema operators by film distributors were "like the way the record industry was ten years ago". He added: "If you don't work on Maggie's farm, you don't get your movie on, you know?" [89]
Raga was released on home video in 1991, distributed by Mystic Fire Video. [50] The Shankar-affiliated East Meets West Music (EMWMusic) remastered the film and released it on DVD in October 2010, with the new title Raga: A Film Journey into the Soul of India. [90] The release was part of EMWMusic's celebrations for Shankar's 90th birthday. [91] Shankar said of his reasons for reissuing the film: "It was a very special period of my life. I really want today's generation to see what it was like for me to be in such a unique and exciting position – to be the first to bridge the gap between the East and the West and to devise a new way to attract, educate, initiate and draw those in the West to the exceptional world of Indian classical music and culture." [92]
On 1 November 2010, the film was screened at the New York headquarters of the Asia Society, [93] which had promoted Shankar's first US appearances in 1957 [94] and now honoured the artist with its Cultural Legacy Award. The event was introduced by composer Philip Glass and attended by Anoushka Shankar (representing her father, who was too sick to attend), [95] along with people involved in the original production such as Worth, Gary Haber and Merle Worth. [93] Writing in Songlines magazine, Jeff Kaliss gave the Raga DVD a five-star review and described the film as an "honest, entertaining portrait of a maestro" that was "[as] satisfying musically as it is visually". [96] In an article on the 2015–16 Grammy Museum exhibit on Shankar, music historian Harvey Kubernik said the DVD was "recommended viewing". [97]
In place of the 1971 promotional image for Raga, which showed a silhouette of a cow against a backdrop of a sunset, the new cover consisted of a still of Shankar playing sitar during the 1960s. [98] This photo, taken by Canadian portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh, [98] shows a portion of the seven-played-string model of sitar that Shankar had popularised over the more traditional six-string model favoured by musicians such as Vilayat Khan. [99] [nb 8]
For the 2010 reissue, EMWMusic expanded the soundtrack album from thirteen selections [66] to seventeen, with all recordings fully remastered. [98] The Raga soundtrack was available via digital download with the documentary film. [30]
All songs by Ravi Shankar, except where noted.
Side one
Side two
Ravi Shankar, was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North Indian classical music in the second half of the 20th century, and influenced many musicians in India and throughout the world. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999.
The discography of English singer-songwriter and former member of the Beatles, George Harrison consists of 12 studio albums, two live albums, four compilation albums, 35 singles, two video albums and four box sets. Harrison's first solo releases – the Wonderwall Music film soundtrack (1968) and Electronic Sound (1969) – were almost entirely instrumental works, issued during the last two years of the Beatles' career. Following the band's break-up in April 1970, Harrison continued to produce recordings by his fellow Apple Records acts, notably former bandmate Ringo Starr. He recorded and collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Shankar, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Gary Wright.
John Barham is an English classical pianist, composer, arranger, producer and educator. He is best known for his orchestration of George Harrison albums such as All Things Must Pass (1970) and for his association with Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.
Shankar Family & Friends is an album by Indian musician Ravi Shankar, recorded primarily in Los Angeles during the spring of 1973, but not released until late 1974. It was produced by Shankar's friend George Harrison and one of the first releases on the ex-Beatle's Dark Horse label. Out of print for many years, and much sought after as a result, the album was remastered in 2010 and reissued as part of the Ravi Shankar–George Harrison box set Collaborations.
Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India was an Indian classical music revue led by sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar intended for Western concert audiences and performed in 1974. Its presentation was the first project undertaken by the Material World Charitable Foundation, set up the previous year by ex-Beatle George Harrison. Long a champion of Indian music, Harrison also produced an eponymous studio album by the Music Festival orchestra, which was released in 1976 on his Dark Horse record label. Both the CD format of the Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India album and a DVD of their performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London were issued for the first time on the 2010 Shankar–Harrison box set Collaborations.
In Concert 1972 is a double live album by sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar and sarodiya Ali Akbar Khan, released in 1973 on Apple Records. It was recorded at the Philharmonic Hall, New York City, in October 1972, and is a noted example of the two Hindustani classical musicians' celebrated jugalbandi (duet) style of playing. With accompaniment from tabla player Alla Rakha, the performance reflects the two artists' sorrow at the recent death of their revered guru, and Khan's father, Allauddin Khan. The latter was responsible for many innovations in Indian music during the twentieth century, including the call-and-response dialogue that musicians such as Shankar, Khan and Rakha popularised among Western audiences in the 1960s.
"I Am Missing You" is a song by Indian musician Ravi Shankar, sung by his sister-in-law Lakshmi Shankar and released as the lead single from his 1974 album Shankar Family & Friends. The song is a rare Shankar composition in the Western pop genre, with English lyrics, and was written as a love song to the Hindu god Krishna. The recording was produced and arranged by George Harrison, in a style similar to Phil Spector's signature sound, and it was the first single issued on Harrison's Dark Horse record label. Other contributing musicians include Tom Scott, Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr and Jim Keltner. A second version appears on Shankar Family & Friends, titled "I Am Missing You (Reprise)", featuring an arrangement closer to a folk ballad.
Chants of India is an album by Indian musician Ravi Shankar released in 1997 on Angel Records. Produced by his friend and sometime collaborator George Harrison, the album consists of Vedic and other Hindu sacred prayers set to music, marking a departure from Shankar's more familiar work in the field of Hindustani classical music. The lyrical themes of the recorded chants are peace and harmony among nature and all creatures. Sessions for the album took place in the Indian city of Madras and at Harrison's home in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, following his work on The Beatles' Anthology (1995). Anoushka Shankar, John Barham, Bikram Ghosh, Tarun Bhatacharaya and Ronu Majumdar are among the many musicians who contributed to the recording.
Joi Bangla is an EP by Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, issued in August 1971 on Apple Records. The recording was produced by George Harrison and its release marked the first in a series of occasional collaborations between the two musicians that lasted until the Chants of India album in 1997. Shankar recorded the EP in Los Angeles, to help raise international awareness of the plight faced by refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War, in advance of his and Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh shows at Madison Square Garden, New York. Side one of the disc consists of two vocal compositions sung in Bengali, of which the title track was a message of unity to the newly independent nation, formerly known as East Pakistan. The third selection is a duet by Shankar and sarodya Ali Akbar Khan, supported by Alla Rakha on tabla, a performance that presaged their opening set at the Concert for Bangladesh.
West Meets East is an album by American violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, released in Britain in January 1967. It was recorded following their successful duet in June 1966 at the Bath Musical Festival, where they had played some of the same material.
West Meets East, Volume 2 is an album by American violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, released in 1968. It is the second album in a trilogy of collaborations between the two artists, after the Grammy Award-winning West Meets East (1967).
Kamala Chakravarty is an Indian classical musician and former dancer, known for her association with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. From 1967 until the late 1970s, she accompanied Shankar, in the role of tambura player and singer, in a number of acclaimed performances, including the Monterey International Pop Festival (1967), his Human Rights Day duet with violinist Yehudi Menuhin (1967), the Concert for Bangladesh (1971) and the Music Festival from India (1974). She lived with Shankar as his "wife" from 1967 to 1981, while he was still married to musician and teacher Annapurna Devi.
Tana Mana is an album by Indian musician Ravi Shankar, originally credited to "the Ravi Shankar Project" and released in 1987. The album is an experimental work by Shankar, mixing traditional instrumentation with 1980s electronic music and sampling technology. Shankar recorded much of Tana Mana in 1983 with sound effects innovator Frank Serafine, but it remained unreleased until Peter Baumann, head of new age record label Private Music, became attached to the project. The album title translates to mean "body and mind".
Ravi Shankar: In Celebration is a compilation box set by Indian classical musician and composer Ravi Shankar, released in 1996 on Angel Records in conjunction with Dark Horse Records. The four discs cover Shankar's international career, from the 1950s to the mid 1990s, and include recordings originally released on the World Pacific, HMV, Angel, Apple, Dark Horse and Private Music record labels. Shankar's friend George Harrison compiled and co-produced the set, which was issued as part of year-long celebrations for Shankar's 75th birthday.
Collaborations is a four-disc compilation box set by Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar and former Beatle George Harrison. Released in October 2010 on Dark Horse Records, it compiles two studio albums originally issued on that label – the long-unavailable Shankar Family & Friends (1974) and Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India (1976) – and Chants of India, first issued on Angel Records in 1997. Although all three albums were originally Shankar releases, for which Harrison served in the role of music producer and guest musician, both Shankar and Harrison are credited as artists on the box set. Each of the collaborative projects represents a departure from Shankar's more typical work as a sitarist and performer of Hindustani classical ragas, with the box set showcasing his forays into, variously, jazz and rock, Indian folk and orchestral ensembles, and devotional music.
Raga Mala is an autobiographic work by Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar, published in 1997 as a hand-bound, limited edition book by Genesis Publications. The initial print run was limited to 2000 signed and individually numbered copies, with a foreword by George Harrison, who also served as Shankar's editor. In addition, Oliver Craske was credited with providing "additional narrative".
Ravi Shankar's Festival from India is a double album by Indian musician and composer Ravi Shankar, released on World Pacific Records in December 1968. It contains studio recordings made by a large ensemble of performers, many of whom Shankar had brought to the United States from India. Among the musicians were Shivkumar Sharma, Jitendra Abhisheki, Palghat Raghu, Lakshmi Shankar, Aashish Khan and Alla Rakha. The project presented Indian classical music in an orchestral setting, so recalling Shankar's work as musical director of All India Radio in the years before he achieved international fame as a soloist during the 1960s.
Rijram Desad, often credited as Rij Ram Desad, was an Indian classical musician, multi-instrumentalist and teacher, based in Bombay. Beginning in the early 1940s, he performed on many Indian film soundtracks and in ballet presentations. He was known for his versatility as a musician and his ability to master a wide range of percussion and string instruments. According to cultural historian Naseem Khan, his skill on the jal tarang had become "legendary" by the mid 1970s.
The Kinnara School of Music was a music school founded in Bombay, India, in 1962 by Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar. With his increased popularity and influence in the West, he opened a second branch of the school in Los Angeles in May 1967. Shankar's concept for Kinnara was to further the strict guru–shishya tradition of musical education that he had experienced under his teacher, Allauddin Khan, in the 1940s. The Bombay centre staged productions of orchestral works by Shankar, including Nava Rasa Ranga.
Shambhu Das is an Indian classical musician and educator. He is best known for his long association with Ravi Shankar, on whose behalf Das has acted as an ambassador for Indian music in Canada since the early 1970s, and his friendship with George Harrison of the Beatles, whom Das helped teach sitar in 1966. His assistance in Harrison's immersion in Indian culture helped inspire the Beatles' career direction and, due to the band's popularity and influence, the direction of the 1960s counterculture. In 1970, Das established the Indian Music Department at Toronto's York University, where he taught for four years.