| Raga Aberi | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1995 | |||
| Studio | Syntasy | |||
| Label | Music of the World [1] | |||
| Producer | L. Shankar, The Epidemics | |||
| L. Shankar chronology | ||||
| ||||
Raga Aberi is an album by the Indian musician L. Shankar, released in 1995. [2] [3] He is credited with Zakir Hussain and Vikku Vinayakram. [4] [5] The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best World Music Album". [6]
Produced by Shankar and the Epidemics, the album was recorded at Syntasy Studios. [7] [8] Shankar's wife, Caroline, played the tamboura drone. [9] Shankar employed the ragam tanam pallavi form on Raga Aberi. [10] He played a 10-string double violin.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [11] |
| MusicHound World: The Essential Album Guide |  [7] |
| The Republican | [12] |
The Edmonton Journal wrote that, "if [Shankar]'s one to wear his heart on his sleeve (especially in the opening solo rangam) it's not without careful attention to an almost mystical level of technique, or the considerable intellectual complexity he spins in interacting with the percussionists during the later parts of the raga." [9] The Republican determined that "Shankar not only plays with breathtaking speed, he's also mastered the art of dynamics, letting the instrument breathe and taking advantage of the violin's full tonal qualities." [12] Billboard called the album "masterful." [13]
AllMusic wrote that "the energy is consistently high, and there are a lot of solos by each musician, as well as deftly coordinated unison passages." [11] In 1999, Dirty Linen called "Raga Aberi" the highlight of the India – Jewels of the Subcontinent compilation, writing that it "features some dazzling percussion interplay and a double konnakol break." [14]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Raga Aberi: Tanam" | |
| 2. | "Raga Aberi: Beginning Pallavi" | |
| 3. | "Raga Aberi: Middle Pallavi" | |
| 4. | "Raga Aberi: Percussion Improv" | |
| 5. | "Raga Aberi: Percussion Section + Finale" | |
| 6. | "Raga Aberi: Entire Percussion Section Plus Finale" | |
| 7. | "Raga Aberi" |
Ustad Zakir Hussain is an Indian tabla player, composer, percussionist, music producer and film actor. He is the eldest son of tabla player Alla Rakha. He is widely considered as one of the greatest tabla players of all time.
Uppalapu Srinivas was an Indian mandolin player in Carnatic classical music and composer. Because he was a child prodigy, he was sometimes called the Mozart of classical Indian music.
Shankar Lakshminarayana, better known as L. Shankar, is an Indian violinist, singer and composer who also goes by the stage name Shenkar. Known for his innovative contributions to world music, he is often regarded as one of the pioneers of East- West fusion, blending the rich traditions of Indian classical with Western genres such as jazz, rock, and electronic music. His world music albums with the band Shakti during the mid-70s became the ‘standard to gauge the playing and composing abilities of any world musician following in Shakti's expansive wake”. He is credited with inventing the stereophonic double violin (known as the LSD - L.Shankar Double Violin), which covers the orchestral string family's range. In 1990, Shankar's talam-bending Pancha Nadai Pallavi' album was on the Billboard top ten world music chart for three months becoming the first traditional Indian record to reach those heights. His 1995 Raga Abheri album was nominated for a Grammy Award, in the Best World Music Album category. With Peter Gabriel, he worked on the Grammy winning album Passion(1989), the soundtrack album for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and wrote and performed vocals on Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' (2004) which won a Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year at the 36th GMA Dove Awards. He also worked on the soundtrack for the 2002 film Queen of the Damned with Jonathan Davis and Richard Gibbs and recorded eight songs of which five were picked for the movie. Additionally, he collaborated on the original score for NBC's hit TV series Heroes with Wendy & Lisa. As an acclaimed musician, Shankar is ranked as one of the top famous male violinists by Ranker and one amongst the greatest violinists of popular music by Digital Dream Door. His extensive body of work spans a wide spectrum of genres, encompassing vocal and instrumental compositions.
Shakti is a fusion band formed by English guitarist John McLaughlin, Indian violin player L. Shankar, percussionists Zakir Hussain and T. H. "Vikku" Vinayakram in 1973, initially under the stage name "Turiyananda Sangit". The band played acoustic fusion music which combined Indian music with elements of jazz. The band's name means, in English, "creative intelligence, beauty, and power."
Remember Shakti is a quintet which combines elements of traditional Indian music with elements of jazz. The band consists of English guitarist John McLaughlin, and Zakir Hussain (tabla), U. Srinivas (deceased) (mandolin), Shankar Mahadevan (vocals), and V. Selvaganesh, who are of Indian descent. The band's name is derived from John Mclaughlin's acoustic Indian fusion band Shakti which was active in the 1970s. McLaughlin and Hussain were also members of that band, along with violinist L. Shankar and percussionists T.H. "Vikku" Vinayakram and R. Raghavan. The word Shakti translates in Sanskrit to "power" or "goddess of power".
Aashish Khan Debsharma is an Indian classical musician, a player of the sarod. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006 for the 'Best Traditional World Music Album' category for his album "Golden Strings of the Sarode". He is also a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. Besides being a performer, composer, and conductor, he is also an adjunct professor of Indian classical music at the California Institute of the Arts, and the University of California at Santa Cruz, in the United States.
Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram, also known as Vikku Vinayakram, is an Indian percussionist. He is also known as the God of ghatam. He plays Carnatic music with the ghatam, an earthen pot, and is credited with popularising the ghatam.
Planet Drum is a world music album by Mickey Hart, a musician and musicologist who was a member of the rock band the Grateful Dead.
Hallucination Engine is a 1994 album by the New York based music group Material. The album mixes jazz, dub, funk and Indian music.
Music of the World is a World music record label that was active from 1982 to 2000. The company produced over 100 CDs and cassettes of traditional and contemporary artists from around the world. Nomad and Latitudes were imprint labels.
Natural Elements is a studio album by the world fusion band Shakti. It was released in 1977 on CBS Records.
A Handful of Beauty is the first studio album released by the world fusion band Shakti in 1976.
Who's to Know is the second studio album by violinist Shankar, recorded in November 1980 and released on ECM the following year. The trio features percussionists Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman and Zakir Hussain.
Shankar Tucker is an American clarinetist and music composer. He rose to fame with the popularity of his YouTube music channel "The ShrutiBox".
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.
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.
Remember Shakti is a live album by the world fusion band Remember Shakti recorded in England over four nights, and released in 1999 on the Verve label. The reformed group features original members John McLaughlin (guitar), Zakir Hussain (tabla) and Vikku Vinayakram (ghatam), who are joined by Hariprasad Chaurasia on the bansuri. The album reached number 14 in the Billboard Top Jazz albums chart.
Remember Shakti – Saturday Night in Bombay is a live album by the world fusion band Remember Shakti released in November 2001 on the Verve label. This concert features John McLaughlin on guitar, U. Srinivas on electric mandolin, Vikku Selvaganesh on ghatam, kanjira and mridangam, Zakir Hussain on tabla and a number of guest musicians, including vocalist Shankar Mahadeven, slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya and drummer Sivamani.
George Brooks is an American saxophonist known for combining jazz and Indian classical music. He is the founder of the jazz fusion groups Summit, Aspada, Bombay Jazz, the Raga Bop Trio, and Elements.