Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India

Last updated

Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India
tour of Europe
Tour by Ravi Shankar
RaviShankar'sMusicFestivalFromIndia poster.jpg
Start date23 September 1974
End datemid October 1974
Ravi Shankar concert chronology
Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India
RaviShankar'sMusicFestivalFromIndia album cover.jpg
Studio album by
Ravi Shankar (on Dark Horse Records)
Released6 February 1976
RecordedAugust−September 1974
Studio FPSHOT, Oxfordshire
Genre Indian classical, Hindustani classical
Length47:23
Label Dark Horse
Producer George Harrison
Ravi Shankar (on Dark Horse Records) chronology
Shankar Family & Friends
(1974)		Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India
(1976)

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 .

Contents

The sixteen members of Shankar's Music Festival from India included Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, Alla Rakha, T.V. Gopalkrishnan, L. Subramaniam, Sultan Khan and Lakshmi Shankar. Several of the musicians began successful international careers as a result of their participation, and all are recognised as being among the late twentieth century's finest exponents of Indian classical music. The ensemble played in Europe in September and October 1974 before touring North America with Harrison and his band during the final two months of the year.

Background and concept

Present-day Benares (Varanasi). The plan for the Music Festival from India came about when George Harrison visited Shankar at his riverfront house in Benares in January 1974. Subah-e-Banaras.jpg
Present-day Benares (Varanasi). The plan for the Music Festival from India came about when George Harrison visited Shankar at his riverfront house in Benares in January 1974.

Although he had composed and performed orchestral works in India, as All India Radio's music director between 1949 and 1956, [1] Ravi Shankar's only similar project for Western audiences had been when he toured America with his Festival from India orchestra in 1968. [2] The tour featured musicians such as Shivkumar Sharma, Jitendra Abhisheki and Palghat Raghu, [3] with Shankar's regular jugalbandi partner, sarodya Ali Akbar Khan, joining the ensemble for their concerts in California. [4] [5] The plan for the larger Music Festival from India took shape in January 1974, [6] when his friend George Harrison visited Shankar in his home town of Benares. [7] Harrison attended a religious ceremony in honour of Shankar's new home, Hemangana, beside the River Ganges at Benares, after which he suggested that Shankar assemble an orchestra for concert tours of Europe and the United States. [8] According to Harrison, the Music Festival was something that he himself had been wanting to stage "since about '67". [9] He was particularly inspired after hearing Shankar's orchestral piece Nava Rasa Ranga while in Bombay, where Harrison had recorded part of his 1968 solo album Wonderwall Music . [6]

Unlike the Harrison-produced Shankar Family & Friends , a cross-cultural project recorded in 1973, [10] the focus behind the new collaboration was to celebrate the traditional aspects of Indian classical music, both in concerts performed by the sixteen-piece Music Festival orchestra and in the studio. [11] Shankar would act as composer and conductor, rather than musician, and only play sitar on his famed ragas during the live performances. The presentation of the Music Festival was the first project undertaken by Harrison under the auspices of his Material World Charitable Foundation, one of the aims of which was to "sponsor diverse forms of artistic expression and to encourage the exploration of alternative life views and philosophies". [12]

Musicians

Shankar gathered an impressive array of contributors for the project, whom he would describe decades later as "these wonderful musicians who are now superstars". [9] Many of the players he had a musical history with already. [13] Almost all of them are among the finest exponents of Indian classical music [14] – flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia, tabla legend Alla Rakha, the multi-talented T.V. Gopalkrishnan on mridangam and vocals, South Indian violin virtuoso L. Subramaniam, sarangi master Sultan Khan, santoor pioneer Shivkumar Sharma, and Gopal Krishan, credited with the emergence of the vichitra veena in that musical genre. A sitarist and percussion player, Harihar Rao had been a student of Shankar's during the 1950s before winning a Fulbright scholarship and taking a position in the ethnomusicology department of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). [15]

The featured singer was once more Lakshmi Shankar, [16] Shankar's sister-in-law and a noted Hindustani vocalist. [17] Like Sharma, Rakha and Lakshmi had been among the members of Shankar's 1968 revue. [4] For the first time in one of his projects, Shankar invited his niece Viji (Lakshmi's daughter), who joined her aunt, Kamala Chakravarty, as second vocalists to Lakshmi. [18]

Rehearsals and recording

Shankar and Harrison met again during the summer of 1974, in England, where Harrison arranged a house in London's Belgravia area for Shankar and the latter's partner, Chakravarty, while the other musicians were accommodated at the Imperial Hotel in Henley-on-Thames, west of London. [19] Harrison had the orchestra personnel picked up from the hotel each day in a Mercedes stretch limousine previously owned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. [18] He later recalled the amusing sight of Rakha and the other traditionally dressed Indian musicians as they exited the vehicle on arrival at his Henley home, Friar Park. [6]

Shankar composed new material specifically for the Music Festival and recorded it using Harrison's 16-track home studio facility, FPSHOT. [20] Describing himself as "an improviser by nature", every day for three weeks Shankar would leave London and head west on the M4, [9] during which he would write the music to be run through with the musicians that day in Friar Park's grand drawing room. [21] Harrison remarked of the process: "It was amazing, because he'd sit there and say to one person, 'This is where you play,' and the next one, 'And you do this,' and 'You do that,' and they're all going, What? 'OK, one, two, three ...' And you'd think, 'This is going to be a catastrophe' – and it would be the most amazing thing." [6] The principal sound engineer on the sessions, and Harrison's regular engineer at FPSHOT during this period, was Shankar's nephew Kumar, [22] with Phil McDonald assisting on "Raga Jait" and "Naderdani". [23] Kumar Shankar joined the cast for publicity photos taken by Clive Arrowsmith in the house and grounds. [24] [25]

The orchestra rehearsed for their upcoming live performances at Friar Park also. [26] Midway through the proceedings, on 6 September, Harrison held a press conference in London and announced plans for the Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India tour of Europe, lasting through into October. [27] A co-headlining North American tour would follow, [28] [29] for which Harrison, as the main attraction, was growing increasingly unprepared, such was his dedication to this project, and after having already lavished months of his time on The Place I Love by Splinter, another Dark Horse act. [30]

Performance history

Examples of three of the string instruments used in the Music Festival from India - sarod, sitar and ektara Plucked string instruments (5) Indian string instruments, Sarod, Sitar, Iktara - Soinuenea.jpg
Examples of three of the string instruments used in the Music Festival from India – sarod, sitar and ektara

The programme for the concert performances was divided into two distinct parts. [31] Shankar explained at the time:

The first part is in the form of a panorama, depicting major stages in the evolution of classical and traditional Indian music, starting with the Vedic hymns and the music of the medieval period, and ending with the present day, touching briefly on all the intermediate forms such as alap, dhrupad, dhamar, khyal, tappa, tarana and chaturanga ... The second part begins with the semi-classical forms such as the devotional bhajan and the romantic and erotic thumri, ghazal, dadra, etc. and ends with the very lively and earthy folk style. [31]

True to the festival's title, the folk traditions of all the various regions of India were represented, [31] in what was the first appearance by an Indian orchestra in Europe. [32] Similarly all-encompassing and educational were Naseem Khan's liner notes for the Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India studio album, serving as an introductory guide to the wide variety of Indian musical instruments on display. The album would be issued long after the European tour, however, due to the release of Shankar Family & Friends in September 1974. [32]

The Royal Albert Hall performance on 23 September was the Music Festival's opening night, [33] after which the tour moved on to Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Munich and Copenhagen. [34] Harrison took to the stage in London and admitted to "feeling very nervous ... we're behind schedule", [35] before introducing Shankar to the audience. [36] The Royal Albert Hall concert was filmed by Stuart Cooper, [37] who had recently directed Harrison's Apple Films production Little Malcolm . [38]

The brief European tour ended in October. The orchestra was then pared down to a sixteen-piece – omitting shehnai veteran Anant Lal and Kamala Chakravarty – for Shankar and Harrison's high-profile tour of the United States and Canada, which began at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum on 2 November. [39] Four days later, the tour played in San Francisco, [40] where some of the Indian musicians were also invited to perform at the Stone House, a historic building in Fairfax in Marin County. [41] Individual performances from this informal concert, by Sultan Khan and Hariprasad Chaurasia, were released on the albums Sarangi: The Music of India (1988) [42] [43] and Venu (1989). [44] [nb 1]

Shankar's ensemble faced some hostile audiences in North America, [46] who were more interested in hearing Harrison's music [47] [48] during what was, in 1974, the first tour there by a former Beatle since the band's 1966 visit. [49] [50] Author Peter Lavezzoli views this outcome as "unfortunate", since Shankar "had assembled an outstanding group of musicians". [51] Harrison biographer Simon Leng describes the orchestra as "the greatest collection of Indian musicians ever to tour America". [52] Although the focus of Shankar's set on this tour was to promote Shankar Family & Friends, [53] selections from the Music Festival programme such as "Naderdani" were adapted for American and Canadian audiences. [54] Commenting on the lack of appreciation for the orchestra at some of the concerts, drummer Jim Keltner later said: "Those people saw something very special." [55]

Album release

Dark Horse Records issued the album Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India in February 1976 (March in the UK), [56] a year and a half after the recording sessions. The cover features a group photo of all the participants taken by Arrowsmith under a large cedar tree in the grounds of Friar Park. The back cover included a reproduction of the Music Festival tour poster designed by Jan Steward, [23] who had created the cover for the 1968 Festival from India double album, among other works by Shankar. [57]

Dark Horse produced a promotional film for the album. The film included footage of Harrison with a voiceover by Shankar discussing his role, and a spinning LP sleeve accompanied by portions of music from the album. [58] The release coincided with a concert by Shankar at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York – a dawn-to-dusk recital celebrating twenty years of performances in the West by the artist. [59]

Also in March 1976, the Californian television station KCET broadcast a 30-minute programme titled Ravi Shankar's Music Festival with George Harrison & Don Ellis. [37] Produced by Taylor Hackford and filmed in Los Angeles in 1975, the show was hosted by Don Ellis, [60] a pioneer in Indo jazz [61] who had studied Indian music under Harihar Rao at UCLA. [15] [nb 2] During the programme, Harrison discussed the Music Festival project and introduced film clips from the orchestra's Royal Albert Hall performance. [37] Having already watched the film from the London concert in its entirety, Ellis described it as "one of the most extraordinary musical experiences that I've ever heard". [63]

Writing about the 1974-recorded album in his book The Dawn of Indian Music in the West, Lavezzoli recognises the ten-minute "Raga Jait" as being among the highlights of the set. [11] Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine in 1979, Harrison named the album and Shankar Family & Friends among his favourites of all the releases on Dark Horse. [64]

Reissue and legacy

With the album long out of print, selections from Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India appeared on the Harrison-compiled box set Ravi Shankar: In Celebration (1996), [65] issued by Dark Horse and Angel Records. [66] The box set also featured the previously unreleased "Ta Na Tom", another piece recorded with the Music Festival personnel at Friar Park. [67] Alan Kozlowski, who helped compile the box set, [68] viewed the inclusion of tracks from Music Festival from India among the "prizes" offered by the compilation. [65] In his review of In Celebration, Bruce Eder of AllMusic reserved especial praise for the fourth disc, which contains several of Shankar's collaborations with Harrison, writing: "From the opening 'Vandana', it draws us into a realm of music that is so sublimely beautiful that it makes everything that has come before it, in all its bejeweled splendor, seem almost plain and pale by comparison." [69]

In 2010, Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India was reissued on CD as part of the Shankar–Harrison box set Collaborations , coinciding with celebrations for Shankar's 90th birthday. [70] [71] Writing for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger considers Collaborations to be a "bountiful gathering of some of Shankar's more accessible recordings" that has "value not just for Beatles completists [through Harrison's involvement], but also for more general appreciators of traditional Indian music". Unterberger describes the Music Festival from India studio album as offering "a more diverse group of arrangements than is heard on many Indian recordings" and "[a] mood [that] is largely one of devout humility interspersed with some low-key, joyful boisterousness". [72]

PopMatters contributing editor Sachyn Mital considers the album to be "lively and instrument focused", and writes of its music content: "'Bhajan' is a joyful chant to Krishna, Gopal and Govind, while 'Naderdani' has ... sitar evoking playfulness with masterful precision. 'Dehati' is a percussion showcase as the tabla players create two minutes of call and response near the end." [36] While noting the "great integrity" behind the 2010 box set, Joe Marchese of The Second Disc writes of Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India: "The album's sounds are exotic, but immediately transporting. Much of the music is joyful, such as 'Naderdani,' described as 'a contemporary composition for voice and instruments.'" [73] Writing in Goldmine magazine, Gillian Gaar finds the album "mesmerizing", with "the female vocals having an uncanny ability to imitate the sitar (or vice versa)". [74]

Nari, a 2015 multimedia project by singer and violinist Gingger Shankar [75] (the daughter of Viji and L. Subramanium, and granddaughter of Lakshmi), [76] was partly inspired by the 1974 Music Festival and the North American tour with Harrison. [77] She said she created the project out of the belief that Lakshmi and Viji deserved more recognition for their respective roles in helping to popularise Indian music in the West. [77]

Music Festival from India – Live at the Royal Albert Hall DVD

The Royal Albert Hall (pictured in 2008), the venue for the Music Festival's debut performance Royal Albert Hall.001 - London.JPG
The Royal Albert Hall (pictured in 2008), the venue for the Music Festival's debut performance

Collaborations marked the first release for Stuart Cooper's concert film of the Music Festival from India, [37] [78] issued on DVD as disc four of the box set. [72] The film was shot at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday, 23 September 1974. [78] Text at the start of the DVD's "concert film" section explains that much restoration was needed on both footage and audio, [79] the latter being overseen by producer Paul Hicks and by Shankar's daughter Anoushka Shankar. [80] With some of Cooper's 35-year-old footage having been destroyed or mislaid, [79] the remainder of the concert's sound is included in a separate, "concert audio" section. [81] In her review for Goldmine, Gaar writes that, together with the Music Festival's studio album, the concert DVD features both "the most traditional Indian music" and "the most powerful performances" on Collaborations. [74]

Film synopsis

The film opens with an image of a large red Om symbol on a yellow sheet, which provides a backdrop to the Albert Hall stage. George Harrison then walks on and gives a brief, warm introduction to Ravi Shankar, after which the Music Festival from India performance begins.

The stage is set with two large risers; the first in the shape of a square, the second, slightly more raised than the first one, is curved around behind it like a half-moon. On the square riser, from left to right, sit singers Viji Shankar, Lakshmi Shankar and Kamala Chakravarty, with percussionist Harihar Rao and bansuri player Hariprasad Chaurasia just behind them. Spread out along the crescent-shaped platform (from left to right) are three bowed string players, L. Subramaniam, Satyadev Pawar and Sultan Khan; Anant Lal, on shehnai; then the four drummers, T.V. Gopalkrishnan, Alla Rakha, Rijram Desad and Kamalesh Maitra, the last two partly surrounded by their tarangs (circles) of hand drums. Completing the ring of musicians along this curved riser is sitarist Kartick Kumar; Gopal Krishan, behind a raised vichitra veena; and finally Shivkumar Sharma, behind the large, harpsichord-like santoor. Shankar conducts the orchestra from just in front of the first riser, his back to the audience.

Midway through the film, the stage is cleared of all musicians except for four members of the orchestra and Shankar, who now plays sitar on the ensuing raga. After the customary slow alap section, Shankar's sitar trades musical phrases with Rakha's tabla, supported by Kumar and Rao, both on sitar, and Viji Shankar, playing the tambura. The whole ensemble then returns for further vocal and orchestral pieces, conducted by Shankar as before.

Bonus feature

The DVD's bonus feature, directed by David Kew, [82] shows Hicks and Anoushka Shankar at work on the mix for pieces released in this concert film section. [83] They are joined there at StudioWest, [82] in San Diego, by Shankar himself and Harrison's widow, Olivia, allowing the 90-year-old Shankar to offer his input. [83] At one point Anoushka covers her father's eyes playfully – in response, it seems, to his reaction at seeing himself on screen, performing some four decades before. [36]

Track listing

Studio album

All songs by Ravi Shankar.

Side one

  1. "Vandana" – 2:44
  2. "Dhamar" – 5:23
  3. "Tarana / Chaturang" – 5:33
  4. "Raga Jait" – 9:48

Side two

  2. "Kajri" – 4:51
  3. "Bhajan" – 3:56
  4. "Naderdani" – 4:43
  5. "Dehati" – 10:09

DVD "Concert film"

  1. "Introduction by George Harrison"
  2. "Hymns From the Vedas"
  3. "Tappa (Raga Khamaj)"
  4. "Tarana (Raga Kirwani)"
  5. "Raga Jait"
  6. "Vilambit Gat, Drut Gat and Jhala (Raga Yaman Kalyan)"
  7. "Naderdani"
  8. "Krishna Krishna Bhajan (based on Raga Pancham-se-gara)"
  9. "Dehati"

DVD "Concert audio"

  1. "Musicians Introduction"
  2. "Vandana"
  3. "Alap / Noom / Toom Jor (Raga Abhogi)"
  4. "Dhamar (Raga Vasanta in Tala Dhamar)"
  5. "Khyal (Raga Kedara in Tala Teental)"
  6. "Tarana (Raga Kirwani in Tala Ektal)"
  7. "Chaturang (Raga Yaman Kalyan in Tala Teental)"
  8. "Kajri"
  9. "Pallavi (Thani Avarthanam / Raga Bilahari in Tala Aditala)"
  10. "Thumri (Mishra Piloo in Tala Jat)"
  11. "Raga Mala (Garland of Ragas, based on Raga Khamaj in Tala Teental)"

Personnel

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Co-produced by musician and ethnomusicologist Mickey Hart, the two albums were reissued in 2011 as part of his 25-disc Smithsonian Folkways collection. [45]
  2. ↑ A trumpeter and composer, Ellis formed the Hindustani Jazz Sextet with Rao in 1964. The sextet also included percussionist Emil Richards, who played in Harrison's 1974 tour band and with Shankar's orchestra when the two ensembles performed together. [62]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ravi Shankar</span> Indian musician and sitar player (1920–2012)

Ravi Shankar was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known expert 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.

<i>Raga</i> (film) 1971 American film

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hari's on Tour (Express)</span> 1974 instrumental by George Harrison

"Hari's on Tour (Express)" is an instrumental by English musician George Harrison, released as the opening track of his 1974 album Dark Horse. It was also the B-side of the album's second single – which was "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" in North America and most other territories, and "Dark Horse" in Britain and some European countries. Among Harrison's post-Beatles solo releases, the track is the first of only two genuine instrumentals he released from 1970 onwards – the other being the Grammy Award-winning "Marwa Blues", from his 2002 album Brainwashed.

"It Is 'He' " is a song by English musician George Harrison, released as the final track of his 1974 album Dark Horse. Harrison was inspired to write the song while in the Hindu holy city of Vrindavan, in northern India, with his friend Ravi Shankar. The composition originated on a day that Harrison describes in his autobiography as "my most fantastic experience", during which his party and their ascetic guide toured the city's temples. The song's choruses were adapted from the Sanskrit chant they sang before visiting Seva Kunj, a park dedicated to Krishna's childhood. The same pilgrimage to India led to Harrison staging Shankar's Music Festival from India in September 1974 and undertaking a joint North American tour with Shankar at the end of that year.

<i>Shankar Family & Friends</i> 1974 studio album by Ravi Shankar (on Dark Horse Records)

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.

<i>In Concert 1972</i> 1973 live album by Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan

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.

The Material World Charitable Foundation, also known as the Material World Foundation (MWF), is a charitable organisation founded by English musician George Harrison in April 1973. Its launch coincided with the release of Harrison's album Living in the Material World and came about in reaction to the taxation issues that had hindered his 1971–72 aid project for refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Harrison assigned his publishing royalties from nine of the eleven songs on Living in the Material World, including the hit single "Give Me Love ", to the foundation, in perpetuity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Am Missing You</span>

"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.

<i>Chants of India</i> 1997 studio album by Ravi Shankar

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.

<i>Joi Bangla</i> 1971 EP by Ravi Shankar

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.

Anant Lal, often referred to by the title Pandit, was an Indian classical musician who played the shehnai. He worked for All India Radio and played with artists such as Ravi Shankar and Debu Chaudhuri in addition to recording under his own name. Lal was one of the leading exponents of the shehnai in Hindustani classical music. In 1989, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest recognition afforded artists in India.

Kamalesh Maitra, often referred to by the title Pandit, was an Indian classical musician, composer and teacher. He is recognised as the last master of the tabla tarang – a melodic percussion instrument consisting of numerous individually tuned hand drums, set in a semicircle. Maitra grew up in Calcutta and played the tabla until joining Uday Shankar's ballet company in 1950 and taking up the tabla tarang. He became the company's musical director and toured internationally with the troupe through to the mid 1970s.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Harrison and Ravi Shankar's 1974 North American tour</span> 1974 concert tour by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar

George Harrison and Ravi Shankar's 1974 North American tour was a 45-show concert tour of the United States and Canada, undertaken by English musician George Harrison and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar in November and December 1974. It is often referred to as the Dark Horse Tour, since the concerts served as a launch for Harrison's record label Dark Horse Records, to which Shankar was one of the inaugural signings, and Harrison's concurrent single was the song "Dark Horse". The release of his delayed album, also titled Dark Horse, followed towards the end of the tour. The shows featured guest spots by Harrison's band members Billy Preston and Tom Scott.

<i>Ravi Shankar: In Celebration</i> 1996 compilation album by Ravi Shankar

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.

"Ride Rajbun" is a song by English musician George Harrison. It was released in 1992 on the multi-artist charity album The Bunbury Tails, which was the soundtrack to the British animated television series of the same name. Harrison co-wrote the song's lyrics with Bunbury Tails creator David English. The eponymous Rajbun was a character in the series based on English's friend and cricketer Rajendrasinh Jadeja, one of a team of cricket-playing rabbits – in this case, from Bangalore in India. The composition is in the style of a nursery rhyme or children's song, while the all-Indian instrumentation on the recording recalls some of Harrison's compositions for the Beatles during 1966–68.

Viji Subramaniam, also known as Viji Shankar, was an Indian singer. She was the daughter of singer Lakshmi Shankar and Rajendra Shankar. Like her mother and uncle, Viji was a musician and trained in both the Indian classical systems.

<i>Collaborations</i> (Ravi Shankar and George Harrison album) 2010 box set by Ravi Shankar & George Harrison

Collaborations is a four-disc compilation box set by the Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar and the 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.

<i>Ravi Shankars Festival from India</i> 1968 studio album by Ravi Shankar

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.

References

  1. ↑ Lavezzoli, p. 50.
  2. ↑ Shankar, pp. 203–04, 324.
  3. ↑ "Excerpts from a conversation between Raviji and Satish and Shashi Vyas, June 2007", The Ravi Shankar Foundation (retrieved 9 February 2012).
  4. 1 2 Stephen M.H. Braitman, "Pop Sounds from India Rock Greek: Ravi Shankar, Greek Theatre, Los Angeles", Van Nuys News , 30 June 1968; available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).
  5. ↑ Staff writer, "Shankar, Indians To Play In Festival", The Stanford Daily , 5 July 1968, p. 6 (retrieved 25 August 2015).
  6. 1 2 3 4 Olivia Harrison, p. 302.
  7. ↑ Leng, pp. 148, 165.
  8. ↑ Shankar, p. 223.
  9. 1 2 3 Collaborations, p. 15.
  10. ↑ Rodriguez, p. 237.
  11. 1 2 Lavezzoli, p. 195.
  12. ↑ Collaborations, p. 32.
  13. ↑ Shankar, pp. 113, 222–23.
  14. ↑ Rodriguez, p. 238.
  15. 1 2 Lavezzoli, pp. 294–95.
  16. ↑ Leng, p. 138.
  17. ↑ Manjari Sinha, "Ageless artiste, timeless charm …", The Hindu , 24 March 2006 (retrieved 19 August 2014).
  18. 1 2 Shankar, p. 224.
  19. ↑ Shankar, pp. 224, 268–69.
  20. ↑ Madinger & Easter, pp. 442, 443.
  21. ↑ Shankar, pp. 224, 305.
  22. ↑ Leng, p. 146.
  23. 1 2 Sleeve credits, Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India LP (Dark Horse Records, 1976; produced by George Harrison).
  24. ↑ Olivia Harrison, pp. 304–07, 397.
  25. ↑ George Harrison, plate XXXIX.
  26. ↑ Madinger & Easter, p. 442.
  27. ↑ Badman, p. 131.
  28. ↑ Leng, pp. 147–48.
  29. ↑ Shankar, pp. 223, 225.
  30. ↑ Olivia Harrison, p. 335.
  31. 1 2 3 Collaborations, p. 25.
  32. 1 2 Leng, p. 148.
  33. ↑ Terry Staunton, "Ravi Shankar & George Harrison – Collaborations", Record Collector , December 2010, p. 82 (retrieved 16 August 2014).
  34. ↑ Badman, p. 133.
  35. ↑ Concert Film, "Introduction by George Harrison", Music Festival from India – Live at the Royal Albert Hall DVD (Dark Horse Records, 2010; produced by Olivia Harrison; directed by Stuart Cooper).
  36. 1 2 3 Sachyn Mital, "Ravi Shankar and George Harrison: Collaborations", PopMatters , 19 October 2010 (retrieved 19 August 2014).
  37. 1 2 3 4 Pieper, p. 171.
  38. ↑ Michael Simmons, "Cry for a Shadow", Mojo , November 2011, pp. 84, 85.
  39. ↑ Madinger & Easter, pp. 445, 447.
  40. ↑ Badman, p. 137.
  41. ↑ Liner notes, Sarangi: The Music of India CD (Rykodisc, 1988; produced by Mickey Hart & Zakir Hussain).
  42. ↑ "Sarangi: The Music of India", Smithsonian Folkways (retrieved 6 August 2016).
  43. ↑ Trager, p. 328.
  44. ↑ "Venu", Smithsonian Folkways (retrieved 6 August 2016).
  45. ↑ "The Mickey Hart Collection", Smithsonian Folkways (retrieved 6 August 2016).
  46. ↑ Olivia Harrison, pp. 298–99.
  47. ↑ Shankar, p. 227.
  48. ↑ Rodriguez, p. 59.
  49. ↑ Madinger & Easter, p. 419.
  50. ↑ The Editors of Rolling Stone, pp. 34, 44, 126, 128.
  51. ↑ Lavezzoli, p. 196.
  52. ↑ Leng, p. 168.
  53. ↑ Rodriguez, pp. 198, 237.
  54. ↑ Madinger & Easter, p. 447.
  55. ↑ Lavezzoli, p. 205.
  56. ↑ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 193.
  57. ↑ Shankar, pp. 204, 231.
  58. ↑ Pieper, p. 172.
  59. ↑ Shankar, p. 228.
  60. ↑ Pieper, pp. 171–72.
  61. ↑ World Music: The Rough Guide, pp. 111, 114.
  62. ↑ Lavezzoli, pp. 301–02.
  63. ↑ "George Harrison interview by Don Ellis for KCET, Los Angeles – September, 1974", YouTube, 18 February 2016 (retrieved 27 June 2016).
  64. ↑ Mick Brown, "An Interview with George Harrison", Rolling Stone , 19 April 1979; available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).
  65. 1 2 Heidi Waleson, "Angel set celebrates Ravi Shankar: Sitarist called 'Godfather of World Music'", Billboard , 23 December 1995, pp. 17, 63 (retrieved 19 August 2014).
  66. ↑ Badman, p. 551.
  67. ↑ Booklet accompanying Ravi Shankar: In Celebration box set (Angel/Dark Horse, 1995; produced by George Harrison & Alan Kozlowski; package design by Rick Ward/The Team Design Consultants), p. 50.
  68. ↑ Shankar, p. 305.
  69. ↑ Bruce Eder, "Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar: In Celebration", AllMusic (retrieved 19 August 2014).
  70. ↑ Evan Schlansky, "George Harrison and Ravi Shankar's Relationship Explored on Collaborations", American Songwriter , 12 August 2010 (retrieved 15 August 2014).
  71. ↑ Sean Michaels, "George Harrison and Ravi Shankar collaborations to be reissued", guardian.co.uk, 18 August 2010 (retrieved 19 August 2014).
  72. 1 2 Richie Unterberger, "George Harrison/Ravi Shankar Collaborations", AllMusic (retrieved 18 August 2014).
  73. ↑ Joe Marchese, "Review: Ravi Shankar and George Harrison, 'Collaborations'", The Second Disc, 8 November 2010 (retrieved 19 August 2014).
  74. 1 2 Gillian G. Gaar, "Shankar/Harrison set succeeded on crossover appeal", Goldmine , 31 January 2011 (retrieved 4 August 2015).
  75. ↑ "About", songsofnari.com (retrieved 6 August 2016).
  76. ↑ Deepali Dhingra, "My mother helped bring Indian music to the West: Gingger Shankar", Mid-Day , 22 February 2015 (retrieved 6 August 2016).
  77. 1 2 Katie Booth, "You've heard of George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. Now hear the little known story of Lakshmi Shankar and her daughter, Viji", Women in the World/nytimes.com, 20 May 2016 (retrieved 6 August 2016).
  78. 1 2 Back cover, Collaborations box set (Dark Horse Records, 2010; produced by Olivia Harrison).
  79. 1 2 Concert Film, introductory text, Music Festival from India – Live at the Royal Albert Hall DVD (Dark Horse Records, 2010; produced by Olivia Harrison; directed by Stuart Cooper).
  80. ↑ "Collaborations Box Set" > Album credits, georgeharrison.com (retrieved 18 August 2014).
  81. ↑ Olivia Harrison, ""George Harrison and Ravi Shankar Box Set 'Collaborations' Is a Labor of Love for Me"". Archived from the original on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Spinner , 18 October 2010 (archived version retrieved 19 August 2014).
  82. 1 2 Bonus Feature, credits, Music Festival from India – Live at the Royal Albert Hall DVD (Dark Horse Records, 2010; produced by Olivia Harrison; directed by Stuart Cooper).
  83. 1 2 Dan Forte, "Ravi Shankar and George Harrison Collaborations", Vintage Guitar , February 2011 (retrieved 16 August 2014).

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.