Posted on 12/11/2012 9:43:55 PM PST by Borges
Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitarist and composer whose collaborations with Western classical musicians as well as rock stars helped foster a worldwide appreciation of India’s traditional music, died Tuesday in a hospital near his home in Southern California. He was 92.
Mr. Shankar had suffered from upper respiratory and heart ailments in the last year and underwent heart-valve replacement surgery last Thursday, his family said in a statement.
Mr. Shankar, a soft-spoken, eloquent man whose performance style embodied a virtuosity that transcended musical languages, was trained in both Eastern and Western musical traditions. Although Western audiences were often mystified by the odd sounds and shapes of the instruments when he began touring in Europe and the United States in the early 1950s, Mr. Shankar and his ensemble gradually built a large following for Indian music.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I had the pleasure of hearing him with George Harrison and Billy Preston. One of my favorite concerts. A gen-u-wine artificially-induced religious experience.
I had the pleasure of hearing him with George Harrison and Billy Preston. One of my favorite concerts. A gen-u-wine artificially-induced religious experience.
Ravi Shankar was an excellent musician, with two talented daughters, both musicians of merit to continue his musical heritage. RIP Ravi.
Me and Norah Jonesby LAURA SMITH, Evening Standard
Norah’s sister
Anoushka Shankar
Flashing identical cheeky smiles and matching tattoos, the beautiful daughters of legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar look - and are - the closest of sisters.
Both Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones also inherited their father’s musical talent and have carved out successful careers of their own.
Five years ago, however, the pair did not know each other - and their family history is a tale of two worlds.
While Norah has shot to fame with a smoky voice and a bestselling jazz-tinged album, Anoushka, by following her father and taking up the sitar, has had a lower profile.
In Britain today on tour with her father, she spoke of getting to know her long-lost sister after childhoods thousands of miles apart.
While 21-year-old Anoushka enjoyed a close relationship with her father, Norah, 23 - the daughter of his long-term lover Sue Jones - did not even know who her father was until she was 10.
Anoushka, daughter of Ravi’s second wife Sukanya, was born in London but jetted between here, California and Delhi as she grew up, learning her father’s ancient craft.
Norah grew up in a modest home in Dallas with her mother, waitressing and playing the piano in bars.
Anoushka said: “It has been wonderful getting to know Norah. She came to us when I was 16 and by the first year we were already close.”
“So it has been a very normal relationship for the past few years.”It’s just weird that the press has suddenly caught onto it. Initially the intrusion was very difficult for all of us. All she was trying to do was her music without her dad being the main focus.”
The day Norah got back in touch with the family five years ago, Anoushka was in the middle of a lesson with her father.
She said: “A soft-spoken girl on the other end of the phone asked to speak to Mr Ravi Shankar.”When she said who she was I was stunned because by then I had totally given up on the idea that we would ever have any contact with her.”
There were difficulties at first, and she admits Ravi and Norah - known as Geetali, her Indian name, to her father - will probably never relate to each other fully, but the sisters are now close.
“She and I have a beautiful relationship,” said Anoushka.
“I finally have the sister I always wanted. She is incredible. She really has one of the best voices out there. It’s wonderful to see someone like her with that kind of substance and integrity getting success.”
The sisters spent time together in New York last week, where Norah lives in a Brooklyn flat with her boyfriend, bassist Lee Alexander.
Anoushka is now looking forward to three months off after the end of the tour, which starts in London next weekend.
“I’m renting a flat in West Hampstead,” she said gleefully. “I can’t wait.”She admits too much work has made her “a bit of an old woman” recently but plans to change all that this summer by spending time with friends from her childhood in Willesden Green.
“London feels like home,” she said. “I’ve got a lovely set of friends here, so there’ll be lots of parties, but also lots of working on my new album, which will be a move away from Indian classical music. Norah won’t be visiting me in London this summer because she’s touring in the US. But I will be seeing her in the autumn.”
Shankar himself is delighted at the reconciliation of his daughters. “It is wonderful,” he said.
“It’s a great feeling. I feel very happy about it. Norah was my first daughter and I missed out on eight years of her life so it is wonderful to have her back.
“They have so much in common it is mind-boggling, really. In their looks, in their behaviour, in the way they are so quick-witted. They are so fantastic together.”
Ravi and Anoushka Shankar perform at the Barbican Centre in London on Sunday 18 May, followed by dates around the country.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-180175/Me-Norah-Jones.html
RIP.
When I waz in India I kinda got into the music for a while. Not so much his kind but the Bollywood stuff wif the dancing girls;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X4_YZJWWO4
You and about 100 million other people.
Lucky you! Shankar also wrote beautiful film scores.
CC
And like virtually everyone else in the crowd thought to yourself when he finished:
"thank God this is over!"
I just watched the entire 18 minutes of that video and I very much enjoyed it.
The videography was excellent.
The faces of the musicians were relaxed and smiling the whole time. Not all contorted like some others you see.
His fingers were just a blur as they played.
If you ever get the chance to see the whole movie, it’s well worth a watch. Otis Redding steals the show.
I envy you - that’s some major talent.
Bah!
He also had a son, talented in music and painting, the late Shubhendra Shankar.
He shared an Oscar for writing the score for “Gandhi”.
Not even close.
I probably still have the vinyl of the West Meets East Ravi Shankar - Yehudi Menuhin somewhere. I see that YouTube has several selections from the album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugIbmTKrcHc&playnext=1&list=AL94UKMTqg-9CPjKgW3JloeIgXbY3Uiy0E ~ this is a play list of all the good stuf ~ raga after raga. Always enjoyed his stuff then found myself blind and still able to use the computer to ‘get around’ so i played everything of his i could find on the net and found it comforting ~ makes you see things you didn’t think could be seen ~ been thinking of him lately wondering if he’d had a new release somewhere ~ will miss ol’ Ravi ~ my kinda’ sitar player.
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