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RAVI SHANKAR, KBE – (APRIL 7, 1920 – DECEMBER 11, 2012) – TIMH

+12 HS
Whoa Nellie's picture
April 7, 2016 at 7:04am
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Ravi Shankar is the world’s best-known virtuoso of the classical Indian instrument, the sitar. He came to prominence in the mid to late 60s, when rock groups were experimenting with different sounds to incorporate into psychedelic rock compositions.

At Woodstock (1969)

Ravie was born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury in Varanasi, British India. At the age of 10, he went to Paris with his brother’s Indian dance troupe. Members of the group not only danced, but also played the traditional instruments in accompaniment. Ravi became interested in the sitar at around 14, and began to take lessons. When he was 18, Ravi left the troupe to return to India for 6 years of intensive training on the sitar. That completed, he composed music for Indian theater and was music director for All India Radio, where he founded the first orchestra. In 1956, Ravi embarked on an international odyssey that took him to London, Europe, the US and Australia. 

At the height of his popularity in popular music, Ravi performed at both the '67 Monterey Pop Festival and '69 Woodstock. He won a Grammy for his collaboration with violinist Yehudi Menuhin. From 1970 until his death in San Diego, CA, Ravi’s international career included performing at the Concert for Bangladesh, regular touring and collaborations with George Harrison, university teaching positions, composing for multiple international orchestras, and composing music for the movie Ghandi. American musician Norah Jones is Ravi’s daughter. Anoushka Shankar is another of his daughters, a professional sitarist, who played at the Concert for George.

In Srinigar, India (1966)

George Harrison of the Beatles is most often credited for the first use of a sitar in rock music, though the Kinks, the Yardbirds and the Byrds probably preceded him in studio use. There is no doubt that George’s 1966 sabbatical to India to study the sitar under Ravi Shankar lent legitimacy to the instrument, and certainly Harrison’s playing on “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” was its first use in a popular release. Use of the sitar, and other classical Indian instruments became a fad known as raga rock, as many groups rushed to include the sounds on their records. The Danelectro Co. even produced an electric sitar for a few years in the late 60s. It sounded like a sitar, but played like a guitar. The instrument is rare and valuable today. The sitar craze died out by the 70s, but the sitar sound was embedded in rock and pop music. Tom Petty's "Don't Come Around Here No More" and several tracks by the folk group Pentangle use a guitar/harpsichord mash-up instrument to simulate the sitar.

Danelectro “Coral” Electric Sitar (1967)

A few examples of sitar or electric sitar use in pop/rock music include.

  • Beatles – "Love You To” "Tomorrow Never Knows" "Within You Without You" "Across the Universe" –  also George’s first solo album Wonderwall Music
  • Rolling Stones – “Paint It, Black”
  • Kinks – “Fancy”
  • Steely Dan – “Do It Again”
  • Guns N’ Roses – “Pretty Tied Up”
  • Stevie Wonder – “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours”
  • Metallica – “Wherever I May Roam”
  • Lemon Pipers – “Green Tambourine”
  • Traffic – “Paper Sun” “Hole in My Soul”
  • Strawberry Alarm Clock – “Incense and Peppermints”

Thank you, Pandit Ravi Shankar!

 

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