East Meets W

Shankar Ravi: Raga [DVD]

Shankar Ravi: Nine Decades Vol 2/Reminiscence... [CD]

In October 2011, at the seasoned age of 91, Ravi Shankar invited his long-time tabla accompanist, Tanmoy Bose, to his home in Encinitas, California for an informal recording session. Over four days, they worked in Shankar's living room, recording seven different ragas. The resulting music is pure Shankar - a pairing of deep musical experience and brilliant technique performed with the energy and passion he brings to his live concerts. The first four of these sessions, released in 2011, won a GRAMMY award for Best World Music Album. The Living Room Sessions Part 2 is no less noteworthy, with three of the last session recordings made by Maestro Ravi Shankar before his death in December 2012. Shankar's playing is characterized by such intensity, clarity, and delight that it reveals, once more, the maestro's musical genius as something to reckon with, even in his tenth decade.

Celebrating Ravi Shankar's life and musical legacy of East-meets-West cultural exchange, Barry Phillips, Linda Burman-Hall and the Lux Musica Ensemble (with guest Debopriyo Sarkar) present a selection of daring, experimental compositions that reflect and re-imagine the musical encounters between North India and British traditions during the late 1780s. Though very different creative languages - Indian music communicates emotion through pitch nuance and elaborate metric foundations, whereas European music relies on simpler meters and melodies in order to convey emotion through harmonic progressions - these two traditions have diversified each other significantly ever since the British Raj, with results that are as complicated as they are beautiful.

Ghosh, Bickram: Maya - Bickram Ghosh's Dedica... [CD]

Shankar Ravi: Nine Decades Vol 1 1967-1968 [CD]

On this recording, Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, world-renowned classical Hindustani vocalist in the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana tradition, pays loving tribute to the Maestro, Ravi Shankar. This recording features four Ravi Shankar ragas, performed by Deshpande and overlaid with her lyrical bandishes, as well as one original raga. The selections, both intricate and soaring, feature the talents of Deshpande, who Shankar recognized during his lifetime as a vocalist blessed with both a beautiful voice and the scholarship to retain the spirit of the tradition. The album includes a Bonus Track: an archival recording of Ravi Shankar performing UTSAV Mishra Gara.