[Vision2020] Ravi Shankar, Father to Musicians Norah Jones & Anoushka Shankar, Dies at 92

[Ted Moffett]

*I was watching "Democracy Now" this morning and was amazed and delighted
to suddenly see concert footage of Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka,
both playing sitar on stage.
*

*Wow!
*

*I did not know Ravi had died, then Amy Goodman announced this.*

*I am not very familiar with Ravi Shankar's music, having heard only one or
two albums of his, though I absolutely love the sitar, which I think is one
of the most amazing instruments humans have ever created.*

*Sometimes when I pick up my guitar, it seems like a silly child's toy
compared to the sitar, which I have attempted to play.  However, Jimi
Hendrix proves this quite wrong!
*

*Singer/musician Norah Jones is very famous, and I am certain many on
Vision2020 have heard her music.  What many may not know, is that Ravi
Shankar is her father!*

*I like Norah Jones music, but I am a much bigger fan of Ravi's daughter
Anoushka's music, which ranges from more traditional Indian sitar playing,
to more westernized styles of music.
*

*Not that I am an expert judge, but Anoushka is claimed to be a sitar
virtuoso in her own right, and I have albums of her playing sitar with Ravi
and others that indicate this is indeed the case.*

*Anoushka plays on Stings album "Sacred Love:" (
http://www.sting.com/discography/index/ablum/albumId/28/tagName/Albums )
and Sting sings on one of Anoushka's more westernized albums, "Breathing
Under Water," on which sister Norah Jones also guests:
*

*http://www.anoushkashankar.com/albums/breathing-under-water/
*

*"Breathing Under Water" is very different than some of Anoushka's earlier
albums, which are very traditional Indian music.  They're all amazing!
*

*Watch/listen to Ravi and Anoushka in concert both playing sitar on
YouTube.  Amazing music!  Numerous other music options are shown for
Anoushka's music on YouTube at this website:*
**

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG2moqxqIaE
*

*------------------------------------------------------
*
Sitar legend Ravi Shankar dies at 92
By *Ben Brumfield*, CNN
updated 3:59 PM EST, Wed December 12, 2012

*
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/12/showbiz/california-ravi-shankar-obit/index.html
*

*(CNN)* -- His music transcended trends and cultural barriers. Pandit Ravi
Shankar's life, which traversed nearly a century, ended Tuesday.

The legendary sitar player, who taught Beatle George Harrison how to play
the stringed instrument <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t79aI-I6ucA>and
brought Indian music to the West, passed away at age 92 in the early
evening in San Diego, near his home, according to his wife, Sukanya, and
daughter Anoushka Shankar, who were by his side.

Shankar was the father of jazz singer Norah Jones as well. He is also
survived by three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, according to
his record label, East Meets West Music.

His health had suffered over the past year, according to a statement from
his record label, and he underwent heart valve replacement surgery last
Thursday.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the surgeons and doctors taking
care of him, his body was not able to withstand the strain of the surgery,"
his wife and daughter said.

In the 1960s, he took Eastern music mainstream in the West. He lent
ethereal, spiritual sounds to the Fab Four through his friendship with
Harrison, who recorded them on the "Sgt. Pepper's" album in the song
"Within You Without You."

Virtuoso performances at Monterey in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969 helped
cement Shankar's place in Western musical history as an ambassador of
Eastern wisdom to a generation looking for new values.

"Ravi was a great loss musically, spiritually and physically. God bless to
Ravi's family. Peace & Love," Beatle Ringo Starr said in a statement
released through a representative.

Singer Peter Gabriel hailed Shankar as an inspiration who "opened the door
to non-western music for millions of people around the world."

"He was very serious about his music, and I remember at one WOMAD
performance, he stopped the music to ask his audience not to point their
feet at him as that was seen as offensive in India," Gabriel said in a
statement. "He was also warm, witty and mischievous as a man. He will be
badly missed."

Even actress Pamela Anderson weighed in
tweeting<https://twitter.com/PamelaDAnderson>one of Shankar's music
videos.

In Bangladesh's bloody war of separation from Pakistan in 1971, Shankar and
Harrison launched what UNICEF calls the first massive fund-raising pop
event, The Concert for Bangladesh, to generate donations for the flood of
refugees pouring into India.

Later, from 1986 to 1992, Shankar put his politics into practice as a
member of India's upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha, or state
assembly, serving with India's current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"It was difficult, often, to judge what was more remarkable -- the man or
his music," Singh said of Shankar on Wednesday. He praised him as one of
India's "most effective cultural ambassadors."

Both houses of parliament observed a moment of silence in his honor.

Shankar's musical career had a long life before and after the '60s. He was
born on April 7, 1920, and when he and Harrison met, he was already 46 and
famous in India as a classical musician, according to his record label
biography.

His classical career outlived his counterculture fame, but he continued to
meld East with West and composed concertos, which harmonized his sitar with
orchestras. He played duos with American classical violin maestro Yehudi
Menuhin and composed with American minimalist Philip Glass. He also wrote
film music for the Hollywood movie "Gandhi."

Shankar kept homes in the United States and India.

Despite ill health, he shared a stage with his daughter Anoushka, also a
sitar virtuoso, in early November.

It was his last public performance.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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