Flowers Of India - Ravi Shankar Album Review

Photo Credit:Vincent Limongelli

Album Review

Raga Jog is arguably the most recognised Indian composition of all time, coming in at a staggering 28 minutes 15 seconds. For its time it was quite an audacious piece, considering its length. It was recorded by Indian classical composer Pandit Ravi Shankar in 1956, then 36, who is still considered the greatest Sitar player ever.

Raga literally means mood or colour, and this magnificent and timeless piece of music, in all its various shifts, remains as beguiling as ever. Considering there's only three musicians on it - Ravi Shankar ( sitar) Chatur Lal (tabla) and Pradjot Sen (tamboura) it's easy to see why the likes of the Beatles became fascinated with his music, with George Harrison describing him as the Godfather of World Music. He also performed at the Monterey International Pop Festival '67 and Woodstock in '69, which did much to enhance his career. Shankar holds the Guinness Record for the longest running international career, spanning eight decades.

The second part of the dsic is devoted to music performed by a group of virtuoso Hindu instrumentalists (including a young Ravi) for his brother Uday Shankar's dance company for their memorable cultural visit to the States in 1937. These ragas and dances ( danse) are actually a hybrid of several eastern traditions that would eventually go on to inspire many psychadelic musicians. Technically, Shankar threw out an astonishing catalogue of string bending exemplars later adopted by rock guitarists. The transcendental quality of sound suddenly made western musical conventions seem stale and stifling,with its heavy emphasis on improvisation, melody and sometimes complex rhythms at the expense of harmony and counterpoint. In addition it provided oppportunities for the instrumentalist to extemporise at length in the blues and jazz methods. Instruments for the 1937 recordings include sitar, madal, flute,tabla, sarod, karatal and many others, so you can imagine the beauty created.Only one these songs has a vocal, Bhajana ( a religious song ), sung in Hindi by Vishnudass Shirali.

Elly Roberts