Video: George Harrison - sitar lesson with Ravi Shankar

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Ravi Shankar - RIP

Perhaps no other artist has brought Eastern music to the West like sitar master Ravi Shankar . His tutelage of George Harrison in the mid-602s kicked off a lifetime of cultural exchange. While rock bands like The Beatles were incorporating Eastern sounds in their music, Shankar himself was composing for western-style orchestras back home and collaborating with a wealth of other musicians, including composer Philip Glass, violinist Yehudi Menuhin, sarod master Ali Akbar Khan and many others. Ravi Shankar died yesterday at age 92, but his music will live on for all of time. Read more about his life [...]

Indian classical composer and virtuosic sitar ambassador, Pandit Ravi Shankar, died on Tuesday, December 11th, in San Diego, near his home in southern California. According to a statement issued by his family, he had been suffering upper respiratory and heart ailments for some time, and underwent heart-valve replacement surgery last week. While his surgery was successful, the ensuing recovery proved too difficult. He was 92. Though Ravi's accomplishments within the realm of Indian classical music are colossal and unprecedented, it's his enduring appeal to Western musical figures, and the cultural bridges he's built through tutelage and performance, that have made [...]

Indian musician and composer Ravi Shankar has died at the age of 92, according to The Hindu . Shankar was admitted to a La Jolla, CA hospital last week after complaining of breathing problems. Described by George Harrison as the "godfather of world music," Shankar popularized the plucked string instrument known as the sitar, which he began studying at the age of 18. He found international acclaim in the '60s after being popularized by The Byrds and later The Beatles. Harrison's use of the sitar in "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" introduced popular music [...]

Ravi Shankar became both a musical and spiritual influence on George Harrison, as the two forged a deeply personal relationship that still lingers with the sitar master: "He was so sincerely in love with India and the Indian religion," Shankar says, "because he was more into the philosophical aspect of the old system. This plus music, we became such good [...]

Today's Bombay Times front page tells us everything about what the Haasan family is doing (like their passion for dance, filmmaking and "directing amma and appa", and remorse at not learning ballet). They report that singer-songwriter/actress Shruti Haasan will be collaborating with Velvet Revolver ( = Guns N' Roses minus Axl Rose + Stone Temple Pilots minus Stone Temple Pilots + Wasted Youth) guitarist David Kushner. The song will be released and aired globally. Shruti will be flying to the US to the work on this project. Shruti told Bombay Times: [...]