Ravi Shankar dead at 92
Worldwide known Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar died on December 11 at the age of 92.
Ravi Shankar Dead: Indian Sitar Virtuoso Dies At 92
(from huffingtonpost.com)
Over the course of the past year Shankar suffered from upper-respiratory and heart issues, according to Billboard. Last Thursday he underwent heart-valve replacement surgery, but was unable to recover from the procedure and passed away at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif. Tuesday night.
Shankar is often noted for his influence on
the Beatles, and for introducing traditional Indian music to the West on a broad scale. He was also the father of popular singer/songwriter
Norah Jones.
NEW DELHI -- Ravi Shankar, the sitar virtuoso who became a hippie musical icon of the 1960s after hobnobbing with the Beatles and who introduced traditional Indian ragas to Western audiences over an eight-decade career, has died. He was 92.
The prime minister's office confirmed his death and called him a "national treasure."
Labeled "the godfather of world music" by
George Harrison, Shankar helped millions of classical, jazz and rock lovers discover the centuries-old traditions of Indian music.
As early as the 1950s, Shankar began collaborating with and teaching some of the greats of Western music, including violinist
Yehudi Menuhin and jazz saxophonist
John Coltrane. He played well-received shows in concert halls in Europe and the United States, but faced a constant struggle to bridge the musical gap between the West and the East.
Describing an early Shankar tour in 1957, Time magazine said "U.S. audiences were receptive but occasionally puzzled."
His close relationship with Harrison, the Beatles lead guitarist, shot Shankar to global stardom in the 1960s.
Harrison had grown fascinated with the sitar, a long necked, string instrument that uses a bulbous gourd for its resonating chamber and resembles a giant lute. He played the instrument, with a Western tuning, on the song "Norwegian Wood," but soon sought out Shankar, already a musical icon in India, to teach him to play it properly.
Gaining confidence with the complex instrument, Harrison recorded the Indian-inspired song "Within You Without You" on the Beatles' "
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," helping spark the raga-rock phase of 60s music and drawing increasing attention to Shankar and his work.
Shankar's popularity exploded, and he soon found himself playing on bills with some of the top rock musicians of the era. He played a four-hour set at the Monterey Pop Festival and the opening day of
Woodstock.
While he enjoyed
Otis Redding and
the Mamas and the Papas at the festival, he was horrified when
Jimi Hendrix lit his guitar on fire.
"That was too much for me. In our culture, we have such respect for musical instruments, they are like part of God," he said.
In 1971, moved by the plight of millions of refugees fleeing into India to escape the war in Bangladesh, Shankar reached out to Harrison to see what they could do to help.
In what Shankar later described as "one of the most moving and intense musical experiences of the century," the pair organized two benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden that included
Eric Clapton,
Bob Dylan and
Ringo Starr.
The concert, which spawned an album and a film, raised millions of dollars for UNICEF and inspired other rock benefits, including the 1985 Live Aid concert to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia and the 2010 Hope For Haiti Now telethon.
Ravindra Shankar Chowdhury was born April 7, 1920, in the Indian city of Varanasi.
He also collaborated with flutist Jean Pierre Rampal, composer Philip Glass and conductors Andre Previn and Zubin Mehta.
"Any player on any instrument with any ears would be deeply moved by Ravi Shankar. If you love music, it would be impossible not to be," singer David Crosby, whose band
The Byrds was inspired by Shankar's music, said in the book "The Dawn of Indian Music in the West: Bhairavi."