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Ravi Shankar - Performing at Womadelaide 2010

About to turn 90, sitar maestro Ravi Shankar heads Down Under on his farewell tour, along with his talented daughter Anoushka, reports Seth Jordan.

His name synonymous with classical Indian music, Ravi Shankar is almost ready to retire. But as his 90^th birthday approaches in April, he’s on his way to Australia for an appearance at WOMADelaide and a few final performances in Sydney and Melbourne. Widely acknowledged as the man who opened Western ears to the sound of Indian music in the 1960s, through his legendary performances at the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock, and his high-profile associations with the Beatles’ George Harrison and classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin, Shankar’s influence has been incalculable. Now with his two daughters being recognised for their own musical talents – 30-year-old Norah Jones as an innovative jazz musician and 28-year-old Anoushka Shankar for her own sitar prowess – Ravi’s celebrated career is drawing to a close.

Born in Varanasi in 1920 to a wealthy Brahmin family, his Bengali birth name was Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury. Shankar’s administrator father utilised the Sanskrit version of the family name, while young Ravi shortened the Sanskrit spelling of his first name, Ravindra. Joining the dance troupe of his elder brother – the renowned choreographer Uday Shankar – when he was just ten, Ravi moved to Paris, and toured Europe and America in the mid-1930s. “I was not only a dancer but also played various instruments like the sitar, sarod, flute and the esraj,” recalls Shankar today.

Learning French and discovering Western classical music and jazz, he began seriously studying music with the distinguished sarod master Allauddin Khan, who also toured with Uday’s troupe. In 1938 Shankar abandoned his dancing career and became a Khan’s full-time student, living with his teacher in the Indian city of Maihar. His debut 1939 sitar recital – in duet with Khan’s own sarod-playing son Ali Akbar Khan – was a success, but when I ask Raviji if he was satisfied with that early performance he humbly replies, “I felt relieved and happy that it went off very well, but ‘satisfied’?. I never feel satisfied with any of my recitals. I always felt and still feel that I could and should have done better.”

Completing his training in 1944, Shankar moved to Mumbai and began composing music for ballets. Recordings followed, as well as a stint as Music Director for the influential All India Radio in New Delhi, and compositions for the Indian National Orchestra, combining classical Indian and Western instrumentation. Introduced to famed violinist Yehudi Menuhin in 1952, Shankar eventually took up Menuhin’s invitation to perform in the West, and began touring to the UK, Germany and the US. His first album, the London-recorded Three Ragas, was released in 1956.

Of his long friendship with Menuhin (with whom he won a 1967 Grammy Award for their collaboration West Meet East) Shankar says, “He played an important part initially in my quest to bring our music to the West. He invited me to come to the USA, but unfortunately at that time I could not go. I sent Ali Akbar Khan and tabla player Chatur Lal and thanks to Yehudi, they were a great success. I have never known any classical musician – Indian or Western – with such humility, compassion, love, and understanding. He was so articulate and ready to help for any cause, be it music, poverty or hunger in any part of the world. I loved him and miss him. I have many fond memories of Yehudi – like his sitting on the dais wearing a kurta (long Indian shirt) and listening to my concert, staying at his house in Gstaad (Switzerland) and his visits to my own home.”

Another important alliance was Shankar’s onstage partnership with tabla master Alla Rakha, who began performing with Ravi in 1962. “Alla Rakha was one of the greatest tabla players of his time,” asserts Shankar. “He was my principal accompanist for more than a quarter of a century, travelling and performing with me all over the world. In all my performances I gave him a slot to play a solo number, which was never done by any vocalist or instrumentalist before! I started this vogue to expose the individual merits of the tabla player. Alla Rakha was a wonderful accompanist as well as a great soloist. I was very fond of him. Knowing (Rakha’s son) Zakir (Hussain) from when he was a baby, and to see him grow up as a phenomenal tabla player too has been a great joy. He is unique!”

Expanding on the role of tabla Shankar explains, “In the olden days most tabla players were like third-class citizens and never given any due for their talent. I can without any doubt say that I changed that. I thought it was not fair that they never had a chance to exhibit their talent and started giving a slot for their solo performance in my concerts. I was even blamed here by purists that I had ruined the concept of our music by giving too much importance to the tabla. One has to understand that when there is performance of one or two main sitar, sarod or vocal performers, the tabla is the accompanying instrument and will naturally be less prominent than the main performer. There should be a fine balance and I do feel it ruins the music if the tabla is too loud, too long and overtakes the main artist. I am nevertheless very happy to see that the tabla has also become so popular.”

Shankar’s music was being heard in ever-widening circles and in the mid-60s US band The Byrds (who recorded in the same studio as Ravi) incorporated some Indian elements into their work, and introduced the sound to George Harrison. He became interested, bought a sitar and used it on the ’65 Beatles track ‘Norwegian Wood’. Harrison and Shankar finally met in London in 1966, which led to George studying with Ravi in India. Subsequently Harrison contributed the Indian-influenced track ‘Within You Without You’ to the Sgt. Pepper album. In 1971 Shankar and Harrison organized the charity Concert for Bangladesh, which created the model for future benefit concerts, and the resulting recording won Shankar a second Grammy Award. Harrison collabrated with him again in 1974 on the expansive group project Shankar Family and Friends.

Ravi’s relationship with George made him a household name amongst Beatles fans, and raised his global profile considerably. But while Shankar readily admits that he benefited from the connection, he’s also been critical of the ‘down side’ of having his music associated with rock music and the wider ‘hippie’ scene. While personally very fond of Harrison, he expressed disappointment that Indian music was being misunderstood and linked to drug-taking. “It is true that when George became my student, the vast multitude of people all around the world became drawn to me and Indian music. And many of them tried to become performers of sitar without any training or direction,” says Shankar today. “But I am glad that this has changed and the kids realised that like classical violin, cello or flute, it takes years of learning and practicing to master the sitar.”

Shankar appeared at the Monterrey Pop Festival in 1967, alongside acts like Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, and Janis Joplin. In recent interviews he has expressed his dismay at witnessing The Who and Hendrix destroying their instruments, and his reactive threat to cancel his appearance. In 2008 he told The Guardian newspaper “I thought he (Hendrix) was fantastic, but so very loud. And then he would do that thing with his instrument when he would open up a can of gasoline and burn his guitar. People went gaga for it; they loved it. But for me, the burning of the guitar was the greatest sacrilege possible. I just ran out of there. I told them that even if I had to pay some kind of compensation to get out of playing the festival, I just couldn’t do it.” The organisers’ ended up giving Shankar his own stage for an afternoon performance of ragas, during which it was reported that Hendrix sat quietly in the front row.

In our interview however, Shankar is more forgiving. “At Monterrey I requested not to perform in between the famous rock and pop stars. I was given a separate slot of two hours in the afternoon. It was a great joy and one performance that I will always remember. My two days at Monterrey, seeing those young beautiful people giving flowers and wishing for love and peace, which they really meant, was very touching and a revelation! Though I knew that they were not technically aware of Indian classical music, I was touched to see how all of them were genuinely moved and happy by my recital. You have to see the documentary of the festival to believe it. There is always something good in every experience.”

His 1969 appearance at the gigantic Woodstock festival, in less-than-ideal conditions, was not a pleasure for him though. When I inform him that I attended that legendary event as a 17-year-old, and it was his performance that stood out in my memory as the most sublime, he diplomatically responds, “It was drizzling and under the difficult conditions I did my best to perform for the vast audience of half a million people. But I am glad to know that my recital there touched you.”

Shankar’s connection to jazz is also strong, and he believes there is a shared understanding of improvisation between the two genres. “I love Jazz!, he enthuses. “Though they come from different perspectives there are two basic resemblances – taking a theme and improvising melodically on it, and the tightness of beat and interplay of rhythmic patterns. As you may know, John Coltrane was very dear to me and took a few lessons from me. He was going to come and have serious study with me for six months and everything was planned. Unfortunately he died just before that. He even named his son Ravi Coltrane after me who is very sweet and a wonderful musician. My elder daughter Norah is also a wonderful jazz artist. She can just about jazz up anything! Lately, I have developed a friendship with Herbie Hancock and I enjoy him both as a musician and human being.”

For a musician who has worked tirelessly to inform new audiences about the history and intricacies of Indian music, when I ask Shankar whether he felt that Western classical audiences were resistant to accepting that the Indian classical traditions are on equal footing with Western traditions, his answer is emphatic.

“Yes! That is why from day one in the mid-50s I made it a point in my performance to explain to the audience the salient features of our classical music. The differences from Western classical music, the ‘ragas’ and their timings, their principal moods or rasas. Indian classical music comprises numerous features and one of them being different talas with different cycles and countings. I think people were fascinated and intrigued and accepted what I explained.”

“But even today, it is the big music industry like the Grammys who have not given it the proper slot that it deserves,” he continues. “There should be a whole section for Indian music with slots for classical, folk, pop and collaborations. I’m glad to note that now they have two slots for World music (traditional and contemporary), but I was very amused to note a couple of years ago that a tanpura (Indian drone) player was nominated for the Grammys. It is like having the piano page-turner being nominated!”

Is he comfortable having his music included under the ‘World music’ banner these days? “I’ve accepted the label because it includes all of my experimental compositions along with my classical exposure,” he says. “I do hope though that people understand that our classical music tradition is just as if not more solid than the western tradition.”

Having undergone rigorous training himself when he was young, I enquire as to what Shankar sees as the major changes in the way that Indian music is currently taught, and whether he thinks it’s in a healthy state?

“Things have changed along with mechanical developments,” he responds thoughtfully. “I have trained Anoushka and a few disciples in the old traditional way. A true talented seeker of serious classical music will make sure to learn properly with a Guru or a college of music even though he may benefit a little through numerous devices available. Learning through a proper Guru is more ‘kosher’. Both Hindustani Music of North India and Carnatic Music of the South are doing better than ever internationally and fairly well in India. We should only ensure that the value of learning directly from a Guru is not lost. I worry about all these internet and video teachers.”

Shankar suffered a heart attack in 1974 and underwent further surgery in ‘92, but it didn’t slow him down much. He toured throughout the 80s and 90s; wrote two orchestal concertos; received an Academy Award nomination for his ’82 Gandhi film score; was nominated to the Rajya Sabha – India’s upper house of Parliament; collaborated with composer Philip Glass on the 1990 album Passages; and lectured at the University of California in San Diego. In 2000 he won another Grammy for Best World Music Album for his live Full Circle: Carnegie Hall.

Splitting his time these days between homes in California and Delhi, where his Ravi Shankar Foundation continues to teach aspiring students, Shankar has been the recipient of fourteen honorary doctorates, received India’s highest civilian honour – the ‘Bharat Ratna’, a French Legion d’Honneur, and been made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth. Having written two autobigraphies – My Music, My Life (1969) and the updated Raga Mala (1997), his life was scrutinised from a different perspective in 2002 when daughter Anoushka wrote her own memoir Bapi: Love of My Life. “She had the freedom to write as she wished and I admired it,” says Shankar.

“There’s a tendency to turn my father into a deity of Indian music,” explains London-born Anoushka in a separate interview, “or to sensationalise his success story or his personal life. But the marvel of him to me is his many facets – the performer, the composer, the teacher, all abilities rare to find in just one person. And on top of that there’s the warm and loving father, the caring man. In my book I wanted people to know that he’s also a really funny down-to-earth guy, rather than just a sitar guru. I wanted to provide a more all-around picture of him.”

Ravi Shankar and Anoushka Shankar

Having fathered her half-sister Norah with New York concert producer Sue Jones in the late 70s, Shankar married Anoushka’s mother Sukanya Rajan in 1989. “I didn’t really live with him until I was about 7,” says Anoushka. “Before that I was just meeting him when he would come to London for shows, and sometimes we would visit him in Delhi. He was on tour a lot, but when I was 10 I started to go on tour with him as his tanpura player. That allowed us to spend a lot more time together.”

“As a sitar teacher he was very stern and strict,” confides Anoushka. “He had very high standards and he could be impatient, wanting me to pick things up very quickly. But his passion for the music is infectious and addictive, and he takes his students on a journey with him. And as his daughter he was a little softer with me than some of his other students, and he would pepper his lessons with wonderful stories – it was very beautiful.”

Anoushka’s own musical rise is an obvious source of pride for her father. “Though Sukanya and I encouraged her mostly for music, Anoushka from her childhood was a multifaceted talent, whether in music, dance, modelling, acting or writing,” he gushes. “She also studied the classical western piano and was very good at it. There was a time when we didn’t know which direction she would take. Apart from the classical format that I taught her, she has blossomed out as a fantastic composer and performer in cross-over styles as well as a writer! I am very proud of her!”

When I ask Ravi what he, as Anoushka’s sitar teacher, feels that she still has to learn, his accumulated wisdom is apparent. “I believe in what my Guru Baba Allauddin said – ‘There is no end to learning music or acquiring knowledge of our music, which is like a endless ocean and I am only standing at the shore’. I am proud to say that Anoushka also feels the same way and is getting better all the time. The second you feel you know everything, you stop growing.”

Perhaps the last word should go to Ravi’s wife Sukanya, who facilitated our interview. “Raviji surprises me everyday, not only with his musicianship but with his quick humour, dedication, constant search of knowledge and above all his kindness and humility. I cannot think of anyone who has taught innumerable students without charging a penny for over six decades, a person who has constantly tried to make peace in this world through his music, a person who not only took Indian music across the seas but also someone took Indian musicians and gave them a platform to perform and brought many young Western musicians to India to study, learn and perform. After all the honours and accolades, he has received for his music, he brings tears to my eyes when he says, ‘I could have been the best if I had worked harder’. He is humility personified! I cannot thank God enough for giving me this opportunity in this life to serve and love him. Without a doubt, whether in the East or the West I can say that at 90, with a career spanning eighty years, that Raviji is the greatest living musician in the world! With folded hands, I seek everyone’s prayer for his health and long life.”

Ravi and Anoushka Shankar perform with tabla player Tanmoy Bose at WOMADelaide on March 8^th, Sydney Opera House on March 15^th & 16^th, and Melbourne’s Hamer Hall on March 20^th.

Seth Jordan

This article thanks to Rhythms Magazine – Check out their February issue for more Womadelaide coverage.