In review--Radiant Ravi
In Concert: Live in Escondido
East Meets West
As Pandit (term of reverence in India) Ravi Shankar made
his way to the concert stage, the 91 year old sitar player looked exhausted and
dispirited. Accompanied by his
right-hand man tabla player Tanmoy Bose, master percussionist (also on tabla)
Samir Chatterjee, student Ravichandra Kulur on bansuri flute (and percussion on
one track), and another student Parimal Sadaphal on sitar, Shankar opened with
the Alap to the evening raga, Yaman
Kalyan. By the time the musicians
had joined in jod portion of the raga (when the tabla introduces beats), Shakar’s
face emitted a rosy glow. An hour and
twenty-four minutes later as the musicians played the fiery last notes of the
final raga, Ragamala, (based on an
Indian folksong), Shankar resembled a new man, glowing from a spectacular
performance.
The second raga, Khamaj
in slow and medium tempo teen taal (or 16 beats per measure) develops into a
mood-lifter halfway through with two percussionists, two sitar players, bansuri
join in another spectacular performance, with the flute and sitar engaging in a
playful call & response. I thought
the second raga was my favorite until I watched the final raga which in its
course downstream flowed from ethereal to fiery reminding me of a calm river
transforming into white rapids. Through
eye contact, Shakar engages the other musicians in musical challenges tossed
like a tennis ball from one musician to the next. And each musician knows instinctively what to
play and when to build the excitement of the music into a crescendo (famous
with Indian ragas). Each moment grows more intriguing and more delicious than
the last one.
But prior to the feisty passages of the raga, the music
slowed into an interlude where we could hear the singing qualities of the
instruments basking in the glow of the evening.
Percussionists will find their thrills on the third track, Taal Vadya. The fourth track Goonga Sitar offers a more experimental sound when Shankar gagged
or muted the strings on his sitar, turning the lute into a percussion
instrument temporarily. The result
proved interesting, but hardly compared to the three ragas that gave us more
proof as to why Ravi Shankar, even in his nineties is one of the top ten musicians
on the planet.
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