The Whole Music Experience

Top Album Best of Ravi Shankar, Arc Music  2. Javier Perianes, Debussy Meets Chopin, Harmonia Mundi 3. Godwanda Dawn (South African and Indian), Arc Music 4. William Byrd Ensemble, In the Company of William Byrd, Scribe Records 5. Angela Hewitt and Andrea Oliva, Bach's Flute Sonatas, Hyperion  6. Stile Antico, The Phoenix Rises, Harmonia Mundia 7. La Nuova Musica, Handel/Vivaldi Dixit Dominus, Harmonia Mundi 8. Ballake Sissoko, At Peace, Six Degrees  9. Jerusalem Quartet and Sharon Kam, Brahms Clarinet Quintet, Harmonia Mundi 10. Orchid Ensemble, Life Death Tears Dream, independent release

World   Ravi Shankar   The Best of...   Arc Music I’m sitting here listening to Raga Mian Ki Malhar which tells a story in a way about the roots of India’s musical dynasty.  Each Indian classical raga corresponds with a season, time of day, or mood.  This particular raga, which moves at a slow to medium pace, represents the rainy season and I’m thinking about the appropriateness of listening to a monsoon raga as I watch late winter rain fall here in the Pacific Northwest.  My mood matches this raga’s sentiments, but at least the late Ravi Shankar gives such a fiery performance on the compilation The Best of Ravi Shankar that by the end of th is raga (which does pick up speed and intensity in the way that a stream picks up velocity to become a raging river), I feel invigorated.     I’m not a Ravi Shankar or Indian classical music scholar, but I'm someone who enjoys international music on a regular basis and who has...

Since 2012 was a light year as far as reviewing jazz and classical recordings and heavier on world music recordings, this year I'm only including 7 recordings in the top classical and top jazz CDs for the year.  The Top Jazz CDs will appear a week from today.  You will also find two surprises on my list if you were expecting only European classical CDs. 1. Arcanto Quartett with Olivier Marron, Franz Schubert String Quintet op. 163, Harmonia Mundi 2. Kristian Bezuidenhout & Freiburger Barockorchester, Mozart Piano Concertos K. 453 & 482, Harmonia Mundi 3. Javier Perianes, Beethoven Moto Perpetuo, Harmonia Mundi 4. Isabelle Faust, J. S. Bach Sonatas & Partitas, Harmonia Mundi 5. La Nueova Musica with David Bates, Handel's Il Pastor Fido, Harmonia Mundi (box-set) 6. Ravi Shankar, The Living Room Sessions Part 1, East Meets West Music 7. Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat, Twinklings of Hope (Persian/Iranian classical), Kirkelig Kulturverksted

Ravi Shankar Tenth Decade DVD 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 ...

Ravi Shankar & Tanmoy Bose The Living Room Sessions, Part 1 East Meets West Music/Harmonia Mundi Release: April 10, 2012 It’s not every weekend I get to sit down and listen to new ragas performed by a 91-year old master musician.   Pandit Ravi Shankar turns 92 this month and his raga performances sound equally fiery as they do thoughtful and tender.   The master Indian classical musician gives the impression in his liner notes that The Living Room Sessions was a casual get-together with his friend tabla player Tanmoy Bose, but even one listen to this recording and we can hear the formalities of the Indian classical music tradition shining forth.  “This rather a different recording when, at almost 92-years, I was fooling around at home in Encinitas.” Also in the liner notes, “... Raga Malgunji has both a slow Vilambit gat and a display in Jhaptal of ten beats in complicated, rhythmic patterns and finishes that conveys sadness the sadness of not bein...

Ragas were introduced in the West during the 1950s, and grew in popularity in the United States with Ravi Shankar performing both Indian classical music recitals and performing in pop-rock music festivals. His musical relationship with George Harrison also brought the sitar and ragas to public prominence in the West. Today, ragas come in many guises, from pure and sacred to pop and jazz fusion.  A variety of young talent emerges from India these days blending raga traditions from the South and North of the Subcontinent.  Western instruments were introduced as well, such as the saxophone and slide guitar, though the Indian slide guitar is different in that it contains sympathetic strings much like an Indian sarod or sitar.  Any fan of world music has come across Indian ragas in one form or another. I pulled out a random stack of CDs from my Indian music collection.  You can use these recordings as a jumping off point or you can visit a public library and check...

Ravi Shankar Nine Decades, Vol. II Reminiscence of North Vista East Meets West Music   Nine Decades, Vol. III Orchestral Experimentations East Meets West Music Imagine it is 1969 and you’re sitting in Hollywood parlor witnessing two ragas performed in the intimate space of Ravi Shankar’s home.   Not only that, Shankar and tabla player, Alla Rakha just returned from playing Woodstock.   While we can’t travel back in time, you can listen to Raga Kaunsi Kanada North Vista (28:14) and Raga Bihag North Vista (39:22) in your home now that the ragas were re-mastered and on Reminiscence of North Vista released as part of Shankar’s Nine Decades series.   Shankar’s and Rakha’s performance feels alive and even spontaneous coming off this disk.  This vibrant presence in my room is hard to explain. Raga Kaunsi Kanada begins with a meditative alap that last for most of the duration of the track.   An alap allow musici...

The Pleasures of Indian Ragas My introduction to Indian classical ragas was a humbling experience. It was 2003, I had just started discovering music from around the world as a music journalist (making a transition from alternative rock to world music) and I attended my first Indian classical recital. Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma (santoor) and Zakir Hussain (tabla) headlined at the King Cat Theatre in Seattle. A few thousand Indians filled the theatre to the brim, and only a handful of Anglo-Americans were in attendance. I sat next to one, who thankfully was an expert on Indian classical music. I received a comp to attend the recital if I reviewed it for World Music Central and my own website at the time Cranky Crow World Music . So I sat down waiting for the recital to begin. The musicians tuned their instruments on a carpeted-covered platform on the stage and then dove into the Alap section of the raga. Only I couldn’t tell when the tuning of t...

Ravi Shankar Raga (A Film Journey into the Soul of India) Archival DVD 1971/2010 East Meets West Music/Harmonia Mundi When you think about it, times haven’t changed all that much since the late 1960s. Sure, the 1960s and 70s were littered with drugs, drop-out mentality and multimedia distractions in contrast to today’s distractions including the Internet, I-Pads and other digital devices, the same problem remains which is the lack of attention spans and impatience. Traditions that were revived in the 1950s and 60s through the return to cultural roots re-emerged with world music, but again we are faced with the digital distractions, including drum machines and synthetic instruments wedded to more traditional acoustic ones. One of Pandit Ravi Shankar’s regrets from the 1960s, portrayed in the 1971 documentary Raga (A Film Journey into the Soul of India) was the distractions and impatience found in people from the West. But even in India, he laments about one of his Indian ...

Ravi Shankar's 90th Anniversary (April 7, 2010) Ravi Shankar Nine Decades Vol. I (1967-68) East Meets West Music Distributed by Harmonia Mundi On the second track of Nine Decades, Vol. I, a reporter interviews American concert goers about the Pandit Ravi Shankar performance they witnessed. The interviews took place in 1967 and many of the responses appeared astute, especially by the third person interviewed, a man who reflected about exposure to music from other countries, leading to exposure to global art and cultures. And indeed, traditional musicians such as Ravi Shankar certainly paved the way for global cultural exchange. I doubt there is a household in the US or any European countries that has not heard of Ravi Shankar. They might not have heard his ragas, but the name has grown synonymous with classical Indian music and for some folks, the master sitarist comes up in conjunction with The Beatles, especially George Harrison. I’m excited about East Meets West R...