Having Friends and Admirers in High Places (1976)

 

Having Friends and Admirers in High Places

By Peter Jones

The Bolton News

April 20, 1976

    One way to get on in the music world is to have friends and admirers in high places, as Ravi Shankar has underlined. His particular mate and mentor is ex-Beatle George Harrison, and the partnership has proved potent. 

    Without Harrison's encouragement, the 55-year-old Indian would probably be unknown in the Western world. Instead, he's now internationally accepted as a great sitar player, has his records produced by Harrison, and is signed to Harrison's own Dark Horse label.

     Referring to his eldest brother, Uday, a brilliant musician, Shankar recalls, "When I was just four years old, I'd stay alone and play with his musical instruments and lose myself in thrilling stories. I'd act out plays in front of the mirror, playing hero, lover, and villain in turn.  

    

    "Even when I went to school at the age of seven, I carried a whole world of imaginative fantasies around in my head. My invented universe grew ever larger as I read more and more books. Later, my fantasy world, my loneliness, my efforts to grasp something unreachable, all found expression in my mystic."

    

     At the age of 10, Shankar, with two brothers and his mother, accompanied Uday to Paris with a small group of Indian dancers and musicians. Into that touring group came Ustad Allaudin Khan Sahib, who was to have a tremendous influence on Shankar. Says Shankar, "I became his guide, interpreter, and helper. He'd often say to me that he felt I had much talent and would love to teach me, providing I gave up the sparkle and easy fame of my life in Europe and spend many years with him in his own little town of Maibar."

     Shankar did just that. He became Khan Sahib's disciple, living in isolation, submitting himself to years of discipline and devotion, and he finally emerged to become a phenomenon in both Eastern and Western music worlds.

     As a young man, he recalls, "I heard the disdain and misunderstandings felt by some Western musicians for the Indian music form. I realized that I had to go out into the big, wide world and explain what our art and culture was all about. Those teaching experiences are among the happiest and most inspirational of my whole life. I truly value the empathy and respect of young Americans trying to understand in depth Indian music."

      Shankar met and talked with George Harrison, and he asked the ex-Beatle to give help to the millions of displaced refugees of Bangladesh. And that led to the still remembered Concert for Bangladesh with East musical meeting West. But then Shankar also made a big impact at the Monterey Pop Festival, at Woodstock, and at the biggest concert venues all around the world. 

    If Shankar is deeply immersed in Indian culture, he is also happy to try daring new ideas. One of the most widely acclaimed was his concert for Sitar, an orchestra premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Andre Previn.

    His long standing friendship with Yehudi Mennhin has resulted in a couple of innovative albums. For George Harrison, he did an album called Shankar Family and Friends, which featured just about every possible type of music.

    Shankar works with Indian instruments like sarod, madal, tabla, terang, manjira, and his own sitar, but also includes saxophones, acoustic and electric guitars (usually played by G. Harrison) and classical musicians. 

    Shankar remains surprisingly young at heart. His association with George Harrison has no doubt helped. When the Beatles started dabbling in Indian traditions and transcendental meditation, they opened up a whole new area of music. The result is that Ravi Shankar is now idolized by many young people, along with the Bay City Rollers, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd!