Khan, called "Baba" by Shankar, began giving him sitar and voice lessons but became annoyed that the lessons seemed secondary to dancing. Baba insisted that this was no way to learn music from him, not in these surroundings, and he swore I would never go through the discipline and master the technique of the sitar. Shankar quit dancing in and returned to India to finish his Brahmin initiation, determined to master the sitar.
After spending two months abstaining from worldly comforts and eating specially prepared foods, he traveled to Maihar in central India to seek more lessons from Khan. Khan conducted his school like an ashram, requiring his pupils to approach their instrument as a spiritual exercise and to honor him as their guru. Khan and Shankar became very close during the seven years that Shankar studied in Maihar.
Shankar married Khan's daughter, Annapurna, in , and they had a son, Shubho, in Khan's son, Ali Akbar Khan, became a world-renowned musician and a frequent collaborator and touring partner with Shankar. He organized and composed music for Vadya Vrinda, the National Orchestra, which is credited with expanding the possibilities of Indian orchestral music.
He also composed film scores for Satyajit Ray's acclaimed Apu trilogy. The result was a celebration of Indian music that wowed the novice and elevated the serious fan. Not everyone in Indian classical music approved of the expansion of Indian music into rock, however limited.
Ravi Shankar performed at the two most important American rock festivals of the s: Monterey Pop and Woodstock. The former took place in June in Monterey, California. Though most of the artists hailed from California, particularly San Francisco, acts from Canada, England, South Africa, and India Shankar participated in the three-day event.
Woodstock occurred in August in upstate New York. By this time, Shankar was viewed as a musical member of the counterculture movement, as much for the spiritual nature of his music as the penetrating, hypnotic nature of it. The concert was created and produced by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to help those in Bangladesh ravaged by war and poverty.
It was the first of its kind and provided inspiration for Live Aid, Farm Aid, and the many rock and pop benefit concerts and events that would follow. The performers played two shows—an afternoon and evening performance—in one day. The Concert for Bangladesh is considered one of the high water marks in rock history, helping to give rock its conscience. All three children have well-known and accomplished artistic careers.
Jones lived with her father until she was 4 and saw him intermittently until she was Jones lives in New York. She, too, continues to record and perform.
Shankar won many awards and honors throughout his career, including 14 honorary degrees, three Grammy Awards he received two posthumous Grammys as well and a membership to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Shankar died on December 11, , in San Diego, California, at the age of The musician had reportedly suffered from upper respiratory and heart ailments throughout , and had undergone surgery to replace a heart valve in the days leading up to his death.
Shankar was survived by two daughters, who are also musicians, sitar player Anoushka Shankar and Grammy Award—winning singer-songwriter Norah Jones. Known fondly today as the "godfather of world music," Shankar is remembered for using his wealth of talent to infuse Indian culture into the world's forever-growing music scene, and is largely credited with building a large following for Eastern music in the West.
We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Indira Gandhi was India's third prime minister, serving from until , when her life ended in assassination. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister. George Gershwin was one of the most significant American composers of the 20th century, known for popular stage and screen numbers as well as classical compositions.
Whitney Houston was an American singer and actress whose first four albums, released between and , amassed global sales in excess of 86 million copies. Tito Puente was a musical pioneer, mixing musical styles with Latin sounds and experimenting in fusing Latin music with jazz. Indian cult leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh created the spiritual practice of dynamic meditation. He started the Rancho Rajneesh commune in Oregon in the s. American singer-songwriter Natalie Cole, daughter of mid-century crooner Nat King Cole, was best known for her Grammy Award-winning album 'Inseparable.
Maurice Ravel was a 19th and early 20th century French composer of classical music. Ravi Shankar was an Indian musician and composer best known for popularizing the sitar and Indian classical music in Western culture. Harrison conceded that the two were a great duo - but they had egos to match, and there simply was no room for anyone else. No matter where they showed up, the Fab Four from Liverpool unleashed a frenzy.
Young girls fainted left and right, for instance during a Germany tour organized by the German teen magazine "Bravo". It was the only time the Beatles ever toured Germany. George Harrison wrote quite a few songs, but for the most part, he couldn't get his material past Lennon and McCartney. For the first time in , while shooting the movie "Help," Harrison held an instrument in his hands that was widely unknown in Europe: a sitar.
Fascinated, he took lessons with Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar photo. He played the instrument in the song "Norwegian Wood," - and started a trend. Harrison increasingly showed an interest in Indian culture. While the other members of the band quickly lost interest, Harrison took it a step further and converted to Hinduism.
He was a member of the Hare Krishna movement for the rest of his life. Back then, no one would have guessed that only six years later, Pattie would run away with George's best friend, Eric Clapton. Unhappy with his role in the band, Harrison recorded a solo album in "Wonderwall Music.
He must have had 80 songs tucked away in a drawer that he never got to record with the Beatles, record producer Phil Spector said.
Many of Harrison's songs are about spirituality and the transience of life. In , he organized a concert for Bangladesh to raise money for the victims of a devastating flood. In December , a demented man entered the premises and attacked the musician with a knife. Harrison survived, severly injured. He had a few hits in the 80s and 90s, but then, Harrison's life took a different turn.
Records, films, TV performances — he lost interest and decided to let it all go, he said, adding these things are only meaningful to people who don't know where they are headed. Pictured above are letters and tapes that were auctioned in George Harrison died on November 29, of lung cancer.
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