COMPOSERS: Ravi Shankar
LABELS: EMMM
PERFORMER: Ravi Shankar (sitar)
CATALOGUE NO: EMMM 1000
If you missed the 90th birthday of sitarist Ravi Shankar, the Ravi Shankar Foundation has turned to the strengths of a key period in the star’s performing life in launching its own label. From its archives comes a 1968 recording made at a concert by the Ganges. The sound is basic, but the playing is astonishing.
Shankar begins expansively. Soon the tabla of Alla Rakha joins in and the pace steps up. Then the performance flies – on and on, renewing and recasting at full pace and beyond, for another 40-plus minutes. It will explain his legendary status to anybody who never heard him in concert at his peak (available www.eastmeetswestmusic.com). Robert Maycock