You’re on the banks of the river Ganges outside Allahabad in 1968. Someone coughs, a bird squawks and Ravi Shankar begins playing his sitar. For the next forty-eight odd minutes you stand there transfixed, wandering in and out of a trance as Raga Gangeshwari washes over you. This is what the first release on the 91 year old’ own label does for you – puts you front and centre in the middle of history.
Tired of having his work repackaged endlessly with new photos or different names for his ragas, he’ started his own label specialising in live performances, field recordings and rarities. Recorded on basic mics with the occasional drop out, this is not pristine studio quality recordings, yet these limitations only enhance the feelings of immediacy and authenticity, offering up a slightly Konono No1 quality to his tunes.
He’ joined by tabla master Ustad Allh Rakha who enters with an avalanche of rubbery volleys and is peerless in his musicality, as well as Kamala Chakravarty on the drone instrument tanpura. You can’ imagine Indian classical music getting much better than this, the swells in density and energy interspersed with these gentle moments of droning drifting tranquillity. It’s positively holy. The second piece here comprises of interviews with people after a US concert by Ravi. “I didn’ try to understand it I just went with it,†offers one soul, “Indian music to me symbolises the bringing together everything that is beautiful in the world,†offers another. The final track consists of recordings of the chanting of temple priests again in Allahabad in 1968.
This series is very much about putting you into Ravi’ world in the late 60′. Given his celebrity, not to mention his longevity, sometimes you forget something that he highlighted at his incredible live performances at Womadelaide last year, and he demonstrates here again: extraordinary musicianship.
Bob Baker Fish
