Indian classical music

And following up from Shakti, here are three videos to introduce you to the beauty of Indian classical music - something I have unfortunately not covered so far in my posts on music. African music, jazz, blues... but no Indian classical music so far!

L. Shankar was part of Shakti, but his brother, L. Subramaniam is eminently renowned as a master violinist of arguably even greater repute. First up, a video from a recent performance in April 2008



Here's the internationally renowned (thanks to association with George Harrison and the Beatles) sitar player, Ravi Shankar (father of Norah Jones)



and here's Ravi Shanker introducing the tabla maestro, Ustad Allah Rakha on what appears to be a French program in the 1970s.



There may be other good videos featuring the famed father-son tabla maestros Allah Rakha and Zakir Hussain -- but this video is the best that I found on youtube and will serve for illustrative purposes of what the tabla maestros can achieve in jugalbandhis. Also see this hour long feature featuring Hariprasad Chaurasia on the flute and Zakir Hussain on the tabla. (I have had the pleasure of seeing both of them live in the 1990s.)