Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha

One of his earliest LPs in its entirety, Ragas & Talas (origibally on His Master’s Voice ALP1665), issued in 1959 is finally available again. All played with a hypnotic quality that's really wonderful! Indian musician Ravi Shankar (1920–2012) was one of the best-known exponents of the sitar in the second half of the 20th century. In 1956, he began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and The Beatles’ guitarist George Harrison. From the late 50’s he started incorporating ragas from the South Indian Carnatic tradition in his performances.

In London, in 1956, he recorded his first LP, Three Ragas. Chatur Lal accompanied Shankar on tabla until 1962, when Alla Rakha assumed the role. On his first American tour Shankar befriended Richard Bock, founder of World Pacific Records, and recorded most of his albums in the 1950s and 1960s on his label.