photo courtesy of Ravi Shankar
Album Cover
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Ravi Shankar has been a force in Eastern music and an influence on Western music at a time when culture was clashing, mixing and melding in a masala of delicious sound. The Western music, divided as it is by half steps, is limited in its own way-writing sonnets only, rarely free verse until the early part of the 20th Century. Eastern music, however, plays in between the keys of Western music.

"Nine Decades, Volume 1" is the first CD comprising rare recordings, never before released, of Shankar's music. The recordings have been remastered, but often were captured under what we might consider rudimentary conditions today. This CD is also available for audiophiles in a limited run of vinyl.

The main course of this album is the fully featured work, "Raga Gangeshwari," recorded more than 40 years ago, as it was performed live at an outdoor concert, on site at a temple. A single handheld microphone captures the joyful wall of sound, prominent in India long before Phil Spector made something like it popular here. The early thrumming in the beginning may be reminiscent, for some, of an orchestra's machinations as it tunes up, establishing the basis for what is to be. Then we are transported back to 1968, as Shankar is joined, on his composition, by Kamala Chakravarty on tanpura, tablist Ustad Alla Rakha, and the Vedic chanting of temple priests.

The raga develops its themes in very similar fashion to a symphony-the textures of the strings and the varying voices of the percussion speeding up, slowing down, and roiling together in an outpouring so rich that this is what paisley sounds like. If music has color, this is ochre, carmine, red henna and brilliant sienna-each tone a festival of color that takes us half a world away. This is music to listen to directly, music to have as background, use for exercise and meditation.

We remain in the mid-60s with several person-in-the-street interviews, as people of all ages share their post-concert experiences of a 1967 gig that Shankar played as a relative unknown in the United States. Young concertgoers, whose first familiarity with sitar and Indian music came from listening to its influences on the Beatles and the Doors, rub shoulders with mature people whose friends don't understand the music. One person confesses having an untutored enjoyment-she cannot tell one raga from the next-but knows well what moves her. Another person feels a religious transport as he listens, a sense of one-ness. Another feels that expanding awareness of culture will help further the cause of peace. It's difficult to disagree.

The final track on the CD is chanting by Durga Suktam and Mahishasura Stotram, in a short piece from 1968, live from Allahabad, India. In these days where vacations are expensive, and our need to get some respite equally costly, here's a great stay-cation for a rainy weekend this spring or summer. Rent an Indian film, purchase this first volume in the "Nine Decades" collection and order some nice chicken tikka masala. Order it now, or you'll be "sari."

East Meets West Music is the official recording label of the Ravi Shankar foundation. Check them out at www.eastmeetswestmusic.com for more information and where to find this CD near you.