Personnel includes: Ravi Shankar (sitar); Ali Akbar Khan (sarod); Kanall Dutta (tabla); Nodu C. Mullick, Ashish Kumar (tamboura).
Tracks 1-2 originally released as "The Master Musicians of India" on Prestige (1078); tracks 3-4 released as "The Soul Of Indian Music" on Prestige (7403). Includes liner notes by Jonathan Cott.
Sitar player and composer Ravi Shankar is one of the most influential musical figures of the 20th century, having influenced the Beatles, John Coltrane, Philip Glass, Collin Walcott, and John McLaughlin, along with generations of Indian folk and classical musicians. He is one of the acknowledged masters of the raga, the deeply meditational, extended form of instrumental Indian music. Based in Hindu spiritual ritual, raga is a cyclic, trance-inducing style of music that bears an element of improvisation.
This CD is a coupling of two complete albums from the mid-'60s, featuring two of the legendary masters of Indian music, Shankar and sarod player Ali Akbar Khan. It is easy to see why Shankar appealed to forward-looking rock and jazz musicians. A song like "Raga Bilashkani Todi" has a subtle yet driving rhythm and builds to a powerful crescendo, but at the same time retains a feeling of underlying deep unity. These pieces demonstrate how in raga, the importance of the composition always takes precedence over individual musical performance. This album is a fine introduction to two masters of the form.
