Famous Indian musician Ravi Shankar and his ties to La Jolla

How many people can say they taught the legendary George Harrison of The Beatles how to play a musical instrument? Probably not many.

But Robindra Shankar Chowdhury, aka the famous Ravi Shankar, instructed Harrison how to play the sitar.

Shankar born on April 7, 1920, was a world-renowned musician, composer, performer, and scholar of classical Indian music who was admitted to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla in December 2012. He was complaining of breathing difficulties and died at the age of 92 on Dec. 11, 2012, after undergoing heart valve replacement surgery.

WORLD FAMOUS

Shankar engaged in Western music by writing compositions for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992, he was a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India.

Born into a Bengali family in British India, now known as Uttar Pradesh, India, his older brother moved to Paris to form a dance company when Ravi was 10 years old.

After his brother got settled, Ravi joined him in Europe and earned an education after witnessing all kinds of music from various cultures. After returning to India at 18, Shankar learned to master the sitar and became well-versed in classical music.

He went on to form the National Chamber Orchestra and made a name for himself on Indian radio and in films like “Gandhi.”

HARRISON CONNECTION

Reports say when Harrison was looking to expand his musical talents, he chose Shankar to teach him the sitar. Before meeting Shankar, Harrison had used a sitar on The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” (1965).

On the Beatles’ recording, Harrison played the sitar and met Shankar the next year in London.

Shankar was “the first person to impress me,” among the impressive people The Beatles met, “because he didn’t try to impress me,” Harrison later said. The pair became close and their friendship lasted until Harrison died in 2001.

Harrison was instrumental in getting Shankar booked at the now-legendary Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. They partnered in organizing the Concert for Bangladesh and were among the producers who won a Grammy in 1972 for the album. They toured together in 1974, and Harrison produced Shankar’s career-spanning mid-1990s boxed set, “In Celebration.”

Another major band, The Rolling Stones landed the No. 1 song with “Paint It Black” (1966), featuring the sitar playing of Brian Jones.

AWARDS A PLENTY

In his long and colored career, Shankar earned five Grammy Awards and co-shared an Oscar nomination for his work on “Gandhi” (1982). In 2001, he received his final Grammy, in the world music category, for
“Full Circle.”

Incidentally, his daughter Norah Jones followed in his footsteps and became an accomplished singer.

He continued to perform until the end of his life and was a recipient of numerous prestigious musical accolades, including a Polar Music Prize. He also was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards.

He received a posthumous nomination at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards for his album “The Living Room Sessions Part 2.”

He was the first recipient of the Tagore Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cultural harmony and universal values (2013; posthumous).

Shankar performed his final concert, with his daughter Anoushka, on Nov. 4, 2012, at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach.

When Shankar was criticized in India as a “sellout for spreading his music in the West,” in the early 1970s he lowered his profile and returned to his classical roots. Shankar followed his first concerto for sitar and orchestra in 1971 with another a decade later, according to reports.

“Our music has gone through so much development,” Shankar told The LA Times in 1997. “But its roots — which have something to do with its feelings, the depth from where you bring out the music when you perform — touch the listeners even without their knowing it.”

IN PRINT

The book “Indian Sun,” a biography of Shankar’s life, was written by Oliver Craske and talks about Shankar’s career that spanned decades and continents.

He wrote that Shankar single-handedly introduced Western audiences to the centuries-old classical tradition of Indian Ragas — a complex system of melodies performed as long-form improvisations by an instrumentalist and an accompanying percussionist, within its pages.

Craske said Shankar inspired legions of fans and created a model for stretching the boundaries of an ancient musical tradition.

He traces the full breadth of Shankar’s life beyond the known flashpoints of his career – an icon of the 1960s, a teacher of Harrison, and a tour-de-force set at the Monterey Pop Festival.

“He’s famous for working with Yehudi Menuhin, Philip Glass, Zubin Mehta, but for me, the common theme running through that is that he was essentially playing Indian music,” Craske once said. “He wasn’t a fusion artist who throws together two different forms; essentially, he was using different formats as ways of playing Indian music. It wasn’t just jamming aimlessly. He was very serious in that way.”

IN DEATH

A few weeks after Shankar died, daughters, Anoushka Shankar and her half-sister Jones accepted their father’s posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy. The following year they released a song called “The Sun Won’t Set.”

“My dad’s name, Ravi, translates as ‘sun’ in Sanskrit and I was writing it in those months when he wasn’t well and I didn’t quite feel ready to let go of him,” Anoushka said. “So, I was just speaking about that idea of not wanting the sun to set yet. And it was beyond perfect to have Norah sing the words.”

FAMILY LIFE

Speaking of daughters, in 1941, Shankar married Annapurna Dvi Allaudin, the daughter of Allauddin Khan and sister of master Indian musician-composer Ali Akbar Khan. They had a son, Shubhendra, and divorced in 1958. His son died in 1989, reports said.

Shankar had other relationships with dancer Kamala Sastri, Sukanya Rajan, and concert producer Sue Jones, who is Norah’s mother. He married Rajan in 1989.

With his wife, Sukanya, and daughter Anoushka, Shankar moved to Encinitas in 1992 but also spent time in India. He spent his days establishing the Ravi Shankar Foundation for Indian Music Education, in Encinitas, and another center in New Delhi.

The LA Times obit for Shankar stated: “When Shankar performed last year at Disney Hall, Times reviewer Swed wrote that ‘he opened ears and remade sensibilities’ — and deserved to be called a legend.”

Besides his wife and daughters, he is survived by grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Shankar was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in three locations: His birthplace in India, at sea off of San Diego, and the hills of the San Fernando Valley region.