Pandit Ravi Shankar has left us

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 12 Dec 2012, 08:58

IT IS WITH IMMENSE GRIEF AND SADNESS I AM REPORTING THE LOSS OF BHARATNA RAVI SHANKAR. He passed away in SanDiego (4:30 P.M.PACIFIC TIME ON DEC 11). INSTEAD OF GRIEVING LET US RECALL, REMIND OURSELVES AND REMEMBER HIS MONUMENTAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR MUSIC, CULTURE AND MAKING INDIA PROMINENT THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. LET US SHARE OUR REMINISCENCES OF THIS GREAT AND UNIQUE SOUL WHICH MADE US ALL PROUD TO BE INDIANS AS WELL AS BEING PART OF THE HUMAN RACE. He was in the hospital from last week and I understand surgery complications (valve) resulted in his unexpected passing as we all know how how active he was till the very end.LET US CELEBRATE HIS ACHEIVEMENTS AND PRAY FOR HIS SOUL. VKV

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 12 Dec 2012, 08:59

What a great loss! Sincere condolences.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 12 Dec 2012, 09:00

May his soul rest in piece. He elevated Indian music onto the world stage.

VRV · Post by **VRV** » 12 Dec 2012, 09:29

What a tremendous loss. I had the opportunity to witness his last concert at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center on Nov 4th 2012. He performed to a packed audience of almost 1200 plus.

I will cherish this memory for a very long time. may his soul RIP.

Vinod Venkataraman

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 12 Dec 2012, 09:44

This is a shock. Condolences to his near and dear. My friends in San Diego were even just a few weeks ago admiring how sprightly he is still, and how curious about the world around him.

He was and is synonymous with Indian classical music in the West. I remember my English teacher in San Diego showing us a video of him performing at Woodstock, and it was thrilling to see how absolutely entranced the audience were throughout his recital.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vYnGooK6TE

Rsachi · Post by **Rsachi** » 12 Dec 2012, 09:58

VKV,
I know your feelings and offer my condolences.
Panditji performed in Madras Univ Centenary Hall during 1971 with Umayalpuram Sivaraman and Allah Rakha. He displayed musical genius as well as keen promotional acumen. He also collected Rs 5 per autograph saying it was to help during the Bangladesh war which was on then.

Pandit Ravishankar truly internationalised the sounds of Indian sitar and paved the way for many talented artistes to go global.
RIP Panditji.

Rsachi · Post by **Rsachi** » 12 Dec 2012, 10:06

He as well as Anoushka share Grammy nominations this year!

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 12 Dec 2012, 10:17

A huge loss to the world of music, Panditji was especially close to our family.
Heartfelt condolences to Sukanya, Anoushka and to rasikas of music.

varsha · Post by **varsha** » 12 Dec 2012, 10:26

All good things must come to an end . He straddled a very important period and stood like a colossus .
I cant think of a better way of paying a tribute , than listening to his Simhendra madhyamam -
There is a hint of sadness at the start of this track , which seamlessly ends on a cheerful note .
Of hope .
May he enter a brave new world !!!
http://www.mediafire.com/?phsyu6kx4yyzf88

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 12 Dec 2012, 10:47

I remember attending his concerts at the Music Academy . They were always on the 31 st December , the last slot of the day. He used to stop the concert at 12 midnight and wish every one a happy new year.
A great loss to the world of music. Condolences to his family and all rasikas.

Javali · Post by **Javali** » 12 Dec 2012, 10:49

Heartfelt condolences to his family and near and dear ones. A colossal loss to the music world.

varsha · Post by **varsha** » 12 Dec 2012, 11:36

Is it Ravisankar sitting to the left of Tiger ?

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 12 Dec 2012, 11:53

Big loss indeed. I went to his concert a few years back and it was quite entertaining. I will always remember that.

Condolences to the family.

Rsachi · Post by **Rsachi** » 12 Dec 2012, 11:55

63 year-old treasure of a photo. Wow!

kvn_bhakta · Post by **kvn_bhakta** » 12 Dec 2012, 12:10

Ravi Shankar was a rare north Indian musician who listened to carnatic music without prejudice, and absorbed many influences from it. Most obvious was the use of sawal-jawab with Ali Akbar Khan and Allah Rakha which he borrowed from the tani-avartanam. He also imported ragas from carnatic to the north - like the Simhendramadhyamam example above, also Keeravani, Charukesi. He was on friendly terms with carnatic musicians from Balamurali, KVN and Ramnad Krishnan, but also kept in touch with youngsters like Ravikiran and TM Krishna.

Here's a fascinating interview I dug up from google: http://columbuscarnatic.org/wp-content/ ... 2story.pdf

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 12 Dec 2012, 12:14

very very sad . I also remember his 31st dec night programmes at music academy when he used to wish ' happy new year' tothe audience at the stroke of twelve. His greatness is too well known to be repeated,An incident during one of his night performances at music academy comes to my mind. A small snake was sighted in the hall when his performance was in progress. There was pandemonium in the hall, when he said' leave it alone.'it has come to enjoy the music R I P

RaviSri · Post by **RaviSri** » 12 Dec 2012, 12:16

Yes, that's Ravi Shankar seated to Tiger's left. To our extreme right is DKP. First from our left is then Music Academy president K.V.Krishnaswami Iyer, next to him Mudikondan (with garland, probably that year's Sangeeta Kalanidhi, then the year must be 1949). Standing behind Mudikondan is Madurai Mani, sitting below Mudikondan is Dr.V.Raghavan.

Rsachi · Post by **Rsachi** » 12 Dec 2012, 12:38

Friends, Here is a dhun.
Link: http://ww.raaga.com/play/?id=89887

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 12 Dec 2012, 14:19

It is astonishing that he lived to such a great age and remained so active despite his age. He was such an ambassador (with, perhaps, a little help from the Beatles) of Indian music, that all of us Westerners who came to love it must owe something to him.

My sadness: I never saw him play.

My joy: I did get to meet and talk with him once.

Condolences to his family, friends, students; it is hard to loose such a man, even at that age. I am sure he has gone to eternal music.

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 12 Dec 2012, 18:36

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/1 ... 81885.html

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 12 Dec 2012, 20:32

May his soul rest in peace! Condolences to his family and students.
He put Indian Music on the world stage, and was instrumental in raising world-awareness of our musical systems...the old guard is slowly passing on leaving behind immortal memories.

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 12 Dec 2012, 21:56

IMrtyor-Maa Amrtam Gamaya - true to Ravishankarji. May his soul rest in peace.

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 13 Dec 2012, 02:10

Here are some lovely pictures.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpict ... 83533.html

thanjavooran · Post by **thanjavooran** » 13 Dec 2012, 12:55

Condolences to his family, friends and students. I recollect his New year wish to rasikas in MA at the stroke of 00 00 hrs. Will stop playing with this announcement. ' Wish you all a Musical New year '

Thanjavooran
13 12 2012

Ramasubramanian M.K · Post by **Ramasubramanian M.K** » 13 Dec 2012, 21:20

Great loss of a Transformative and Transformational Musician--he deserves credit for gently emphasising to the Western audiences and performers--especially the Beatles that the sanctity of our music ought not be sullied by the Drug culture prevalent in the late sixtes and seventies.
I remember in 1970 or 1971- I do not remember precisely when--- at a a concert in Columbia University(ferris Booth Hall),before he started his performance he gently commented that there was no need to get "high" on substances but the substance of his music would elevate them to much greater heights much to the delight of the young "counter-culture" audience).Old timers like VKV who lived in NY during that time would recall how much of the drug culture dominated campuses like Columbia. Although he was very close to the Beatles and commanded their respect and appreciated their innovativeness, he was steadfast in upholding classicism and eschewed the temptation to engage in fusion
music and commercialise the art form.

He was the most ardent rasika of MS Amma and her music and there is a pic in one of the archives(I think in the terrace of Kalki Gardens) with the MSS family,Alla Rakha et al-- the pic speaks well of the cameraderie that existed between the two immortal Indian Music Icons.

Likewise he was an admirer of Balasaraswathi and in one of his speeches he fondly recalls her abhinaya rendering of Krishna nee Begane baro . generally with such great celebrities you would hear some undertones of envy and jealousy of contemporary or upcoming artistes--fearful of their "throne" being usurped. In Panditji's case there was none of this. he encouraged young and old alike and never begrudged the success of others perhaps supremely confident that posterity will remember his contributions to and dedication to Music.

On a minor point regarding Ravi Sri's comment about the timing and the identities of the pic posted by Varsha -- Tiger died in 1950 --this pic must be even earlier than 1949("nitpicking" I admit!!!).The tall figure in the second row standing third from right is Tiruvelangadu Sundaresa Iyer -- I have known him since the late forties and in this pic he looks much younger than I knew him in 1948/49--hence my conjecture that this may be even earlier than 1949- Sorry for the digression!!!.

Gamakam · Post by **Gamakam** » 13 Dec 2012, 22:52

MKR sir: may I request you to send me a mail to [email protected] ? I would like to write to you.

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 14 Dec 2012, 01:55

THIS FORUM IS INADEQUATE TO DESCRIBE IN DETAIL THE INVOLVEMENT, UNDERSTANDING AS WELL AS WAYS IN WHICH RAVI SHANKAR APPRECIATED & ACTIVELY ENCOURAGED PROPAGATION OF CARNATIC MUSIC. A FEW EXAMPLES:
1) His DEEP & OPEN ADMIRATION for Maharajapuram Viswanatha IYER, M.S.S, and many artists like Mali, MSG, LGJ ETC. Actually he visited Parur Sundaram Iyer at his mylapore residence to play VATAPHI GANAPATHIM to him. It interesting to note Parur Sundaram Iyer's grand daughter Smt. Narmadha played Vataphi & one of his compositions to him as a PERSONAL HOMAGE & TRIBUTE(90th birthday)a couple of years ago when she visited SanDiego (as part of Cleveland Festival); He fully appreciated it, blessed her & recalled his visit to their home in great detail.
2) Having attended close to EVERY ONE of his close to sixty recitals (as part of the India Festival in the late sixties at N.Y.PHILHARMONIC HALL) with PALGHAT RAGHU & ALLA RAKHA I can safely state that he challenged & utilised the divine talents of Raghu next to the immortal G.N.B. himself!
I request MKR& others to join in paying tribute to a rare Genius esp. in the carnatic music area. VKV

Rsachi · Post by **Rsachi** » 14 Dec 2012, 08:30

Did you folks notice the pictures in obituaries...Baba Allauddin Khan played the sarod left-handed!!!

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 14 Dec 2012, 21:33

VERY NICE & VALUABLE COLLAGE. THANKS! VKV

maduraimini · Post by **maduraimini** » 15 Dec 2012, 01:24

Sympathies to the family. Artists like Ravi Shankar don't die but live forever through their music. They live in our hearts.

duff777 · Post by **duff777** » 16 Dec 2012, 13:39

May He Rest In Light.

smala · Post by **smala** » 19 Dec 2012, 10:13

Two things worth watching, if you haven't already.

--Howard Worth, director/producer of documentary "Raga" (1971) on Pt. Ravi Shankar, on the making of the movie :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VVi6sC54kA

--The movie "Raga" (1 hour 35 mins) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_Y91TqDwM4

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 29 Jan 2013, 04:42

Sri VKV's first meeting with Pandit (shared by Sri M K Ramasubramanian)

MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH BHARAT RATNA PANDIT RAVI SHANKAR

I ARRIVED IN Rocheter, N.Y. on August 26, 1959 from India to join
the Graduate Studies program in Physics Department. I replaced my
Carnatic music fix- used to attend at least five concerts every week
in Madras!- by buying a very inexpensive student season ticket for
Rochester Philharmonic and attending Jazz, Rock, Soul and other
great musical forms Concerts (free) helped by Lectures by Theodore
Bloomfield (Conductor of the Philharmonic) and my Cricket Team
Colleagues from West Indies, England etc. I also took courses in the
world famous Eastman School of Music.

It is here (in the fall of 1959) that Ravi Shankar presented a Brilliant
Lecture/Demonstration that I attended- needless to say I was the only
Indian present- and I duly went to the stage after his presentation. He
right away said: You must be from Madras. I was shocked but found
out that he not only had this uncanny ability but never forgot the name
of every person he met and also the circumstances! Like Madurai
Mani Iyer among other things fully remembered the ENTIRE Bradshaw
Tables- The railway schedules throughout India!-…….

I expressed my disappointment that I could hear him for one hour only
and how nice it would be if he gave a full concert. He said: Arrange
one tonight in your apartment & I will play. I said I was a graduate
research assistant who made 125 dollars a month and could not afford
to compensate him for his efforts. He said that he was not particularly
interested in making money and it would automatically happen once
people heard him; He said he was introducing himself to American
audiences in this trip! Get a bottle of Good French Wine and gather as
many persons as you can he said. I scampered around the Rush Rees
Library where students studied in Cubicles and managed to gather a
decent crowd- mostly Americans& Foreign students- and Ravi Shankar
mesmerized everyone from 8P.M. to midnight! Not knowing anything
about Wine- my only knowledge was from the Hindi Movie Devadas etc!
- I requested my professor to choose two bottles of Good French
Wines and he did it royally. It cost close to 150 dollars which I had to
borrow from him and pay it back over six months like the way we used
to pay for groceries and milk in Tambaram. I was at least used to this
situation!.....At the end of the concert two students approached me
and introduced themselves as the President and Treasurer of the
Rochester Student Union a very prosperous organization used to
arranging 50K-Million dollar concerts etc. I introduced them to Ravi
Shankar and they said they were so impressed they sat during the
concert and worked out what remained in their budget. They had 30K
left and wanted Ravi Shankar to return in a month for a 25K concert.
He agreed and returned to give a concert with the close to a thousand!
They wanted me to actively promote the concert and one of the
mechanisms was funnily enough the weather portion of a Nightly TV
News Program. The weather man allocated close to 5 minutes to
anyone who wanted to publicize any program they wanted. I duly
showed up for the 11:15 P.M. getting ride from an American classmate
well in advance to be first in the Queue and was. But just before this
segment a Very tall gentleman with Cow boy hat & boots and the
weatherman told me I have to be second in line as the person was
Lyndon Johnson who was running for the democratic presidential
nomination (against J.FK.)! LBJ was very nice and asked me about
where I was from and what I was studying etc…..Just getting involved
with Ravi Shankar elevated the contact level of persons I was meeting!
Of course I attended lots of his concerts and was quite close to him
again after I moved to New York City. Very quickly he shot to
prominence & whenever I was traveling at J.F.K. he was with his Sitar
on his way to concerts in faraway places. Selvi remembers that when
we met him at J.F.K. once he remembered her and also the
Paruppupodi & Morkozhmbu Palghat Raghu had given him (prepared by
her)…ONE of a kind Genius! VKV

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 29 Jan 2013, 05:39

Very nice.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 29 Jan 2013, 07:38

What a thrilling memoir.
VKV should do more of this at our Forum...

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 29 Jan 2013, 08:51

VKV,
These are lovely moments for you to recollect and to share with us!
Our generation has its bounty of such precious memories--seeing the human (and humane) qualities in celebrities.
And, your love for music has made all this happen--I have images of your carrying a mridangam in the streets of NY city, braving the winters of upstate NY with just a few dollars in your pocket (the lot of a graduate student) and still with a heart of gold and a love for music which was (and still is) boundless.

Bless you, a brilliant rasika and a scientist too

and let's not forget Selvi in all this--the love of your life!

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 29 Jan 2013, 10:35

It is a wonderful story, and a wonder life of wonderful experiences that VKV shares with us

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 29 Jan 2013, 23:49

Dear Writers of post nos: 34 to 37: Thanks for your kind remarks. I am writing more detailed PERSONAL anectodal accounts (at the request of my only son) about the FAMOUS & BRILLIANT GENIUSES IN MUSIC & SCIENCE I was fortunate to meet, in some instances collaborate, & discuss (in wonder always at their creativity). I will also try to get the video of the Spectacular MUSICAL SHRADANJALI for PANDITJI & Harishankar uploaded so those interested can download it. (It may take some time)It was a SPECTACULAR FUNCTION with the hall full of celebrities etc & I was asked to be the first speaker! VKV

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 30 Jan 2013, 08:27

Pl do. We look forward to more enlightening memories of your experiences.
It is in fact a history of CM in NA!

VRV · Post by **VRV** » 30 Jan 2013, 09:59

cacm wrote:I will also try to get the video of the Spectacular MUSICAL SHRADANJALI for PANDITJI & Harishankar uploaded ! VKV

CACM, Not Harishankar. I am sure you meant Harihar Rao. Here is a link to some spectacular photographs from the event

http://photographybyrupesh.zenfolio.com ... /slideshow

Vinod Venkataraman

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 30 Jan 2013, 11:30

VRV,
YOU ARE CORRECT! I was listening to Easwaran-Harishankar Thani (Mali's last concert) when I wrote the note! Acting my age! VKV

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 30 Jan 2013, 11:55

We act our age at times

but are hopefully still young at heart and in spirit, VKV!

Beautiful pictures, lovely ambiance...

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 31 Jan 2013, 01:30

Very nice pictures

Thanks

maduraimini · Post by **maduraimini** » 31 Jan 2013, 07:03

A big loss to the Music world. He was the one who showed what Indian Music was to the West. Condolences to his family, friends, students and fans all over the world.

appu · Post by **appu** » 05 Feb 2013, 08:48

An article in the India Journal.

http://www.indiajournal.com/archives/34203

Our VKV looks elegant in the pictures.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 05 Feb 2013, 08:57

Appu - thank you!
If I understand it correctly, Aishu played SankarAbharaNam - its HM counterpart, bilAval being the maestro's favorite rAga.

appu · Post by **appu** » 05 Feb 2013, 10:59

Rshankar,

I did not attend this concert. I am currently posted in Bhopal. Here is a link to Aishu's blog. She narrates the Shradhanjali concert.

http://delhifresh.tumblr.com/post/41648 ... li-concert