The Dawn of Indian Music in the West

Front Cover
A&C Black, Apr 24, 2006 - Music - 456 pages

A little more than 50 years ago, in 1955, Ali AkbarKhan issued an LP called Music of India: Morning and Evening Ragas, with spoken introduction by violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Until then, Indian music was terra incognita in the West. When the same album was reissued as a CD in 1995, under the title Then and Now,it was nominated for a Grammy.
In the last 50 years, there has been the explosive influence of Indian music and culture in the West. Words such as karma, yoga, raga, nirvana, all once unknown here, have entered the language. Most famously, the wonders of the Indian musical world were spread by George Harrison and the Beatles. The music also had a profound effect on Mickey Hart and the Grateful Dead, John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra), the Byrds, John Coltrane, and many others. The annus mirabilis 1967 saw the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi spreading the wonders of transcendental meditation, Swami Prabhupada founding the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in New York City, and the growing influence of Ravi Shankar. Four years later, George Harrison organized the groundbreaking Concert for Bangladesh, the first charity event of rock. Shankar had already wowed audiences at the Monterey Pop Festival, and he achieved stardom at the Madison Square Garden event. (Where Westerners, new to the sounds they heard, applauded after the musicians had finished tuning their instruments!)
Peter Lavezzoli, a Buddhist and a musician, has a rare ability to articulate the personal feeling of music, and at the same time narrate a history. Lavezzoli has interviewed more than a score of musicians, such as Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, David Crosby, Philip Glass, Zakir Hussain, Mickey Hart, Zubin Mehta, and John McLaughlin.
 

Contents

The Dawn of Indian Music in the West
1
The Way of Raga
17
Yehudi Menuhin Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan
43
Ali Akbar Khan
65
Mickey Hart
80
Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain
101
Philip Glass
124
David Crosby and Roger McGuinn
147
The PostColtrane IndoJazz Movement
296
John McLaughlin
330
Bill Laswell
340
Cheb i Sabbah
356
Vilayat and Shujaat Khan
373
The Ali Akbar College of Music
388
Shubhendra Rao and Saskia Raode Haas
399
Anoushka Shankar
410

George Harrison
171
Jim Keltner
200
Tanmoy Bose
206
Zubin Mehta
220
Terry Riley
237
John Coltrane and the Birth of IndoJazz
267
Ravi Shankar
417
An Afterword
434
Glossary
439
Select Bibliography
445
Index of Names
447
Copyright

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About the author (2006)

Peter Lavezzoli is the author of The King of All, Sir Duke: Ellington and the Artistic Revolution, which is also published by Continuum. As a percussionist and vocalist, Lavezzoli explores the connection between musical and spiritual expression. He lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL

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