Ravi Shankar – Improvisations And Theme From Pather Panchali
WORLD-PACIFIC RECORDS
Vintage VinylWorld / Rare Grooves / Roots LP / 25 EUR
Media VG+ / Sleeve VG+
Originally recorded in 1962 for World Pacific and featuring jazz musicians Gary Peacock on bass and Bud Shank on flute, the album opens with improvisations on the theme that Shankar wrote for the 1955 Indian neorealist film Pather Panchali, by legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray. “Fire Night” was another jazz-fusion piece, recorded to commemorate the fires that were burning all around LA when this session was recorded. The remaining two tracks, however, are traditional Indian pieces and serve to juxtapose the two major styles in Indian classical music. The first piece, “Karnataki”, is in the Carnatic (southern Indian) style, while the second, “Raga Rageshri”, is in the (northern) Hindustani style (which, of course, Shankar’s himself was a master of).