CD Review: The Essential Ravi Shankar - Page 2

Disc: 2
1. Swara-Kakali
2. Discovery of India
3. Vandanaa Trayee
4. Village Dance
5. Raga Miniature
6. Sandhya Raga
7. Memory of Uday
8. Shanti Mantra
9. Ragas in Minor Scale
10. Chappaqua
11. Friar Park
12. Vaishnava Janato/Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram
13. Offering

At the beginning of disc 1, Ravi Shankar narrates a 5-minute introduction to Indian classical music and at the end suggests best how Western listeners can enjoy it.

What I like about the music on disc 2 is, I will shamelessly admit, the ease of remembering the music and being able to identify it during subsequent listens. Some of the tracks have taken on a soundtrack feel to them, which will not please those who prefer traditional ragas.

By and large, you don't listen to Indian classical music hoping to get the same experience as you would from most other forms of music, including European classical music. You let yourself get lost in the experience, the journey, and forget about repetition and familiarity. You can listen to a 15-minute raga and hear something new each time. The music is too rich to be absorbed in one listening and there's no way you can pick up your instrument of choice and repeat the entire raga that you have just listened to. For those with a fertile mind, the melodies are truly heaven sent.

I'm always skeptical when record companies package compilations since they are rarely completely satisfying with their obvious omissions and inclusions of new but usually weak material. Columbia has tackled Ravi Shankar with a liberal representation of his works, but it won't necessarily please everyone. For those with broad tastes who are not Shankar experts, it's a great collection to have. Included in the liner notes is a brief but enjoyable article by Hank Bordowitz.

Edited: [GH]

Article Author: Triniman

Almost weekly, Triniman catches new movies, and adds one or two CDs to his collection. Due to time constraints, he blogs about only 5% of the CDs, books and DVDs that he purchases. Holed up in the geographic centre of North America, the cultural …

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