Ananda Shankar (11 December 1942 – 26 March 1999) was an Indian musician, singer, and composer best known for fusing

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...

and Eastern musical styles. He was married to dancer and choreographer Tanusree Shankar.

Life

Born in

Almora Almora ( Kumaoni: ''Almāḍ'') is a municipal board and a cantonment town in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Almora district. Almora is located on a ridge at the southern edge of the Kumaon Hills of t ...

in Uttar Pradesh(now in Uttarakhand), India, Shankar was the son of

Amala Shankar Amala Shankar (''née'' Nandy, 27 June 1919 – 24 July 2020) was an Indian danseuse. She was the wife of dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar and mother of musician Ananda Shankar and dancer Mamata Shankar (later she became an actress) an ...

and

Uday Shankar Uday Shankar (8 December 1900 – 26 September 1977) was an Indian dancer and choreographer, best known for creating a fusion style of dance, adapting European theatrical techniques to Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian cla ...

, popular dancers, and also the nephew of

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form i ...

player

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North In ...

. He studied in

The Scindia School The Scindia School is an Indian boarding school for boys, established in year 1897, and situated in the historic Gwalior Fort, in the city of Gwalior. It was originally started exclusively for royals and nobles of Indian princely states, part ...

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the ...

. Ananda did not learn sitar from his uncle but studied instead with

Lalmani Misra Lalmani Misra (11 August 1924 – 17 July 1979) was an Indian classical musician. Initiation into music Lalmani learnt ''Dhruvapada ( Dhrupad) Dhamar'' in the tradition of Shankar Bhatt and Munshi Bhrigunath Lal. He learnt ''Khayal'' singing ...

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 191 ...

. He died in Kolkata on 26 March 1999 aged 56 from cardiac failure.

Professional career

In the late 1960s, Shankar travelled to Los Angeles, where he played with many contemporary musicians including Jimi Hendrix. There he was signed to

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...

and released his first album, '' Ananda Shankar'', in 1970, with original Indian classical material alongside

-based cover versions of popular hits,

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

' "

Jumpin' Jack Flash "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released as a non-album single in 1968. Called "supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London" by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, the song was perceived by some as t ...

" and

The Doors The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...

' "

Light My Fire "Light My Fire" is a song by the American rock band the Doors. It was recorded in August 1966 and released in January 1967 on their eponymous debut album. Released as an edited single on April 24, 1967, it spent three weeks at number one on ...

". The album is included in the book '' 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die''. Returning to India in the early 1970s, Shankar continued to experiment musically and in 1975 released his most critically acclaimed album, '' Ananda Shankar and His Music'', a

jazz-funk Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat ( groove), electrified sounds, and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the cre ...

mix of Eastern

, Western rock guitar,

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and

mridangam The mridangam is a percussion instrument of ancient origin. It is the primary rhythmic accompaniment in a Carnatic music ensemble. In Dhrupad, a modified version, the pakhawaj, is the primary percussion instrument. A related instrument is th ...

, drums and

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014 ...

s. Out of print for many years, the album was re-released on CD in 2005. After working in India during the late 1970s and 1980s, Shankar's profile in the West began to rise again in the mid-1990s as his music found its way into club DJ sets, particularly in London. His music was brought to a wider audience with the release of

Blue Note Records Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue notes of jazz and the blues. Or ...

' 1996

rare groove Rare groove is music that is very hard to source or relatively obscure. Rare groove is primarily associated with funk, R&B and jazz funk, but is also connected to subgenres including jazz rock, reggae, Latin jazz, soul, rock music, northern s ...

compilation album, ''Blue Juice Vol. 1.'', including two tracks from ''Ananda Shankar and His Music'', "Dancing Drums" and "Streets of Calcutta". In the late 1990s, Shankar worked and toured in the United Kingdom with the London DJ State of Bengal and others, a collaboration that resulted in the '' Walking On'' album, featuring Shankar's trademark sitar soundscapes mixed with

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and ...

and hip hop. ''Walking On'' was released in 2000 after Shankar's death the previous year. In 2005 his music was said to be a major inspiration to the DJ duo Amorphous Androgynous / The Future Sound of London on their live show on BBC 6Mix calle
A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind vol. 7
ref> In 2010 and 2011, his music appeared in the following episodes of the NBC comedy show '' Outsourced'': In 2015, his cover of "

" was featured in an episode of ''

Master of None ''Master of None'' is an American comedy-drama streaming television series, which was released for streaming on November 6, 2015, on Netflix. The series was created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, with the first two seasons starring Ansari in the ...

.''

Discography

* '' Ananda Shankar'', 1970 (LP, Reprise 6398; CD, Collectors' Choice CCM-545) * ''Ananda Shankar and His Music'', 1975 (EMI India) * ''India Remembers Elvis'', 1977 (EP, EMI India S/7EPE. 3201) * ''Missing You'', 1977 (EMI India) * ''A Musical Discovery of India'', 1978 (EMI India) * ''Sa-Re-Ga Machan'', 1981 (EMI India) * ''2001'', 1984 (EMI India) * ''Temptations'', 1992 (Gramaphone Company of India) * ''Ananda Shankar: Shubh – The Auspicious'', 1995 * ''Ananda'', 1999 (EMI India) * ''Arpan'', 2000 (EMI India) * '' Walking On'', 2000 (Real World 48118-2, with State of Bengal) * ''Ananda Shankar: A Life in Music – The Best of the EMI Years'', 2005 (Times Square TSQ-CD-9052) * '' tamil film music from film Yaaro Ezhudhiya KavidhaiYear : 1986

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shankar, Ananda 1942 births 1999 deaths Hindustani instrumentalists People from Almora Real World Records artists Scindia School alumni Musicians from Varanasi Best Music Direction National Film Award winners Indian film score composers World music musicians 20th-century Indian composers Indian male film score composers 20th-century male musicians