Album Notes

"Shankaragamala" is a canvas of Ravi Shankar's enormous creativity. It is the celebration of the maestro's music by his disciples. The album is a masterpiece, a unique creation of a great legend, who has surpassed all boundaries of imagination with his unrivaled talent and musical style. Album features a beautiful collection of ragas created, reconstructed and named by the legend, who perhaps needed an outlet for his creativity after mastering hundreds of ragas already existing in the Hindustani Music system. The 28 ragas spread over 3 volumes of this album have been rendered by the maestro's disciples, who are today celebrated artistes in their own right.

Recorded/produced by Barry Phillips with Ravi Shankar overseeing the performances as executive producer.


REVIEW
THE HINDU - New Delhi - May 9, 2005

Shankaragamala - A Celebration of the Maestro's Music by his Disciples...

This three-volume set contains 28 ragas, which have either been created by sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar or "organised," as he says, altered, by him in such a way that they became popular and established a trend in their new form. Vocalist Lakshmi Shankar has also contributed a song in the raga Parameshwari. Other disciples of Ravi Shankar who have performed include Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (slide guitar), Gaurav Mazumdar, Partho Sarathy, Shubhendra Rao, Anoushka Shankar and others.

Beginning with Anoushka's rendition of the raga Gangeshwari, with deep and sonorous notes, it goes on to Bhawani Bhairav by Partho Sarathy and the sweet Bairagi Todi by Deepak Choudhary. The first volume ends with a lilting rendition of Rajya Kalyan, again by Anoushka.

At the beginning of Volume 3, the composition Rasiya, which Ravi Shankar prefers to call a dhun (tune) rather than a raga, played by Shubhendra Rao on the sitar, brings back memories of some of the most alluring pieces that enshrined the maestro in the hearts of music lovers.

There is also the stirringly sweet Jogeshwari played by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

The set is accompanied by an informative booklet listing not only the names of the compositions and resumes of the artistes, but also Ravi Shankar's remarks on some of the ragas and how they came to be created. The compositions are collected from recordings made across the years in various situations and locations, and mastering must have been a challenge for sound engineer Barry Philips, also disciple of Ravi Shankar and a cellist, who has performed the raga Palas Kafi in a duet with Anoushka. Tabla accompaniment has been provided by Bikram Ghosh, Akram Khan, Tanmoy Bose and several others.

This collection is more than a collectors' item or an attraction for the classical music enthusiasts alone.

With the variety of pieces, mostly short and racy, the music is likely to appeal to casual listeners too. After all, hasn't one of Ravi Shankar's great contributions been his introducing classical music to an uninitiated audience?

**********DISC ONE**********

1 GANGESHWARI
___Anoushka Shankar-sitar / Tanmoy Bose-tabla (9:44)
2 BHAWANI BHAIRAV
___Partho Sarathy-sarod / Angshubha Banerjee-tabla (7:29)
3 BAIRAGI TODI
___Deepak Choudhury-sitar / Bikram Ghosh-tabla(6:22)
4 AHIR LALIT
___Gaurav Muzumdar-sitar / Vineet Vyas-tabla (8:45)
5 NAT BHAIRAV
___Barun Kumar Pal-slide guitar / Sandip Banerjee-tabla (8:22)
6 PARAMESHWARI
___Lakshmi Shankar - vocal / Bikram Ghosh-tabla (8:08)
7 RANGESHWARI
___Kartick Kumar - sitar / Rupak Powar-tabla (4:25)
8 BAIRAGI
___Partho Sarathy - sarod / Udai Muzumdar-tabla (5:39)
9 RAJYA KALYAN
___Anoushka Shankar - sitar / Tanmoy Bose-tabla (3:05)

**********DISC TWO**********

1 KAUSHIK TODI
___Deepak Choudhury-sitar / Bikram Ghosh-tabla (6:04)
2 MANAMANJARI
___Karthik Seshadri-sitar / Arup Chattopadhyay-tabla (6:25)
3 JANASANMODINI
___Shamin Ahmed Khan-sitar / Yogesh Samshi-tabla (4:48)
4 TILAK SHYAM
___Shubhendra Rao-sitar / Akram Khan-tabla (7:45)
5 PURVI KALYAN
___Gaurav Muzumdar-sitar / Akram Khan-tabla (5:15)
6 CHARUKAUNS
___Manju Mehta-sitar / Vinod Vaishnav-tabla (7:21)
7 GUNJI KANHARA
___Samaresh Chawdhury-sitar / Soumen Sarkar-tabla (4:53)
8 YAMAN MANJH
___Anoushka Shankar-sitar / Tanmoy Bose-tabla (4:53)
9 SHAILANGI
___Anoushka Shankar-sitar / Bikram Ghosh-tabla (5:10)

**********DISC THREE**********

1 RASIYA
___Shubhendra Rao-sitar / Akram Khan-tabla (3:36)
2 JOGESHWARI
___Vishwa Mohan Bhatt-slide guitar
___Ahmed Mohammed-tabla (7:42)
3 BANJARA
___Anoushka Shankar-sitar / Bikram Ghosh-tabla (4:12)
4 SURANJANI
___Vishwa Mohan Bhatt-slide guitar
___Ahmed Mohammed-tabla (3:38)
5 MOHANKAUNS
___Karthik Seshadri-sitar / Arup Chattopadhyay-tabla (7:30)
6 PANCHAM SE GARA
___Anoushka Shankar-sitar / Bikram Ghosh-tabla (4:56)
7 KAMESHWARI
___Shubhendra Rao-sitar / Udai Muzumdar-tabla (6:01)
8 SWARNA JAYANTI
___Anoushka Shankar-sitar / Tanmoy Bose-tabla (5:59)
9 MISHRA GARA
___Vishwa Mohan Bhatt-slide guitar
___Ahmed Mohammed-tabla (3:36)
10 PALAS KAFI
___Barry Phillips-cello / Anoushka Shankar-sitar
___Shelley Phillips-harp / Tanmoy Bose-tabla