Raga Jogeshwari

Ravi Shankar - Raga Jogeshwari

Ravi Shankar - sitar
Ustad Alla Rakha - tabla

Considered the pre-eminent figure in the Indian classical sphere, Ravi Shankar is also the South Asian subcontinent's most innovative composer/instrumentalist. Over the last half century, the Varanasi, India-born sitar virtuoso has created an unprecedented international audience for his raga-based repertoire via landmark concerts and collaborations with such admirers as jazz saxophonist Bud Shank, violinist Lord Yehudi Menuhin, flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, minimalist composer Philip Glass, and conductors Zubin Mehra and Andre Previn. Moreover, Shankar inspired sitar protege George Harrison to incorporate raga rhythms and melodies in his songwriting with the Beatles and as a solo artist, sparking an explosion of interest in sitar music and kindred Indian classical idioms that would influence rock, blues, and jazz performers as diverse as the Byrds, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Grateful Dead, John Coltrane, and John McLaughlin.
Accorded the honorific of Pandit in his native land, Shankar remains a hero, guru, and revered exemplar for a gifted new generation of Indian classical players and experimentalists. He paved the way for Western acceptance of renowned Indipop vocalists Najma Akhtar and Sheila Chandra, and young tabla superstar Zakir Hussain.
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At the heart of Indian music, which is derived from sacred Vedic chants and hymns that date to 2500 B.C., are the ragas. There is a cherished maxim in Sanskrit - the classical language of ancient India - that asserts, "Ranjayati iti Ragah," or "That which colors the mind is a raga."
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"The raga reflects the spiritual hopes of the people, the constant struggle for life," confides Shankar in the film "Ravi Shankar A Tribute," "it is drawn out of the moods of the seasons, the prayers in our temples, for our music is not written down, it is passed from heart to heart."
The ability to play ragas at all is a consequence of a discipline within a discipline. The basic training takes years, after which the sitar player must discover his or her own unique facility for performing the initial three-stage solo exposition of the raga: the alap (slow-paced, free-form invocation that states the central phrases, principal notes, and tonal range of the raga being performed), the jor (more rhythmic and improvisational section), and ihala (characterized by increasing speed and intensity on the two side strings). But through the powers of his limitless imagination, Shankar eclipsed any simple signature approach to the trinity of solo techniques, quickly escaping even the most permissive limits of traditional extemporizing.
In Pandit Shankar's often-bleeding hands, the patina of tears that poured from the sitar strings were tones or svara which, by definition, are "that which shines by itself." Like most naturally gifted musicians, Shankar found he not only could play whatever he thought, but also whatever he felt. His instinctive gifts catapulted his talent into a higher realm described in the Upanishads, the mystical scriptures of Hinduism, as the core of the self, "surrounded by the senses, the person of light, consisting of knowledge." (from the liner notes)

Tracklisting:

1. Alap {13:36}

2. Jor {12:36}

3. Gat I {17:08}

4. Gat II {6:34}

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