Indian Music Forums

Anoushka Shankar On BBC Radio 4 MELODIC INSTRUMENTS
Reply
Senior Member 1,744 posts ragamala Senior Member 1,744 posts
ragamala
I am always perplexed as to why discussions of favourite players - or not - turn sour.

The accusation that Anoushka Shankar should have queried the interviewer's description of her as arguably the world's number two sitar player is ludicrous enough - I mean who on earth would expect her to say something like "excuse me, I'm not, there's a girl from Leicester in the UK who plays far better than I do"?? I suspect even if it had been made during the interview Ms S might have made a discrete pause and coloured a little. You don't jump down the throat of an interviewer.

In fact, if anyone has actually LISTENED to the interview it is patently clear that Anoushka didn't have any opportunity to comment AT ALL.

Here's the transcript of the opening announcement of the programme excerpt -
Quote:
Now if you're Ravi Shankar's daughter, there is a fair chance that you'll play the sitar, and Anoushka Shankar did. But no-one could have predicted that she'd become quite so good at it, winning a recording contract at 16, and a Grammy nomination at 22. She's now, arguably, the world's second best sitar player. When I m,et her I asked her about her life-long love affair with all things musical, and what it's like to collaborate with all sorts of different musicians, including the likes of Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, and why she just brought out an album which fuses sitar with Spanish flamenco.
From this it is patently clear that the announcer's comments were recorded for the programme after the interview with Ms Shankar. Maybe some months after the interview, as there was a long gap between interview and broadcast, as I pointed out earlier. So the idea that Ms S went along with the suggestion that she's number two is bs.
Reply 0 0
ragamala Senior Member 1,744 posts
ragamala
fossesitar wrote:
Its all a little confusing and where does the sex fit in?
To spell it out....


I think your talk of sex mattering and use of microphones leads some of us.... not in the best possible taste maybe.... to come to our own conclusions...
Reply 0 0
nicneufeld Senior Member 1,566 posts
nicneufeld
polishcomedy wrote:
I'm surprised at the responses here. Have any of you heard the new Anoushka Shankar album?
Not I but I did watch the live streaming concert she did from Spain, mostly the same material I believe. Great musicianship...its still hard to fuse these genres when one uses harmony and the other does not, though, but I still liked it (hmmm, funk is actually pretty modal and one-chordy in many of its manifestations...crosses fingers and hopes for a Bootsy-Shankar collaboration! Maceo Parker jugalbandhi? ).

I quite like this clip of her playing...I think definitely a fusion piece but still very musically interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Ln2Y_fCas
Reply 0 0
fossesitar Senior Member 983 posts
fossesitar
Microphones are not really up my alley, if you take my point.
Your imagination leads you astray RM. Guess that is always a
risk when you mix music and meds....... behave.
Reply 0 0
nicneufeld Senior Member 1,566 posts
nicneufeld
A few more thoughts on fusion...not all fusion is "created equal" so to speak, and depending on to which genre the fusion leans heavily toward, my preferences vary. For instance, some West/East fusion leans heavily towards the East (Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin's albums were almost exclusively Hindustani, the only "Western" component was a Western violinist trying to keep up with Raviji). Some seem nicely balanced...the Shankar Sitar Concertos use Western symphonic instruments and are scored in a very Western manner, but laced throughout are the essences of raga and taal. Also PRS's fusion with Japanese musicians balanced nicely.

The fusion music that I don't much care for...the sort that take a Western pop song structure with mostly Western instrumentation, and then wedge a sitar into the mix just to make it sound exotic and then call it "fusion". It's not really fusion, because you're just using the sound of the instrument, not using the concepts of the music itself. That said, the first fellow to offer me $100/hr to lay down sitar tracks on whatever crappy album he's producing has me at his beck and call. What can I say, I'm mercenary, and I want my Hiren Roy surb!
Reply 0 0
fossesitar Senior Member 983 posts
fossesitar
here's some fusion forya! Truly groundbreaking stuff from a guy I grew up with in lil' ol' Glencoe, ILL-ANNOY

http://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=NY0pUkrWhEo&feature=rel​ated
Reply 0 0
fossesitar Senior Member 983 posts
fossesitar
Not sure that link took, tryin again............

http://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=NY0pUkrWhEo&feature=rel​ated
Reply 0 0
barend Senior Member 1,426 posts
barend
anju831 wrote:
Its such a pity that Anoushka takes advantage of an ignorant audience to self promote. I would think that an artist would want to promote the beauty of ICM more than anything else, and especially more than their name. I always hear in interviews with great sitarists that some students are into ICM for the wrong reasons (fame), and I guess Anoushka is just one of them.

I don't get the Anoushka defenders, especially when there are way more talented, humble and deserving young female musicians out there.
What a nonsense.
I don't understand the Anoushka bashers like you either. I think a lot of it has to do with jealousy.
I like her playing and I don't care whether it is traditional or fusion or whatever.
Her album with Karsh Kale is the only album of Indian fusion which involves sitar that I really like. Some people are just so narrowminded when it comes to ICM.
Reply 0 0
fossesitar Senior Member 983 posts
fossesitar
Music is Music and what you like or do not is a totally personal thing.
Reply 0 0
polishcomedy 48 posts
polishcomedy
nicneufeld wrote:
The fusion music that I don't much care for...the sort that take a Western pop song structure with mostly Western instrumentation, and then wedge a sitar into the mix just to make it sound exotic and then call it "fusion".
Which is exactly what Anoushka's new album is not, so I don't see what all the hubbub is about.
Reply 0 0
nicneufeld Senior Member 1,566 posts
nicneufeld
polishcomedy wrote:
nicneufeld wrote:
The fusion music that I don't much care for...the sort that take a Western pop song structure with mostly Western instrumentation, and then wedge a sitar into the mix just to make it sound exotic and then call it "fusion".
Which is exactly what Anoushka's new album is not, so I don't see what all the hubbub is about.
FWIW, I wasn't criticizing her with that, I think I actually fall in line with the "defenders" in this thread. I was just gibbering on about my own preferences of fusion, in general.
Reply 0 0
Sanjeeb Senior Member 513 posts
Sanjeeb
fossesitar the link you posted (given below) doesn't work
http://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=NY0pUkrWhEo&feature=rel​ated
Reply 0 0
fossesitar Senior Member 983 posts
fossesitar
Did you try copying the entire link and then pasting it on your browser line?
If that doesn't work just go to Fosse Electric Sitar on Facebook and click on
the "East-West" link there for the Butterfield Blues Band. Sorry about the
link, I attempted to upload it twice, no dice....
Reply 0 0
nicneufeld Senior Member 1,566 posts
nicneufeld
Here you go,
http://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=NY0pUkrWhEo
Reply 0 0
OM GUY 841 posts
OM GUY
[/color] 1. Walkin' Blues (LP Version) 3:18 $0.99
Play 2. Get Out Of My Life, Woman (LP Version) 3:14 $0.99
Play 3. I Got A Mind To Give Up Living (LP Version) 4:58 $0.99
Play 4. All These Blues (LP Version) 2:20 $0.99
Play 5. Work Song (LP Version) 7:54 $0.99
Play 6. Mary, Mary (LP Version) 2:51 $0.99
Play 7. Two Trains Running (LP Version) 3:55 $0.99
Play 8. Never Say No (LP Version) 3:00 $0.99
Play 9. East West (LP Version)

[color=#0000BF]Thanks Fosse, you got me to buy another version of the above. I could bass-guitarjam on this album all night! tracks 2 and 3 are classics to me, every bit as any Beatles tune. I'm sorry that I never saw them in concert.


Now, as far as Ms.Anoushka goes- She has at least three things going for her in my book:
1. She is still a hot babe..
2. She can always call up daddy for a free lesson...
3. No matter what, say what you will, she makes more money than you and me..

A few folks here and there deride this player and that player for whatever reason, me, I just take it all in and try to enjoy the best that I can grasp from it, knowing full well that the crappiest player out there is better than me, a novice. Some very talented players here have their "God-players", to be sure, yet I have heard them make mistakes, so everyone is human.

Even the worst player is teaching you things, but that's my opinion.
Let's hope 2016 is less violent and that people discover the soothing influence of ICM. Hari OM!
Reply 0 0
cwroyds Senior Member 2,307 posts
cwroyds
Just a thought.
More people have been introduced to ICM and the sitar through Pandit Ravi Shankar and Anoushka than all of the other ICM musicians combined.
One might not like their playing, but their positive contributions to the art far outweigh anyone's personal gripes about their playing.
Without them, most of us westerners might never have known about ICM.
There is no need to bash them.
It might be nice to thank them.

If you still don't like them, don't listen to them.
There are many many other sitarists out there for you to listen to.
Reply 0 0
Reply