Ravi Shankar - One of the Gods in My Musical Pantheon

And Raviji turns 90 today! He's alive, kicking, and still going strong. He still performs, and he has a definitely busy touring schedule; check out his website. The man just doesn't slow down! He's a great advertisement for a vegetarian diet.

Most of us "of a certain age" were introduced to Indian music through Beatle George Harrison's discovery of Raviji. Who can forget the introductory musical piece by Raviji and his ensemble which kicked off Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh. The Maestro went on traveling throughout the West introducing hungry souls to a music they'd never heard before, to our great benefit.

But he didn't stop there. He also pursued the possibilities inherent in the meeting of Eastern and Western musics. He has collaborated with such musicians as George Harrison, Yehudi Menuhin, and Philip Glass. He's written two concertos for orchestra for the London Symphony Orchestra, the first conducted by André Previn and the second by Zubin Mehta. He wrote a third concerto for his daughter Anoushka, another world class sitarist (with a father like that how could she help it?), and the Orpheus Camber Orchestra in 2002. He's scored movies, one of which, his score for Gandhi, was nominated for an Academy Award. He's had a busy life, and we're all the richer for it.

To celebrate Raviji's birthday I thought I'd post some videos highlighting the different aspects of his career. First is what he's always done best, music from the Indian subcontinent. This is Rag Charukeshi, accompanied by the late, great Ustad Alla Rakha on tablas and an unknown tamboura player.

The second piece is a collaboration with violinist Yehudi Menuhin, called Prabhati.

And last but not least, Raviji's collaboration with Philip Glass - Passages - comes this piece, "Ragas in a Minor Scale". Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Raviji! And may you have many more!