Traditional Music of India

Khan, Ali Akbar

album cover

A Dazzling Example of Hindustani Classical Raga

During the early moments of these traditional Hindustani ragas, Ali Akbar Khan plays the twenty-five-string sarod with light brushstrokes and gentle pitch-bending melodies. His sitar-like instrument, whose body is carved from a single block of wood, handles both melody and rhythm, and as a result he can control the "mood" of the music all by himself.

Eventually, the ragas—pieces built on intricate asymmetrical recurring beat patterns—evolve into fierce and agitated peaks. To make them happen, Khan's repertoire (and musical personality) expands. He attacks the instrument, which is played using a bow, with thrashing strokes. He repeats single notes emphatically, placing them at odd angles against a rhythm tapped on two tabla drums and the drone-producing stringed tampura. As he strikes and lunges, Khan's serene composure goes on the back burner. He becomes an improvising dynamo, swept into the pursuit of an all-encompassing euphoria.

That gradually escalating shift of tone is central to Indian classical music, and a particular specialty of Khan's. Once called "an absolute genius, the greatest musician in the world" by violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin, Khan began studying music at age three with his father, the legendary teacher Ustad Allauddin Khan—whose other pupils included Ravi Shankar. Most of the younger Khan's childhood was spent practicing (one account says he practiced eighteen hours daily) and learning the intricate governing structures of the music. The first raga here, the seventeen-minute "Raga Chandranandan," is his own creation. Khan was responsible for the first Western recording of Indian classical music, and though Shankar became more visible through associations with the Beatles and others, Khan (who appeared with Shankar on George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh) was the one who awed musicians. Follow the wizard along these winding, everilluminating paths to hear why.

Genre: World, India
Released: 1965, Prestige
Key Tracks: "Raga Chandranandan," "Raga Malika."
Catalog Choice: Signature Series, Vol. 2: Three Ragas.
Next Stop: Ravi Shankar: Three Ragas
After That: John McLaughlin: Remember Shakti.
Book Pages: 421–422

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Comments:

#1 from CPaul, NJ - 01/28/2011 12:56

The instrument played with a bow is not on this album. It’s a sarangi (Ramesh Mishra, Sultan Khan), also made from a single block of wood and covered in goatskin. The sarod is played like a guitar: one hand fingering along the neck, the other plucking the strings with a pick. No bow, no Jimmy Page showmanship here. Otherwise, great review.

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