Ravi Shankar passes.

Our condolences to Norah Jones. Just last week I listened to "Concert for Bangladesh " . Talented indeed.

Condolences to Anoushka Shankar as well (another great sitarist and another daughter of Ravi's). Ravi had some good genes. I don't own a lot of Ravi's music but what I do own I find to be amazing and makes for some great afternoon listening for me on the weekends. I was also turned on to Nikhil Banerjee who practiced under the same guru as Ravi and he was easily as good as Ravi if not subjectively better. The sitar is a great instrument but I've always found it difficult to play air sitar.

Ravi was my first exposure to international music. He was truly a ground breaker. My condolences to his beautiful daughter Norah.

Indian classical music is great stuff, and Ravi Shankar opened the door (for me anyway) not only to other sitar musicians (Vlayt Khan is very good also) but also to Iranian, Chinese, and other international music. A lot of it reminds me of meditation or prayer, with vocal improvisation as well as a huge variety of non-western instruments. But Ravi certainly deserves a lot of credit for exposing Indian Music to young people as well as classcially trained masters such as Yehudi Medhuin (sp?). Funny too how good the sitar sounds once you've heard it played a few times.

It is Vilayat Khan (you dropped an i and a). The greatest of all was Ali Akbar Khan (Sarod) whose sister Annapurna Devi was married to Ravi Shankar and studied together under her father great Alauddin Khan. Annapurna Devi was perhaps even more talented than Ravi Shankar. To avoid comparison with her husband she chose Surbahar (bass Sitar). She is perhaps the greatest living teacher of Indian Classical music. Her pupils include mentioned Pandit Nikhil Banerjee and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia between many others.

If you like Vilayat Khan try to find record "Duets". He plays with Bismillah Khan - master of the Shehnai.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyK4Bvj07JY

Ravi Shankar was a great global ambassador of Indian Classical music. I attended his November 16 1985 concert in Chicago (he played with great tablist Alla Rakha).