Ravi Shankar has been described as one of the greatest musicians on the planet. This record, one of his classic World Pacific albums, clearly lends credence to that statement. But the thing that makes this record interesting is the fact that it contains a unique fusion of Shankar and his group performing with respected jazz flutist Paul Horn. It's an extremely gratifying combination, and Horn plays with a true jazzman's restraint on the five short selections that open the record. The second half is devoted to one long (20 minute) traditional raga, "Raga Multani," in which Shankar's awesome ability and stamina is matched only by that of his ensemble, especially Alla Rakha on tabla. Essential for any fan of Shankar or Indian music. Awesome.

With each album Manx releases, his deep Indo-Canadian roots music becomes more defined and further accomplished. The title West Eats Meet is a play on Ravi Shankar's West Eats Meat, a nod both to an Indian musical giant and Manx's own western usage of Indian instruments, folk melodies and styles. Manx strays a bit from his standard blues idiom with this album and introduces gospel flavours with the help of backing singers Emily Braden and Australian trio the Heavenly Lights. The latter add depth and a churchy soul to The Great Unknown and, along with Manx's banjo, Sitting on Top of the World becomes a down from the mountain call to worship out of an as yet undiscovered Baptist/Hindu hymnal. One of two covers on the album, Sonny Boy Williamson's Help Me features an under pad of delicate drones and a slinky slide solo injecting a little Rajasthan into this Chicago standard…

Five years after recording the amazing Karuna Supreme, John Handy and Ali Akbar Khan reconvened for a follow-up. This time out, Shyam Kane performs on tabla in place of Zakir Hussain, and Carnatic violinist L. Subramaniam is added as a soloist. Subramaniam turns in some fine playing, and Shyam Kane does a decent job in support on the tablas, but he lacks the excitement and attentive reactions that Zakir Hussain supplied…

Harry Manx’s life journey has taken him all over the map, both musically and literally. His ninth album, “Bread and Buddha”, is a musical meditation on the ephemeral nature of the human experience and is a culmination of thirty-five years of world exploration. Harry covers all four compass points of the world music map on this outing, from the rolling guitar groove on “Love is the Fire” and “Walking Ghost Blues”; he revisits traditional blues territory for the covers “Moon Goin’ Down” and “Long Black Veil” and blends in his trademark sensual raga flavours with “True to Yourself” and the instrumental “The Unspoken Quest”.

Slide guitarist Harry Manx was born in the U.K., raised in Canada, and lived and worked in Europe and Japan before spending five years studying Indian slide guitar under the great Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. This is his first solo album, and as one might expect, it's a fascinating hodgepodge of differing musical traditions. Happily, Dog My Cat has none of the hippie-dippy multicultural piety that afflicts so many East-meets-West musical experiments – Manx's approach to the blues is gritty and straightforward, his original songs are tight and tuneful, and when he pauses to play a raga (as he does twice on this album), he manages to imbue the Indian musical form with a soulful depth that somehow has nothing and everything to do with the blues. Highlights are hard to identify on this album because its quality is so consistently high, but his rendition of the Muddy Waters standard "Can't Be Satisfied" is especially fine, as are his own "Love Ain't No Game" and the traditional "Reuben's Train."

Ravi Shankar - Concert For Peace, Live At Royal Albert Hall, London (1993) {2CD Set, Moment Records MRCD1013 rel 1995}
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© 1995 Moment Records USA | MRCD 1013
Indian Classical / Indian Raga / Meditative / Sitar / Sarod / Tabla / World Music

This is a live recording of a concert given by Ravi Shankar in 1993 and released to commemorate his 75th birthday a year and a half later. He is accompanied on tabla by virtuoso Zakir Hussain and on sarod by his own student (and virtuoso in his own right), Partha Sarathy. He begins the evening with his own interpretation of a rare raga, that of jait. He chose the version played here after researching a few possible forms of the raga that have appeared over the centuries (families, essentially, of ragas). After exploring the grounds of jait thoroughly, he moves on to kirwani, a raga adapted by Shankar from the Carnatic system. He draws out a mood of romanticism, eroticism, and happiness mainly, his preferred method of dealing with some of the madhur ragas.

Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage - Blues Alif Lam Mim (2021) {Blank Forms Editions}
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Experimental / Modern Classical / Raga / Electronic / Avant-Garde

Fathoms deep, kaleidoscopic devotional drone that channels Catherine Christer Hennix's passion for Arabic poetry and her studies alongside Hindustani raga master Pandit Pran Nath. Originally released in 2016, "Blues Alif Lam Mim" is the recording of a 2014 performance of Swedish composer Catherine Christer Hennix's just-intonation ensemble, featuring brass, electronics and voices.

As is usually the case with Shankar, the music is quite accessible to Western ears. The jor section of the piece "Dhun" is quite tuneful, for example. And the brevity of the raags (five, ten, 16, and 21 minutes) really helps. The five-minute track is a stirring tabla solo by Alla Rakha with minimal accompaniment by Shankar. Highly recommended for Indian music beginners.