L Shankar (b. 1950)

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Profile

Shankar is an acknowledged virtuoso of the violin. A child prodigy,born on April 26, 1950,in Madras, Southern India,into a renowned family of musicians, he is the son and disciple of the esteemed V. Lakshminarayana Iyer,who is an esteemed Indian violinist himself. His mother L. Seethalakshmi played the veena while his father sang and also played the violin. So, there was always music in his family. His five older brothers and sisters too played music. He is the youngest brother and member of a unique violin trio with his brothers L. Vaidyanathan and L. Subramaniam.

By seven, he gave his first public concert at a temple in Ceylon during a festival.

Shankar felt that in India, the violin had always been relegated to a secondary instrument, and wanted to elevate it to a featured solo instrument and he worked towards this. According to Shankar, "The violin is no longer a secondary instrument. Now, today, it is a very big solo instrument."

As a soloist and collaborator with such performers a tabla master Zakir Hussain and Vikku Vinayakram, he has been at the forefront in expanding the horizons of Indian music throughout the world. He has long standing association with guitarist John McLaughlin.

He has played with some of the greatest musicians of this century, including Frank Zappa, Peter Gabriel, John McLaughlin, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Yoko Ono, Sting. He has also effortlessly married Eastern and Western influences, assimilating Carnatic music with pop, rock and jazz.

His single biggest achievement remains a unique instrument he created,the acoustic double violin.

Discography

In alphabetical order of the title

Title	Nature	Music / recording	Contents	Label	Other Artists	Year
M R C S	Experimental		Adagio, March, All I Care, Reasons, Bach Again, Al's Hallucinations, Sally, White Buffalo, Ocean Waves	BMG/ECM	Zakir Hussain, Tabla; Vikku Vinayakram, Ghatam
Nobody Told Me	Carnatic Violin		Hamsadhwani, Chakravakam, Hindolam	BMG/ECM	Zakir Hussain, V Lakshminarayana, Ganam Rao, Vikku Vinayakaram, Caroline
Pancha Nadai Pallavi	Carnatic Violin		Double Violin	ECM	Zakir Hussain, Tabla, Vikku Vinayakaram, Ghatam
Raga Aberi	Carnatic Violin		Aberi, Shankar's Original Composition, In 4 Kala Pallavi, 4 & 3/4 beats.	Music of the World	Zakir Hussain, Tabla; Vikku Vinayakaram, Ghatam
Song for Everyone	Experimental		Paper Nut, I Know, Watching You, Conversation,Song For Everyone, Let's Go Home, Rest in Peace	ECM	Jan Garbarek, Zakir Hussain, Trilok Gurtu	1984
Soul Seacher	Carnatic Violin		Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi: Kapi, Seethalakshmi Talam Composed by L Shankar, 6 3/4 Beats	Polygram	Zakir Hussain, Tabla; Vikku Vinayakaram Ghatam; Keyboards Peter Gabriel; Vocals Caroline & Ganam Rao
Soul Searcher	Carnatic Violin		Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi; Ragam: Kapi; Seethalakshmi Talam; 6 3/4 beats (tala conceived by Shankar)	Axiom	V Lakshminarayana, Vikku Vinayakram, Zakir Hussain, etc.
Vision	Experimental		All For You, Vision, Astral Projection, Psychic Elephant, The Message	BMG/ECM	Jan Garbarek, Saxaphones; Paule Mikkelborg, Percussion
Whos To Know	Carnatic Violin		Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi: Hemavathi, Savithri	ECM	U K Sivaraman, Mridangam; Zakir Hussain, Tabla; Conducted by V Lakshminarayana

Links

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  A shankar info site