Indian Classical Music in the West (contd.)

In 1970 beatles split, ending the Beatles Era, what in the US was called the British Invasion. Thus after just a few years the mass Western involvement with Indian music was over. Though a musicians such as Ravi Shankar can scarcely be described as a household name in the West, he is unquestionably one of the most well-known non- Western musicians in the West, and Indian classical music can fairly be described as having carved a niche for itself in the world of concert music.

But in 1970s a different phenomenon started. With the changes in Immigration laws, it became easier for highly educated Indian professionals to migrate to North America. While in 1968, there were just 10,000 Indians in the US, by 1980 there were almost 300,000. Once these professionals became professionally and financially successful, they wanted to import the cultural heritage to their new home lands. For eg. more than 150 temples were built in the US and Canada. Thus, beginning in 70s it was the Indian Diaspora which brought and patronized Indain music to the west. They formed a number of organizations to promote Indian classical music, mainly by getting artists from India and organizing their concerts in North America. The main centers for these organizations and Indian music in general have been the universities. Center for the Performing Arts of India (CPAI - earlier called University Circuit for Indian Classical Music) and Carnatic Music Association of North America (CMANA, 1976) are the two most important such organizations. Some universities established centers of Indian music - Wesleyan University, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Washington, University of Pennsylvania, Amherst College and University of Texas at Austin have active Indian music programs. Apart from them, Ali Akbar Khan College of Music (est. 1968) and California Institute of Arts (est. 1973) continue to teach classical music in the US. Partly because of these institutions, several top artists have settled down in the US as well. They include Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Imrat Khan, Zakir Hussain, L Shankar, L Subramanium and Swapan Chaudhuri to name a few.

A landmark event was the 1985 Festival of India. In 1982, Indira Gandhi proposed the idea of Year of India when she visited US to Ronald Reagon. It was organized in 1985, starting with the visit of Rajiv Gandhi to US. This was a year long multifaceted celebration of Indian culture in USA. Presentation of Classical Music was an important part of this festival. Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) of India, the ITC-SRA and the University of Pittsburgh were jointly involved in organizing the event. Over 20 top ranking musicians, representing Hindustani and Carnatic styles, were invited, and they presented over 90 individual concerts, three two-day festivals and 25 to 30 workshops in Indian Classical Music across USA.

In 1990s, there was another large surge of Indian Immigrants into US, mainly for software work. By the turn of the century there were 1.6 million Indians in US and 1 million in Canada. There are several hundred local organizations which organize nearly 300 concerts each year in coordination with big organizations like CPAI, CMANA, Kalalaya, Bhairavi etc. During the concert season (Mar-Apr, Sep-Nov), over 50 artists from India tour through North America.

Collaboration between Indian and Western musicians, creating music incorporating elements of both cultures gave raise to a new genre of music, the Fasion music. Traditionalists in India frowned upon this and called it Hippie music. The trend started when Ravi Shankar first started playing alongside Western musicians like Yahudi Menuhin and Beatles. Several musicians have followed in the footsteps with varying degrees of commercial and critical success.

Ravi Shankar teamed with Yahudi Menuhin, starting with Menuhin Meets Shankar (1966) and played in other classical western orchestras like the Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra (1971) that he did with London Symphony Orchestra. His long association with Beatle lead guitarist George Harrison culminated with Concert For Bangladesh (1971). Recently he has collaborated with Philip Glass in Passage. Ravi Shankar has also done many experimental works like Transmigration Macabre (1973).

Also, many westerners studied Indian music and incorporate some elements into their own music. Many Jazz and Rock groups with Indian names sprung up. Mahavishnu Orchestra was one such, started by John McLaughlin in 1970s, incorporated Tabla by Badal Roy. When two versions of Mahavishnu Orchestra split up, he formed a new group Shakthi in 1975 with Zakir Hussain, T.H. VinayakaRam, Ramnad Raghavan and L Shankar. After three albums the group became defunct. In 1999 Shakthi regrouped for another tour, now with Hariprasad Chaurasia.

Brothers L. Shankar and L. Subramanium added the touch of Carnatic music to many fusion efforts. Shankar collaborated with several rock artists like Peter Gabriel , Jan Garbarek , David Byrne , Pete Towshend , John McLaughlin and Frank Zappa. He also worked with other Shakthi artists like Zakir Hussain and Vinayakaram to produce Pancha Nadai Pallavi (1981), Soul Searcher (1990) and Eternal Light (2000). L. Subramanium too has been at the forefront of Fusion Genre. He toured with Ravi Shankar and George Harrison in 1974 for the Bangladesh Tour. Garland (1978) was his first fusion album with several Jazz artists. He followed that up with Spanish Wave (1983) and Indian Express (1984) both of which got critical acclaim.

Zakir Hussain has been a permanent fixture in many of the fusion adventures. Apart from Shakthi, he has collaborated with several rock artists, symphony orchestras. He founded a percussion ensemble Zakir Hussain and the Rhythm experience in 1984. The band is still active and tours giving concerts. The core group consists of Zakir Hussain, his brother Faisal Khureshi, Vinayakaram and Dana Pandey (pakhavaj). Guest artists come from all parts of the world.

Vishwamohan Bhatt's collaboration started with Meeting By The River(1993) that he did with Ry Cooder, for which he won the Grammy, making him instantly famous. He later collaborated with Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas and Taj Mahal. Saltanah (1997) he did with Simon Shaheen, who plays Arabian Audh, is an interesting album showing the similarities of Arabic classical music and Indian. All these efforts were produced by Kavi Alexander's Waterlily Accoustics. Kavi Alexander has also produced many other fusion albums featuring several other Indian musicians with musicians from other parts of the world. Indian musicians include Ronu Majumdar, Sangita Shankar, N. Ravikiran, Kadri Gopalnath, L. Subramanium and Viji Krishnan.