WHILE MY SITAR, GENTLY WEEPS! ... Ravi Shankar mourns his sitars

[Analog]

Sitar star Ravi Shankar performed at a concert in France, despite two of his treasured instruments being broken during a flight from Lebanon.

New instruments arrived in time for his performance at the World Music festival in the southern French town of Arles on Sunday evening.

A festival spokeswoman said he was able to tune up the instruments before putting on a "wonderful" performance.

Mr Shankar, 85, said of the sitars: "I feel like I have lost two relatives."

He had played them for years.

'Wonderful concert'

A replacement sitar flown specially from London was declared "unusable" by the musician, who was born in India but now lives in California.

But his instrument-maker arrived from India with two sitars, enabling the concert with his daughter Anoushka Shankar to go ahead.

A spokeswoman at the festival told BBC News the sitars arrived at lunchtime on Sunday and he was able to test them out before the performance.

"It was perfect. It was an absolutely wonderful concert," she said.

Mr Shankar's family are blaming Air France for breaking the sitars.

A spokesman for the airline said: "The company is seeking a evaluation of the damage and the harm done." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4669983.stm

 

[amol]

Ouch, that SUCKS


I saw (heard) him live a few years ago, here in L.A. Great sitar player.

 

[Tiamat]

Ouch, loosing 2 instruments at the same time - that really sucks

 

[hypn0tik]

I've heard some of his music. It's awesome. It must really suck to lose precious instruments.

 

[Vegitto]

He rules. France AIR sucks. Sue em!

 

[isasir]

That sucks. I actually had a positive Air France experience a few months ago though.

 

[ZeroEffect]

should have purchased a couple of extra seats for his sitars.

...you know, you get the window seat and the sitars get the

middle and aisle seats. Then you don't have to sit by annoying

people who smell bad and want to talk to you for 5 hrs.

 

[IronWing]

Trivia time: Who is Anoushka Shankar's half sister?

 

[aphex]

norah jones.

 

[radioouman]

I read this as Shakira

 

[Chaotic42]

Any demo clips anywhere? We don't hear about Indian musicians much here in the back woods of Mississippi.

 

[Phoenix15]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Any demo clips anywhere? We don't hear about Indian musicians much here in the back woods of Mississippi.

Didn't he play with Peter Gabriel on the Secret World DVD? I think that was him, but he didn't kook that old.

 

[jalaram]

Originally posted by: Phoenix15

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Any demo clips anywhere? We don't hear about Indian musicians much here in the back woods of Mississippi.

Didn't he play with Peter Gabriel on the Secret World DVD? I think that was him, but he didn't kook that old.

L Shankar is not the same as Ravi Shankar, although both are incredible musicians.

 

[0roo0roo]

yup norah jones

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Any demo clips anywhere? We don't hear about Indian musicians much here in the back woods of Mississippi.

Try looking for clips from the original Woodstock.

 

[Jawo]

spent a few weeks in India for a study abroad program...and loved the music over there!

 

[jalaram]

Originally posted by: Gibsons

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Any demo clips anywhere? We don't hear about Indian musicians much here in the back woods of Mississippi.

Try looking for clips from the original Woodstock.

and the Monterey Pop Festival.

 

[Analog]

he taught George Harrison how to play the sitar. Check out Norwegian Wood.