How The West Was Won
India Today [
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May 15, 2022 | Page No.: 95 | Position: Inside Page | Source: Bureau | Sq Cm: 265 | AVE: 414778 | PR Value: 2073890
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HOW THE WEST WAS WON A brief history of how South Asian music went international • 1955 When sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan went to the US for the first time he was struck by how westerners found it hard to be- lieve that India had its own music Released in 1955 the success of Music of India prompted HMV India to start producing LP-length Hindustani classical recordings • 1967 1966 Released in 1967 East Meets Marked by rapturous ap- West went on to win its plause and rave reviews M S two collaborators violinist Subbulakshmi s UN concert • Yehudi Menuhin and sitarist in October 1966 was surely Ravi Shankar a Grammy historic but her travel history Award Not just was Shankar also proves that the first lady the first Asian musician to of Carnatic music had by then win a Grammy his influence already filled concert halls abroad began to spread fast from Edinburgh to Boston 1974 1978 After his jazz fusion band Ma- Ustad Vilayat Khan played havishnu Orchestra dissolved in England in 1951 long be- British guitarist John McLaughlin fore Ravi Shankar but by the joined violinist L Shankar tabla time he reached Boston for virtuoso Zakir Hussain and gha- his first US tour in 1978 his tam master T H Vikku Vinay- rival had cornered the loyal akram to form Shakti The band s sitar audiences Yet reviews output was sporadic but their hailed Khan as the world s sound felt iconic from the start greatest sitar player 1985 By 1997 the year he sadly passed away at the age of 48 the list of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan s fans included everyone from Eddie Vedder to Madonna but it was in 1985 when Khan took the stage at the WOMAD festival in Essex that he made music history It was the moment when qawwali first went global 1999 2009 Asian underground once ap- The South Asian diaspora didn t 10 plied to everything Apache need Slumdog Millionaire s rous- Indian s reggae and Corner- ing soundtrack to discover A R shop s Brimful of Asha 1998 Rahman they were grooving It was in 1999 that Nitin Sawh- to Chikku Bukku Rayile and ney s Beyond Skin and Talvin Chaiyya Chaiyya long before But Singh s Mercury Prize-winning in the end it took A R an operatic OK gave fledgling attempts at and touch over-the-top Jai Ho to fusion a mainstream spin get Oscar and Grammy attention