Ravi Shankar: Full Circle/Carnegie Hall 2000

The title of the great sitarist Ravi Shankar’s latest release conveys at least a couple of important touchstones in his career. Full Circle, Carnegie Hall 2000 captures the live concert in that august hall, some 62 years after his first appearance there. At that time, long before the world-music explosion he later helped to foster, Shankar was an exotic visitor, dancing and also playing sitar and sarod. Another kind of full circle is in evidence in that the new album unites him with his daughter, 19-year-old Anoushka Shankar, whose own fledgling career as a sitarist brims with promise. She could well end up carrying the family torch, perpetuating interest in Hindustani music. The pair, joined by tabla players Bikram Ghosh and Tanmoy Bose, demonstrates plenty of empathy, from an ethereal “Alap” section in the Raga Kaushi Kanhara to the genial heat of the fast section in the Raga Mishra Gara. (Angel Records, which has also recorded Anoushka, will reissue titles from Shankar’s archives, from the World Pacific and Angel vaults.)

Originally Published July 1, 2001