Shankar Family & Friends (2022 Remaster)

Ravi Shankar

Released on 20/09/1974 by BMG Rights Management (US) LLC
Main artists: Ravi Shankar
Genre: World

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By the 1974 release of Shankar Family & Friends, George Harrison's post-Beatles career had peaked twice, once with his debut solo album, All Things Must Pass, and again with 1973's Living in the Material World. Along the way, in August 1971, he—along with Ravi Shankar—co-produced the Concert for Bangladesh, a multi-act charity event intended to raise funds for starving refugees of the then-raging Bangladesh Liberation War. This was not Shankar's first high-profile U.S. concert appearance, as the sitar player made a seismic impact at both Monterey Pop and Woodstock, but it was the first time he had been so publicly tied to his friend Harrison. (The two musicians connected personally in the late '60s, but had not previously collaborated on a musical project.) Given the success—both in terms of critical reception and awareness-raising—of The Concert for Bangladesh album, it wasn't too surprising when Harrison chose to make Shankar Family & Friends one of the first album releases on his Dark Horse Records label.

Of course, legend has it that Harrison's enthusiasm for Shankar's music led him to feature the sitarist too much on their 1974 tour together—the first big tour by a solo Beatle—leading many fans to turn away from both artists and perhaps precipitating Harrison's commercial and critical decline through the rest of the '70s. However, Harrison's dedication to his friend never wavered and he released more albums of Indian classical music on Dark Horse over the next couple of years. He also collaborated directly with Shankar on 1996's incredible Chants of India.

Shankar Family & Friends is probably the clearest and most direct statement of their connection: Harrison obviously wanted the album to be a success on its own terms, so the album sequence leads off with "I Am Missing You," a deceptively infectious pop anthem that sounds like it was written by Harrison, but was in fact penned by Shankar, with production and arranging duties falling to Harrison. "I Am Missing You" is a brain-melting bit of east-west fusion, not because of any overt psychedelic vibes, but for the way it presents as an actual fusion; depending upon which moment or which element of the song you're focusing on, it's either obviously a Ravi Shankar composition or obviously a George Harrison arrangement. Shankar's sister-in-law, Lakshmi Shankar sings the English lyrics in her Hindustani classically trained voice, while sitars and tablas are set aside for guitars, organ, saxophone, and Ringo Starr's drums. It is catchy and familiar while also being incredibly distinct and unusual to Western ears. That it is featured twice on the album is even more evidence of Harrison's enthusiasm for it, but it's also the album's anomaly.

For the rest of the first half, Shankar's vision of accessible east-west fusion—leaning more toward jazz-and soul-flecked renditions of bhajans and Indian folk music—dominates, making for a pleasant, atmospheric listen. Shankar's sheer creative energy unfolds in the second half, in the form of a multi-part suite, Dream, Nightmare & Dawn, that was originally written for a proposed ballet. The nine-piece composition straddles the line between Indian and Western classical forms and instrumentations, in much the same way that "I Am Missing You" does with pop music. It's as stunningly audacious as it is engagingly listenable. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz

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Shankar Family & Friends (2022 Remaster)

Ravi Shankar

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