Biography
The sitarist and nephew of Ravi Shankar, Ananda Shankar (11 December 1942 - 26 March 1999), joins with the DJ and producer Sam Zaman, also known as State of Bengal, to create a fusion where Indian traditional music, sitars and tablas meet western guitars, hip-hop and breakbeats.
In the late 1960s Shankar traveled to Los Angeles, where he played with many contemporary musicians including Jimi Hendrix ad recorded his first album utilizing Indian classical material alongside sitar-based cover versions of popular hits such as The Rolling Stones' Jumpin' Jack Flash and The Doors' Light My Fire. Returning to India in the early 1970s Shankar continued to experiment musically and in 1975 released his most critically acclaimed album, Ananda Shankar And His Music, a jazz-funk mix of Eastern sitar, Western rock guitar, tabla and mridangam, drums and Moog synthesizers. But Shankar's profile in the West did not begin to rise again until the mid-1990s, as his music found its way into club DJ sets, particularly in London. As of the late 1990s until his death in March 1999 Ananda Shankar worked and toured with the State of Bengal. He died a sudden death from heart failure in 1999.
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