Beatle George Harrison’s Sitar Teacher Ravi Shankar Dies At 92

Ravi Shankar the sitar virtuoso from India died at the the Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego after he had failed to recover from surgery.

Shankar’s wife Sukanya and daughter Anoushka were at his side when he passed away.

Anoushka herself is a sitar player while Shankar’s other daughter is the famous Grammy award-winning jazz pop singer Geethali “Norah Jones” Shankar.

Shankar gained worldwide recognition through his association with The Beatles whom he taught George Harrison to play the sitar.

Harrison played and introduced the sitar in the earlier Beatles song “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” on the LP Rubber Soul in 1965 and also in the later Beatles song ” Across the Universe”, their Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Album.

Shankar also composed a number of film scores, notably Satyajit Ray’s celebrated Apu trilogy (1951-55) and Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982) and collaborated with US composer Philip Glass in Passages in 1990.

He akso played at Woodstock and the 1967 Monterey Pop festival, and also collaborated with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.

George Harrison of the Beatles once called Shankar “the godfather of world music”.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described him as a “national treasure and global ambassador of India’s cultural heritage”.

Shortly after his death, the Recording Academy of America announced the musician would receive a lifetime achievement award at next year’s Grammys.

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