In San Francisco

one of the best from this collection t50 minutes long,great table solo too!

Fair

People talk a lot of nonsense about sitar music and "Flower Power". The music was around for hundreds of years before the hippies - and will be around for hundreds of years after.Flower Power did expose it to a much wider audience in the West, with the result that there are more people playing sitar and tabla than ever.But sitar players like Ravi Shankar and tabla players like Alla Rakha, who plays on this album, are examples of lives of dedication and discipline to music which it takes to play music this wonderful. The ragas on this CD are beautiful, the playing is fantastic, and the improvisation and interplay between sitar and tabla is at its finest.Tabla players will find a hidden gem on this CD - a tabla solo by Alla Rakha in a rhythmic cycle described by Shankar in his introduction as "rather uncommon" - a huge understatement, since it's an incredibly complex repeating cycle of 17 beats. Alla Rakha gives a virtuoso performance of improvisation, going off on deep forays into uncharted territory - but never losing his place in the original cycle. You have to hear this track.This is a "must have" Indian music album.

I bought htis LP way back in the 80's and I am now glad to see it is available in CD format...

hes so incredible--- u can tell from the start of the first selection-- the music is so pefectly paced --u can feel time being put to its best use-----the music - precious jewels glistening sounds forged for you and you are taken away on a wondrous journey as u melt into the music and are transported leaving behind all the detritus of this shackled world of illusion---the second selection takes u off and away to even more perfect climes--- undulating pulsating ----wondrous----energy at the service not even of peace but joy -just listen to it---and the third one--- morning raga----about 5 minutes into it--it hits this incredible subtle groove and....forget it ! it is music in the highest sense- beyond words----- if u want to know why music exists-- hop on this ravi train ~~~~yeeeeee ha !!

The following is quoted directly from Ravi Shankar in the booklet of his Live at the Monterey International Pop Festival :"As I have often said, I strongly feel that in spite of the drugs, there was really LOVE, PEACE, FLOWER POWER and a genuine passion for beauty and spirituality amongst the youth which I felt gradually died, because of the eploitation of these kids' passion and innocence!" Ravi Shankar's music is God.