Ravi Shankar passes.

I remember him in his heyday very well. George Harrison presented him to the world the best. A uniquely talented musician. Rest in Peace.

Our condolences to Norah Jones. Just last week I listened to "Concert for Bangladesh " . Talented indeed.

Condolences to Anoushka Shankar as well (another great sitarist and another daughter of Ravi's). Ravi had some good genes. I don't own a lot of Ravi's music but what I do own I find to be amazing and makes for some great afternoon listening for me on the weekends. I was also turned on to Nikhil Banerjee who practiced under the same guru as Ravi and he was easily as good as Ravi if not subjectively better. The sitar is a great instrument but I've always found it difficult to play air sitar.

Ravi was my first exposure to international music. He was truly a ground breaker. My condolences to his beautiful daughter Norah.

Indian classical music is great stuff, and Ravi Shankar opened the door (for me anyway) not only to other sitar musicians (Vlayt Khan is very good also) but also to Iranian, Chinese, and other international music. A lot of it reminds me of meditation or prayer, with vocal improvisation as well as a huge variety of non-western instruments. But Ravi certainly deserves a lot of credit for exposing Indian Music to young people as well as classcially trained masters such as Yehudi Medhuin (sp?). Funny too how good the sitar sounds once you've heard it played a few times.