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Three Ragas | 
 enlarge | Artist: Ravi Shankar
Label: Angel Records
Category: Music
List Price: $10.98
Buy New: $7.97
You Save: $3.01 (27%)
New (28) Used (9) from $5.99
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 12545
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 67310
UPC: 724356731028
EAN: 0724356731028
ASIN: B00004U92Q
Release Date: July 18, 2000
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Raga Jog | | • | Raga Ahir Bhairav | | • | Raga Simhendra Madhyamam |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
Beautiful introduction to traditional Indian music. October 11, 2008
Whether you are familiar with Ravi Shankar or not, if you have any interest in great music you should buy this album. I believe this is Ravi Shankar's first "Western" album, and it's a magnificent introduction to 3 different kinds of Ragas. The rhythms and artistry are simply transfixing. This should be part of any music lover's collection.
Ravi Shankar sitar August 23, 2007
If you're a fan of Ravi Shankar's sitar playing, or sitar an instrument, or looking to get introduced to indian classical music/sitar, this one would be highly recommended.
This would be a great addition to anyone's collection of indian classical music.
Very Pleased May 14, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was most pleased with my CD order: I received it quickly and it was a represented on Amazon--in excellent shape.
Awesome, consistent, and diverse June 5, 2006
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is the best Ravi Shankar I've heard so far. You don't get much alap (slow arhythmic introduction to the raga being performed) on this CD, and the reason is that alap can last for as much as an hour, but whoever produced this wanted to put 3 whole ragas (scales plus plus, basically) into the same amount of time.
Anyway, what you DO get is one of the all-time masters of melodic line at peak performance, for an hour. The bunch of this CD is the fast, rhythm-centered sitarwork termed "gat". Not lyrical in a Western sense, but intense, "dancing", unflaggingly inventive twists and turns of melody. Ravi goes all out with one of his favorite tricks here: playing a phrase twice in a row, then playing just the start of it and suddenly veering away into a new melody. A full analysis of all the dozens of ways in which Ravi creates surprise, tension, release, and excitement using just a single melody line would take many pages. To say that he is a master of ornamentation would be just the beginning.
One nice thing is that for each raga you get to hear two different buildups to a climax - the first without tabla (drum) accompaniment and the second, larger buildup, with tabla. It's almost as if there are six performances on the CD, not just three. Very effective - when the drums come in each time, I get the pleasure of knowing that the superlative stringwork still ringing in my ears from the first movement will be topped by the
coming, percussion-accompanied sequel. It is also very nice that the three ragas featured here come from three entirely different melodic families, and create rather different effects.
Based on what I've heard of his music so far, it seems to me that later in his life Ravi Shankar, though losing none of his speed or showmanship, could no longer bring such sheer densely-packed melodic inventiveness to his gats as he shows here(his alaps only got better, however). Whether that's true or not, however, this is a stunning performance and some of the best music most people will ever hear. Get it.
Timeless music January 14, 2005
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
Thanks to inspiration from a highly unlikely quarter--Bollywood, of all things!--my wife and I have developed a newfound love of Indian culture. I had long been familiar with Ravi Shankar thanks to his association with George Harrison and his fame as one of the world's best sitar players, but until recently, the only album of his that I had was the live Inside the Kremlin (1988). I always enjoyed that CD, believing that raga could be a challenging but ultimately rewarding listen if one were simply willing to give the music time to move one's soul. This CD (along with two other of Angel-EMI's Ravi remasters) has indeed proven me correct...and well-rewarded.
I was struck by the flawless remastering job, first of all--although this album was recorded in 1956, it could have been recorded yesterday for the freshness and sharpness of the sound. Shankar's performances are beyond reproach--while I wouldn't call this the peak of his career, exactly (unlike one of the previous reviewers), I would say this was a very promising start, and an excellent introduction for anyone to Indian classical music. Raga itself is truly timeless music--it never sounds dated, like some forms of music do, but it is truly the sound of the soul; Ravi even describes "Raga Jog" as the expression of one soul's longing, and you feel this quite strongly.
I purchased this one along with his later work A Morning Raga/An Evening Raga, and had previously purchased Improvisations (his first actual American release, issued by the World Pacific label in 1962 and remastered by Angel-EMI in 1999 as one of the first few titles in the Ravi Shankar Collection series). I highly recommend this music for anyone who truly enjoys world music in general (being one of those myself, something for which I will always heartily thank my wife) and Indian music in particular. For those wishing to explore the Carnatic tradition of South India, I would recommend the late Ramnad Krishnan's 1968 recording Vidwan...also a challenging, but ultimately rewarding, listen.
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