Collaborations is a four-disc compilation box set by the Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar and the former Beatle George Harrison. Released in October 2010 on Dark Horse Records, it compiles two studio albums originally issued on that label – the long-unavailable Shankar Family & Friends (1974) and Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India (1976) – and Chants of India, first issued on Angel Records in 1997. Although all three albums were originally Shankar releases, for which Harrison served in the role of music producer and guest musician, both Shankar and Harrison are credited as artists on the box set. Each of the collaborative projects represents a departure from Shankar's more typical work as a sitarist and performer of Hindustani classical ragas, with the box set showcasing his forays into, variously, jazz and rock, Indian folk and orchestral ensembles, and devotional music.
The fourth disc of Collaborations is a DVD containing previously unissued film of a performance by the Music Festival from India, recorded at London's Royal Albert Hall in September 1974. Filmed by director Stuart Cooper, the footage required substantial restoration for its 2010 release. An audio-only track on the DVD, prepared by Anoushka Shankar and Paul Hicks, provides a more complete record of the concert.
Issued nine years after Harrison's death, the limited-edition release coincided with celebrations for Shankar's 90th birthday and was overseen by Harrison's widow, Olivia. Among the lavish packaging for the compilation, each disc appears inside enlarged, 8½-inch sleeves, and each copy of the set is individually numbered. An accompanying book contains a foreword by American composer Philip Glass, rare photographs documenting Shankar and Harrison's 35-year friendship, and commentary from both artists on the projects featured in the box set. While Collaborations presents only a portion of Shankar and Harrison's work together, music critics have recognised it as a successful representation of the far-reaching cultural legacy of their partnership.
Background In June 1966, while still a member of the Beatles, George Harrison met Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar in London and became a student of the sitarist.Tillery, pp. 55, 160.Leng, pp. 25–26. Harrison later said that, for himself, the music was "like an excuse", and that in reality he was searching for a "spiritual connection" with the culture of India.Harrison, p. 220. The association immediately brought Shankar and Indian music unprecedented popularity in the West,Philip Glass, "George Harrison, World-Music Catalyst and Great-Souled Man; Open to the Influence of Unfamiliar Cultures", The New York Times, 9 December 2001 (retrieved 16 August 2014). while Harrison's introduction of the sitar into the Beatles' sound inspired a new genre known as raga rock.Schaffner, pp. 64, 66.Everett, p. 40. By 1971, a year after the Beatles' break-up, and having established himself as a solo artist with his All Things Must Pass triple album (1970), Harrison began working with Shankar, as his producer.Lavezzoli, pp. 186, 187. These 1971 projects, all released on the Beatles' Apple record label, included the soundtrack to the documentary film Raga; Shankar's Joi Bangla EP, recorded to raise international awareness for the plight of refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War; and the live album The Concert for Bangladesh, which documented the UNICEF benefit concerts that Harrison and Shankar staged in New York that August.Rodriguez, pp. 44, 236, 237.Lavezzoli, pp. 187–88, 190, 193–94.
Twenty-three years older than Harrison,Inglis, p. 137. Shankar described their relationship as, variously, that of father and son (with each one adopting either role);Shankar, p. 230. close friends and brothers;Harry, p. 339.Badman, p. 70. and teacher and student. Author Ian Inglis has commented on the various differences between the two musicians, in terms of age, culture and social status: "And yet, in another sense, those contrasting factors helped to prevent any personal or professional rivalries, produced spaces and separations that their music could fill, and ultimately created … a partnership that was never competitive, but perfectly complementary." While their collaborations continued only intermittently after the mid 1970s, the depth of their friendship remained,Tillery, p. 141. such that Harrison would credit Shankar as being "the person who has influenced my life the most".Collaborations, p. 11.Simmons, p. 79. When Harrison died in November 2001, following a four-year battle with cancer, Shankar was at his bedside, along with members of Harrison's family.Tillery, pp. 148, 167–68.
Musical content The 2010 box set Collaborations was one of several reissue projects celebrating Shankar's 90th birthday. It compiles three studio albums that he and Harrison worked on together between 1973 and 1996:Shankar, p. 324. Shankar Family & Friends (1974), Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India (1976) and Chants of India (1997). The first two of these albums had long been out of print, and their inclusion in the box set marked the debut CD release for both titles. Disc four contains a previously unissued concert film from 1974, titled Music Festival from India – Live at the Royal Albert Hall.Evan Schlansky, "George Harrison and Ravi Shankar's Relationship Explored on Collaborations", American Songwriter, 12 August 2010 (retrieved 15 August 2014).
Harrison's role on the three studio albums was mainly confined to that of a record producer, although his name appeared prominently on the front cover of Chants of India, and the latter was marketed as a collaborative work between Shankar and Harrison.Leng, pp. 280–81. Collaborations presents the albums in reverse chronological order, with Chants of India appearing on disc one.
Chants of India
Shankar and Harrison recorded the album between January and August 1996,Badman, pp. 551, 554, 556–57. with sessions taking place in the southern India city of Madras, and at Harrison's English home, Friar Park, in Henley-on-Thames.Tillery, pp. 141–42. The majority of the selections consist of Vedic prayers and other Sanskrit-worded, Hindu religious texts that Shankar set to music. He also wrote new pieces in a similarly sacred vein,Ravi Shankar's liner notes, Chants of India CD (Angel Records, 1997; produced by George Harrison). including "Prabhujee", the only song on the album to contain Hindi lyrics.Lavezzoli, pp. 197–98. Among the many musicians and singers on Chants of India were Shankar's daughter Anoushka, tablist Bikram Ghosh and santoor player Tarun Bhattacharya.Album credits, Chants of India CD (Angel Records, 1997; produced by George Harrison).
The album's creation resulted from Shankar and Harrison having renewed their close friendship in recent years; this following a period when, by his own admission, Shankar had partially withdrawal from his Western-musician friends in the late 1970s, stung by persistent criticism from the Indian press that he was "diluting" Indian classical music.Shankar, pp. 212–14, 228. Other projects that the pair undertook together in the mid 1990s include Ravi Shankar: In Celebration (1996), a four-disc career retrospective compiled by Harrison,Shankar, p. 305. and Raga Mala, Shankar's second autobiography, for which Harrison served as editor.
Shankar considered Chants of India to be among his best works,Lavezzoli, p. 197. and he praised Harrison's contributions as a musician and producer on the album.Shankar, p. 308. Released on Angel Records in May 1997,Shankar, pp. 305, 324, 325. the album was critically well received.Rodriguez, p. 239. In his book The Dawn of Indian Music in the West, Peter Lavezzoli describes it as "a quiet masterpiece, one of the most uplifting and musically engaging recordings of sacred music",Lavezzoli, p. 198. while AllMusic critic Jim Brenholts writes: "Among records of this nature, this one is special."Jim Brenholts, "Ravi Shankar Mantram: Chants of India", AllMusic (retrieved 15 August 2014). Chants of India was the last official musical collaboration between the two artists,Leng, p. 281. after Harrison was diagnosed with cancer in August that year.Badman, p. 574.
Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India
Harrison first got the idea to stage what became the 1974 Music Festival from India during the Bombay sessions for his debut solo album, the 1968 film soundtrack Wonderwall Music,Harrison, p. 302. after hearing Shankar's orchestral work Nava Rasa Ranga. While in India in early 1974, Shankar and Harrison planned the venture, which consisted of a European tour by Shankar's hand-picked orchestra of Indian classical musicians, after which the ensemble would tour North America with Harrison and his band of Western musicians.Shankar, pp. 223, 225.Leng, pp. 148, 165, 167. For his orchestra, Shankar selected regular accompanistsShankar, pp. 160, 161, 203, 220, 246. such as tabla player Alla Rakha and singers Lakshmi Shankar and Kamala Chakravarty;Sleeve credits, Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India LP (Dark Horse Records, 1976; produced by George Harrison). other established players including Shivkumar Sharma (santoor), Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute), Rijram Desad (percussion) and Kamalesh Maitra (tabla tarang);Collaborations, pp. 44–50. and musicians that went on to establish themselves internationally as a result of their participation, such as violinist L. SubramaniamShankar, p. 223.Lavezzoli, p. 312. and sarangi player Sultan Khan.World Music: The Rough Guide, p. 77.
Before the European tour began in September 1974, Shankar and Harrison recorded a studio album with the sixteen Music Festival musicians at Friar Park.Lavezzoli, p. 195. Using the facilities from his upstairs studio, FPSHOT, Harrison recorded the album in Friar Park's drawing room, overlooking the property's expansive gardens.Shankar, pp. 224, 305. Shankar wrote the pieces in a variety of traditional Indian folk and classical styles,Collaborations, pp. 15, 25. often composing on his way to Henley from his London hotel, while travelling along the M4 motorway.Shankar, p. 224. Harrison later recalled his fear that Shankar's directions to the assembled musicians would create a musical "catastrophe", yet the result each time was "the most amazing thing". Among the tracks on Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India, "Raga Jait" is Shankar's interpretation of that raga for an orchestral ensemble, and the ten-minute "Dehati" features extended interplay between the various percussionists. The album was released on Harrison's Dark Horse record label in February 1976.The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 193.
Shankar Family & Friends
Shankar and Harrison began recording Shankar Family & Friends in Los Angeles in April 1973.Badman, p. 94. In a marked departure from Shankar's more familiar work in the Hindustani classical style, the album was a fusion of several musical genres,Rodriguez, p. 237. particularly Indian classical, jazz and Western pop. The contributors ranged from American jazz proponents Tom Scott and Emil Richards to Indian players such as Rakha, Sharma, Chaurasia, Subramaniam, sarodiya Aashish Khan and, a former student and longtime associate of Shankar's, multi-instrumentalist Harihar Rao.Shankar, pp. 113, 222–23.Lavezzoli, pp. 195, 301–02. Adopting the pseudonym "Hari Georgeson", since he was still contracted to EMI-affiliated Apple Records,Schaffner, pp. 179, 188. Harrison contributed on electric and acoustic guitars, and autoharp. Shankar played sitar, surbahar and Moog synthesizer,Album credits, Shankar Family & Friends LP (Dark Horse Records, 1974; produced by George Harrison). and otherwise served as director and conductor at the sessions.Harrison, pp. 301, 302–03. Other participants included guitarist David Bromberg,Leng, p. 138. members of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra,Collaborations, p. 19. and electronic music artists Paul Beaver and Robert Margouleff.