Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Famed Indian musician, George Harrison collaborator, Ali Akbar Khan dies

Ali Akbar Khan, who played with George Harrison and Ravi Shankar at the Concert for Bangledesh in 1971 has died at age 87.

Khan was a master of the sarod, the fretless 25-string instrument that produces a panoply of evocative sounds - from dronelike touches to complicated twangs that seem to reverberate from the ether. Guitarist Carlos Santana once said that a single note of Khan's sarod "goes right to my heart," while classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin - who prompted Mr. Khan to first visit the United States in 1955 - once called the sarodist "the greatest musician in the world."

No comments:

Post a Comment