L Shankar

Early life

Shankar was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Growing up in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, where his father V. Lakshminarayana Iyer was a professor at the Jaffna College of Music, Shankar was exposed to Carnatic music and other styles from an early age. His father was an esteemed violinist, his mother L. Seethalakshmi played the veena and all his five older siblings were also proficient in music. His brothers include the renowned violinist L. Subramaniam and L. Vaidyanathan, a music composer for Indian films. Shankar cites his family and Tyāgarāja as early inspirations.

Shankar was "capable of humming complex lines from ancient Indian compositions" when he was three years of age, and two years later began his study of the violin. He is said to have learned to play drums at the age of seven. At the age of seven, Shankar gave his first public concert, at a Ceylonese temple, Nallur Kandaswarmy. As Archana Dongre of Hinduism Today notes, "He gained considerable reputation in his early youth as an accompanist to some of the most eminent names in Carnatic music, playing all through India," names such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Chembai Vaithyanatha Baghavatar, Palghat Mani Iyer, and Alathur Srinivasa Iyer. Following the ethnic riots in Sri Lanka in the early 1950s, his family escaped to India.

Formal training

As Dongre of Hinduism Today notes, "After obtaining a B.S. in Physics in India, Shankar came to the US in 1969, and earned a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in Connecticut." His doctoral dissertation was titled "The Art of Violin Accompaniment in South Indian Classical Music". He worked as a teaching assistant and concert master for the University Chamber Orchestra, and through Clifford Thornton, he met jazz musicians Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Garrison, and John McLaughlin.

Career

Shankar and jazz musician McLaughlin would go on to found Shakti in 1975, with Zakir Hussain and Vinayakram, a "groundbreaking acoustic group," which has been referred to as a "pioneering" and "highly influential" east-meets-west collaboration that has a "fluid sound" that manages to successfully combine seemingly incompatible traditions.

Shankar's first solo album, Touch Me There, was produced by Frank Zappa in 1979. Shankar founded his own band, The Epidemics, in 1982, with the British composer, vocalist and keyboardist Caroline, which released three albums.

Shankar recorded periodically during the 1980s, doing both jazz-based material and Indian classical music. As World Music Central notes,

His 1980 release, Who's To Know, and Phil Collins' solo debut, Face Value, introduced the unique sound of [his] own invention, the ten-string, stereophonic Double Violin… [D]esigned by Shankar and built by noted guitar maker Ken Parker, [it] covers the entire range of the orchestra's double bass, cello, viola and violin.

He has recently developed a newer version of his instrument which is much lighter than the original.

Shankar co-produced a one-hour film directed by H. O. Nazareth in 1990, which went on to be nominated for Best Documentary film at the Cannes film festival. Shankar worked on the score of the film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), composed by Peter Gabriel, with his music ending up on both albums of the score—Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ and Passion - Sources. He won a Grammy for his work on the latter in 1994. 1996 saw a Grammy nomination for the album Raga Aberi. Shankar has performed on several of Peter Gabriel's records such as So and Us. Since 1996, Shankar has toured internationally with his niece, and fellow virtuoso violinist Gingger as "Shankar & Gingger". As World Music Central notes, they have garnered

critical acclaim and a growing fan base, performing at world even[t]s such as The Concert for Global Harmony and Nelson Mandela's 80th birthday celebrations. Shankar & Gingger's first release in the DVD-Audio format… One in a Million was released worldwide on… August 7, 2001.

After a successful tour of North America, the DVD went to number 1 on the Neilsen Soundscan DVD charts and stayed there for four weeks. In 2004, Gingger Shankar composed music with Shankar and John Debney, and performed on the score for the film The Passion of the Christ (2004).

Shankar has played with an extraordinary number of musical contemporaries, individuals and groups, including:

Shankar has been praised for his ability to mix Eastern and Western influences, assimilating Carnatic music with pop, rock, jazz and contemporary world music. He admits: "Ultimately, I would like to bring the East and West together. That, I think, is my role."

More recently, Shankar has used a new stage name, Shenkar, and has created recordings under this name. In 2006–2007, Shenkar provided the vocals for the opening credit music and other themes for all episodes of the hit TV series Heroes. Lately, he has been working with Jonathan Davis, Stephen Day, and Ana Maria Lombo on their next records.

Discography

The following is an aim at a complete discography, based on information from the World Music Central article on Shankar, and other sources: