London: Indian music maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar has revealed that he has been impressed theatrically by Lady Gaga’s music videos and termed her as ‘a very intelligent performer’.
The 91-year-old veteran, whose career in music kick started in 1930 when he joined his brother Uday’s troupe as a dancer, recalled his transformation into a sitar virtuoso and revealed that meeting Allauddin Khan at an early age of 15 was his first breakthrough.
“He became my guru; I returned to India to study the sitar with him for seven years. Only then was I ready to become a professional musician,” he told the Guardian.
Once known as the ‘fifth Beatle’, Shankar, said that he did not like the fame and recognition he achieved while working with George Harrison in 1966,
According to him, the difference between UK and Indian music lies in the improvisation as while in the United Kingdom classical music is composed by individuals, and written down, Indian classical music is entirely based on ragas. He claimed that 95 percent of the music is improvised and that is why it never sounds the same twice.
While Shankar, a Matisse and Picasso lover, revealed his proud moment as helping western audiences have a better understanding of Indian classical music, he shared his detestation for avant-garde, electronic music that makes him feel ‘quite ill’. Still having a lot of potential musical ideas, Shankar, a man with ‘a wonderful family’, felt that growing age is a deterrent to his creation.
“Now. In my mind, I am a young man – I have so many musical ideas, but my body is too frail to play them,” he added. (ANI)