Ali Akbar Khan (Bengali: আলী আকবর খাঁ) (14 April 1922 – 18 June 2009), often referred to as Khansahib or by the title Ustad (master), was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Khan was instrumental in popularizing Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer (often in conjunction with Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar), and as a teacher. He established a music school in Calcutta in 1956, and the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967, which is now located in San Rafael, California and has a branch in Basel, Switzerland. Khan also composed several classical ragas and film scores.[1] He was a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Music[2] at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Trained as a musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, Khan first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and later settled in California.[3] Khan was nominated for five Grammy Awards and was accorded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1989.[4] He has also won a MacArthur Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts's National Heritage Fellowship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Akbar_Khan
"If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist—then you may please even God."
-- Ali Akbar Khan
A listing of tracks in Ali Akbar Khan's album "Garden of Dreams" :
1. Two Lovers [Mand]
2. Garden of Dreams [Madhu Malati]
3. The Emperor [Darbari Kanra]
4. Power of Joy [Kaushi Kanra]
5. Water Lady [Panihari]
6. India Blue [Dhani]
7. Blessings of the Heart, Pt. 1 [Iman Kalyan]
8. Blessings of the Heart, Pt. 2 [Iman Kalyan]
9. Mother Goddess [Bhairavi]
'Two Lovers' is the first track on the album "Garden of Dreams".
Give this a fair shot. Its a short sampling. Many of Ali Akbar Khan's works are extremely long. But fully worthy & thoroughly transportive.
If Derek Trucks--arguably the greatest blues-jazz-rock plugged-in guitarist since Hendrix-- listens to & is influenced by Ali Akbar Khan, then it would be totally parochial provincial & utterly dumb not to go with it & flow with it.
Not dissonant at all. Harmonious, like the souls of lovers themselves.
Listen & find Peace. At least for a little while.
That said, try keeping in mind some of the most beautiful & worldly wise lines in all of love-poetry:
The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere,
they're in each other all along.
-- Rumi
