ANANDA SHANKAR Sa Re-Ga Machan

Born in Almora in Uttar Pradesh, India, Shankar was the son of Amala and Uday Shankar, popular dancers, and also the nephew of renowned sitarist Ravi Shankar.[1] Ananda did not learn sitar from his uncle but studied instead with Lalmani Misra at Banaras Hindu University.

In the late 1960s Shankar travelled to Los Angeles, where he played with many contemporary musicians including Jimi Hendrix. There he was signed to Reprise Records and released his first self-titled album in 1970, featuring original Indian classical material alongside sitar-based cover versions of popular hits such as The Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "The Doors' "Light My Fire". Returning to India in the early 1970s Shankar continued to experiment musically and in 1975 released his most critically acclaimed album, Ananda Shankar And His Music, a jazz-funk mix of Eastern sitar, Western rock guitar, tabla and mridangam, drums and Moog synthesizers.

After working in India during the late 1970s and 1980s, Shankar's profile in the West began to rise again in the mid-1990s as his music found its way into club DJ sets, particularly in London. His music was brought to a wider audience with the release of Blue Note Records' popular 1996 rare groove compilation album, Blue Juice Vol. 1., featuring the two standout tracks from Ananda Shankar And His Music, "Dancing Drums" and "Streets Of Calcutta"

Highly sought after for years, 'Sa-Re-Ga Machan' was originally released in 1981 on vinyl only and showcased Shankar's unmistakable sound which fused Western and Eastern music perfectly. Shankar had a desire to incorporate both the traditional instrumentation of Indian classical music and modern Western instruments such as the synthesizer and on 'Sa-Re-Ga Machan' the two distinct sounds are infused absolutely. The album opens with possibly the most stunning piece, a ten-minute title track which sums up the musician's intent perfectly, sounding like a cross between the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Ry Coder and Ravi Shankar, Ananda's famous uncle. What shocks me most however is how contemporary so much of this sounds, you can imagine it popping up on television or on films, it just has the right 'sound', and like so many forgotten records from the same era it's a breaks goldmine. Just listen to 'Charging Tiger' and think what Madlib might do with it? It doesn't even bear thinking about. Also included here as bonus tracks accompanying the original album are the four tracks from Shankar's rarest release 'India Remembers Elvis', which sees the Sitar player take on the King himself. Boogie wonderland... There is to sleeve of this LP the second pressing (1990) is the rarest .Cosmic and psychedelic we love that!!!