The Living Room Sessions Part 2

This is the eagerly awaited second volume of the outstanding Living Room Sessions, the first of which won the legendary sitar maestro Ravi Shankar a posthumous Grammy earlier this year. There is an understandably emotional introductory note from his widow, Sukanya Shankar, who describes the relaxed setting of the recordings, adding that unless Shankar, then aged 91, was playing music, he tended to feel ill. So after his 2011 concert tour, the family asked his regular tabla accompanist Tanmoy Bose to stay behind at the maestro's California home to help make music – something that Shankar himself self-deprecatingly described as simply ‘fooling around’.

Although that might suggest a free-flowing jam session, the three tracks on this album are just as outstanding as the four that were released earlier as Living Room Sessions Part 1. The first track is a meditative ‘Raga Mishra Kafi’ in both slow and medium tempos but it's the second track, ‘Raga Sindhi Bhairavi’, on which Shankar joyously breaks into song, that demonstrates his rhythmic wizardry loud and clear – as well his palpable appreciation for Bose's tabla. Towards the end, there is some mind-blowing synergy as both sitar and tabla take off on a carefree flight of fancy, rapidly merging into one dramatically cascading sound. There is then a regular ‘Raga Bhairavi, executed in a sprightly, playful fashion with both musicians clearly enjoying themselves and Shankar – perhaps with a premonition that he is delivering his swansong – aptly concludes: “Oh, that was fun – great fun.” His words could equally be the fitting epitaph for the career of a musician who literally made the sitar go places.