Customer Reviews

The Ravi Shankar Project; Tana Mana

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For those who are more familiar with the "classic" Ravi Shankar style (i.e. long extended sitar solo with tablas inbetween solos, or the occasional flute chiming in) will be surprised when listening to Ravi Shankar's Tana Mana. This disc doesn't have the long Ragas that you might be used to. It doesn't feature the sitar as much as his other works. But that doesn't mean that this isn't a great album. Instead, Shankar expands to new levels of excellence. The songs on this album are more accessable to larger audiences than his other works. Some of the tunes are accually pretty catchy. But it doesn't even come close to anything remotly 'pop'. The songs are limited usually to 4 minutes or less, and the entire disc only manages to squeeze 40 minutes of this musical bliss into our ears. But most will find that the shorter songs allow the listener to appreciate them even more - and they don't ever have enough time to get repetitive.

Like I said before, the sitar isn't featured as much on this album as it is on others. Instead, there is a very good balance of instruments, ranging from flutes, tablas, marimbas, sarods, basses, and even synths. It has a very up to date sound, due to the synths. But the sitar isn't just shoved into the background - it is still fairly prominent - and what we do hear of it makes us appreciate it even more. The other instruments do a fabulous job at accenting the sitar. The only songs coming close the the more traditional Shankar sound are Reunion and Friar Park.

A couple of the songs on this album have vocals, like Tana Mana, Seven and 10, and West Eats Meat. Many of the songs have a very dark and forboding mood to them, which is mainly because of the added bass and synths - and deep tablas. But then some songs have a very happy and upbeat mood, like Village Dance and Chase. But the styles don't interfear with each other. Everything just blends perfectly.

I think that the song "Chase" is one of my favorite Shankar songs ever. It is very emotional. It is amazing how much emotion can be put into an instrumental song.

Every song on this album has some special quality to it that makes it stand out and strike a chord with the listener. West Eats Meat is a very different song, featuring an upright bass, playing a very cool bass line, while the sitar chimes in and some vocals said from time to time with an added reverb effect. This song reminds me of some very cool and dark techno music.

If you are a fan of Ravi's earlier or more traditional work, then you might not like this one at first, but hopefullly you will find that this album is one of the most amazing albums that he has ever put together. Everything on this album is fresh and never starts to sound the same. And none of the feeling or emotion from the traditional songs was lost - in fact, these tracks hit harder to me than his others.

This album could be labeled as "Experimental Indian", but if this was an experiment, it went very very well! If you are a fan of Indian music, or if you are a Westener looking to get introduced to Indie music, I really can't reccomend this album enough. I only wish that Ravi Shankar had done more work like this.

TANA MANA sounds more like an attempt to "westernize" Indian music than the traditional Shankar sound.

Gone are the extended ragas, replaced by 3-minute, uptempo tunes. Gone are the tabla-sitar exchanges, replaced by synthesizer coloring.

That doesn't mean this is bad stuff. In fact, most of it is very good. This might be the perfect album to introduce western ears to eastern music. "Chase," "Village Dance," "Friar Park," and "Reunion" are stand out tracks.

One of the most colorful excursions in Ravis career.Aside from the traditional Sitar,Tamboura,Tabla sounds, Ravi makes great use of flutes,autoharp(George Harrison in a guest performance)and synthesizers(!).Fantastic album,Highly recomended.

Yes, Its a perfect blending. Only a artist who carries music in his veins can perform such a mix which leaves the listener still, only to appreciate the strings and pitches. I came to hear this on CD during 1989 and still love it.

I first heard this album (when it was before CD) ten years ago. It still has the same effect on me, it is very fresh and appealing to the ears, soul, and spirit. I noticed on the credits that George Harrison honors the master by performing on one of the tracks (instrumental).

This album is excellent. Ravi Shankar displays his versatility and command of both Eastern and Western forms of musical expression.

This is a very enjoyable CD. This would be a great addition to anyone's Shankar collection or a good starter CD for someone not familiar with his music. For the more adventureous check out the Ravi Shankar - Phillip Glass CD "Passages" another excellent CD by two brilliant musicians.Passages