L. Shankar Flac

Celebrate the sounds and melodies of Christmas with this unqiue world music album from revered electric violinist/vocalist and widely heralded musical genius, L. Shankar!

Revered violin player and vocalist L. Shankar proudly presents his newest album featuring a host of groundbreaking artists! Includes guest performances by Korn’s Jonathan Davis, Tony Levin, Scott Page of Supertramp & Pink Floyd, Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins, Norwood Fisher of Fishbone, and others!

As if playing one violin within the Western art music tradition wasn't difficult enough, the virtuoso L. Shankar has made it his trade to both sing and play a customized double violin within the contexts of Hindustani, Carnatic, Western, and experimental musical sensibilities. On this 1990 ECM release, Pancha Nadai Pallavi, he lays down two tracks, the first without percussion and the second in collaboration with Zakir Hussain on tabla and Vikku Vinayakram on ghatam.

L. Shankar's Vision is an ethereal tour-de-force – an oxymoron, perhaps, but an appropriate description of the otherworldly visions he conjures with his manipulations of his 10-string, stereophonic, double-necked, electric violin. The lengthy title track is a solo space journey on his massive instrument, with lots of phasing undercurrents and an aural experience of weightlessness that is rather pleasant. On the other tracks, Shankar is flanked by the hot, piercing Jan Garbarek on saxes and the cool Palle Mikkelborg on trumpet and flugelhorn, who contribute heat and ice to Shankar's textures.

As a cornerstone of what is now called World Music, the vision and virtuosity of Shakti has inspired generations of musicians from around the world to explore sonic hybrids once thought impossible. Born of the musical and spiritual brotherhood shared by the revolutionary British guitarist and bandleader John McLaughlin and master Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain, Shakti’s soulful, organic intermingling of Eastern and Western musical traditions has proven transformative for both the band’s members and its listeners.

"Touch Me There" is an album by L. Shankar, released in 1979 on Zappa Records. Shankar performed acoustic and 5-string Barcus Berry electric violin, string orchestra, and provided vocals on the track "Knee Deep in Heaters." It was produced by Frank Zappa. Frank Zappa also sings (under the pseudonym Stucco Holmes) on a piece he co-wrote with the violinist, "Dead Girls of London."