The history of the sitar in jazz, that is the fusion of the sounds of

Indian classical music Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were not ...

with Western

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, dates back from the late-1950s or early-1960s when musicians trained in Indian classical music such as

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North Ind ...

started collaborating with jazz musicians such as

Tony Scott Anthony David Leighton Scott (21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012) was an English film director and producer. He was known for directing highly successful action and thriller films such as ''Top Gun'' (1986), ''Beverly Hills Cop II'' (1987), ''Day ...

and

Bud Shank Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank Jr. (May 27, 1926 – April 2, 2009) was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and thro ...

. Later jazz recordings containing sitar music include albums by

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...

Alice Coltrane Alice Coltrane (' McLeod; August 27, 1937January 12, 2007), also known by her adopted Sanskrit name Turiyasangitananda, was an American jazz musician and composer, and in her later years a swamini. An accomplished pianist and one of the few har ...

Yusef Lateef Yusef Abdul Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston; October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and prominent figure among the Ahmadiyya Community in America. Although Lateef's main instruments ...

Joe Harriott Joseph Arthurlin Harriott (15 July 1928 – 2 January 1973) was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone. Initially a bebopper, he became a pioneer of free-form jazz. Born in Kingston, Harriott ...

(in collaboration with composer

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with ...

),and

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Colle ...

Early uses

Although music based around the sitar would later spread from jazz to more popular music via

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

, the sitar became more widely known in the western world mainly through the work of Indian musicians such as Pandit

, beginning in the late 1950s. From there it was taken up by jazz musicians and would later become a youth phenomenon in the mid-1960s after Beatle

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

took lessons from Pandit

, and played sitar on several songs. The first recorded collaboration between Indian and Jazz musicians occurred in 1961 with

and a group led by the West Coast American saxophonist/flutist

. Their album entitled ''

Improvisations Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

'' only features one track, "Improvisations on the theme music from ''

Pather Panchali ''Pather Panchali'' (; ) is a 1955 Indian Bengali (language), Bengali-language Drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray and produced by the Government of West Bengal. It is an adaptation of Bibhutibhushan Ba ...

''," in which

and the Western musicians play together. The track is remarkable for little else; it is simply Western film music with the sitar playing the melody. However, this session, and that of film composer

Shankar Jaikishan Shankar may refer to: People *Shankar (name), including a list of people with the name * Sankar (writer) (Mani Shankar Mukherjee), Bengali writer *L. Shankar, Indian violinist *S. Shankar, Indian film director commonly credited as Shankar *Sankar ...

(1968), were connected the film industry, for Indian film music surely contributes the most considerable corpus of music that combines Indian and Western musics. However, both

and Ananda Shankar are important figures with regard to Jazz because it was primarily through their music that

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...

and others became aware of Indian music.

recorded a track entitled "Portrait of Ravi" on his ''Dedications'' album, as early as 1957. Coltrane met Shankar in 1965 after a long period of mutual admiration and letter writing (Thomas 1975:199). Coltrane's name is inextricably linked to the emergence of modal Jazz in 1958 on

' album ''Milestones'' and it is believed that modal Jazz was inspired by Indian music. Indian influence is an important issue in the later music of Coltrane such as the album ''

Kulu Sé Mama '' Kulu Sé Mama'' is an album by jazz musician John Coltrane. Recorded during 1965, it was released in January 1967 as Impulse! A-9106 (AS-9106 for the stereo version), and was the last album released during Coltrane's lifetime. Background The t ...

'' (1965) and also of musicians such as

and

Notable sitar players in jazz music

Khalil Balakrishna Khalil Balakrishna is a sitar and tanpura player who worked with Miles Davis between 1969 and 1974. Guitarist John McLaughlin, already interested in Indian music, suggested him and tabla player Bihari Sharma to Davis during the '' Bitches Brew'' ses ...

Ashwin Batish Ashwin Kumar Batish Hindi: अश्विन कुमार बातिश (born 1 January 1951 in Bombay, India) is a sitar and tabla player. Childhood and Training Ashwin's mother, Shanta Devi Batish, was an All India Radio artist and sta ...

Nishat Khan Nishat Khan (born 25 October 1960) is an Indian sitar player from an illustrious musical family and the foremost sitar virtuoso of his generation. As a composer and music producer he has collaborated with some of the world's leading musicians su ...

* Deobrat Mishra *

Collin Walcott Collin Walcott (April 24, 1945 – November 8, 1984) was an American musician who worked in jazz and world music. Early life Walcott was born in New York City, United States. He studied violin and tympani in his youth, and was a percussion stud ...

* Hindol Deb

References

*Farrell, G. (1988), "Reflecting Surfaces: The Use of Elements from Indian Music in Popular Music and Jazz." Popular Music 7, pages 189-205. *Manuel, P. (1988), "Popular music in India: 1901-1986." Popular music in India, volume 7, pages 157-176. *Pinckney, Jr W.R. (1990), "Jazz in India: Perspectives on Historical Development and Musical Acculturation", Asian Music volume XXI, number 1, pages 35–77. *

Ian Carr Ian Carr (21 April 1933 – 25 February 2009) was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator. Carr performed and recorded with the Rendell-Carr quintet and jazz-fusion band Nucleus, and was an associate professor at the Guildhall ...

(1991) Keith Jarrett: The Man and His Music (Grafton Books) {{ISBN, 0-246-13434-8 * Neil Sorrell (1989) The North Indian Classical Sarangi: Its Technique and Role. Jazz instruments Sitars

Early uses

Notable sitar players in jazz music

See also

References