L. Shankar

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For other Shenkars, see Shenkar (disambiguation).
L. Shankar

Background information
Birth name Lakshminarayanan Shankar
Also known as Shenkar
Shankar
L. Shankar
Born April 26, 1950(1950-04-26) Madras
Genre(s) Classical, electronica, progressive rock, soft rock, fusion, jazz, occidental, pop, hard rock
Occupation(s) Violinist, composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, arranger, record producer, engineer, pedagogue
Instrument(s) Violin, double violin, viola, electric violin, percussion, synthesizers, vocals
Years active 1972 – present
Notable instrument(s)
Violin
Double violin
Viola
Vocals

Lakshminarayanan Shankar (born April 26, 1950), also known as L. Shankar, Shankar or Shenkar, is a Tamil Indian violinist, vocalist and composer.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

L. Shankar was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Growing up in Jaffna, in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), where his father V. Lakshminarayan was a professor at the Jaffna College of Music, Shankar was exposed to Carnatic music from an early age. His father was an esteemed violinist, his mother L. Seethalakshmi played the veena and all his five older siblings were also proficient in music. The most well known of his brothers is another acclaimed and renowned violinist - L. Subramaniam, who has recorded a number of records himself.

Shankar began singing at the age of two, playing violin at the age of five, and learning to play drums at seven. [1] At the age of seven L. Shankar gave his first public concert, at the Nallur Kandaswamy temple. He gained considerable reputation in his early youth as an accompanist to some of the most eminent names in Carnatic music such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Chembai Vaithyanatha Baghavatar, Palghat Mani Iyer and Alathur Srinivasa lyer. Following the ethnic riots of 1953 his family moved back to India.

[edit] Summary of career

After obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Physics in India, Shankar moved to America in 1969 and earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. Here he met jazz musicians Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Garrison, and John McLaughlin while working as a teaching assistant and concert master of the University Chamber Orchestra. In 1975 Shankar and McLaughlin founded Shakti, a pioneering, groundbreaking and highly influential east-meets-west collaborative, fluid sound that managed to successfully combine seemingly incompatible traditions. His first solo album, Touch Me There, was produced by Frank Zappa in 1979.[2] Shankar founded his own band - The Epidemics, in 1982, with the composer Caroline. He released three albums with the band.

During the 1980s, Shankar recorded periodically as a leader, doing both jazz-based material and Indian classical music. His 1980 release of the album Who's To Know on ECM introduced the unique sound of his own invention, the ten-string, stereophonic double violin. This instrument, designed by Shankar and built by noted guitar maker Ken Parker, covers the entire orchestral range, including double bass, cello, viola and violin. He has recently developed a newer version of his instrument which is much lighter than the original.[2]

1990 saw Shankar co-producing a one hour film directed by H. O. Nazareth, which went on to be nominated for Best Documentary film at the Cannes film festival. Shankar worked on the score of the film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), with his music ending up on both albums of the score - Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ and Passion - Sources. He won a Grammy for his work on the latter in 1994. Shankar has performed on several of Peter Gabriel's records such as So and Us. Since 1996, Shankar has toured internationally with fellow-violinist (and his niece[3]) Gingger as "Shankar & Gingger", garnering critical acclaim and popularity. The two performed at events including the Concert for Global Harmony and Nelson Mandela's 80th birthday celebrations. Shankar & Gingger released their first DVD One in a Million in 2001. After a critically successful tour of North America, the DVD went to number 1 on the Neilsen Soundscan DVD charts and stayed there for four weeks.[2] In 2004, Shankar composed and performed on the score for the film The Passion of the Christ (2004).

Shankar has played with some of the greatest musical contemporaries of his time, including Lou Reed, Echo and the Bunnymen, Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Jonathan Davis, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Stewart Copeland, Yoko Ono, A. R. Rahman, John Waite, Steve Vai, Ginger Baker, Toto, Nils Lofgren, Mark O'Connor, and Sting.[2] Shankar has been praised for his ability to mix Eastern and Western influences, assimilating Carnatic music with pop, rock, jazz and contemporary world music. He admits "Ultimately, I would like to bring the East and West together. That, I think, is my role," he says.

More recently, Shankar has used a new stage name – Shenkar - and has created recordings under this name. In 2006 - 2007, Shenkar provided the vocals for the opening credit music and other themes for the hit TV series Heroes.

[edit] Discography (partial)

L. Shankar has served as an instrumentalist, composer, record producer, arranger and programmer on several recordings. He has released a number of his own recordings, in addition to appearing on other artists' albums. All credits are for violin, except where noted. This is not an exhaustive list of Shankar's works, but a select few titles.

[edit] Solo albums

  • Touch Me There (1979 · Zappa Records)
  • Who's to Know (ECM, 1980)
  • Vision (1983 · ECM)
  • Song for Everyone (1984 · ECM)
  • Nobody Told Me (1989 · ECM)
  • Pancha Nadai Pallavi (1989 · ECM)
  • M.R.C.S. (1989 · ECM)
  • Soul Searcher (1990 · Axiom / Island Records)
  • Raga Aberi (1995 · Music of the World)
  • Enlightenment (Ganesh music)
  • Eternal Light (2000 · Moment! Records)
  • Open the Door (2007 - Big Deal Records / RYKO/WEA)


[edit] DVDs

  • Shankar & Gingger's One In A Million (2001 · Silverline)

[edit] with Shakti

  • Shakti (1975 · Columbia)
  • A Handful of Beauty (1976)
  • Natural Elements (1977)

[edit] with The Epidemics

  • The Epidemics (1986)
  • Do What You Do
  • Eye Catcher

[edit] as Shankar and Ginnger

  • Shankar & Ginnger (2001)
  • Celestial Body (2004 · Mondo Melodia)

[edit] Guest albums

Song: "In The Air Tonight" (1981) – Violin, vocal effects
Song: "I Missed Again" (1981) – Violin
Song: "Droned" (1981) – Violins, Tamboura, Voice, Drums
Song: "Thirteen" – Electric violin
Song: "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" – Electric violin
  • Shadowfax's Esperanto (1992) – violin
  • White Sands OST (1992) – Percussion, violin, vocals
  • Adam Rudolph's Moving Pictures (1992) – Violin, vocals
  • Peter Gabriel's Blood of Eden (US) (1993) – Violin
  • Passion - Sources (1989) and (1993) – Violin, producer
  • Mark O'Connor's Heroes (1993) – double violin, composer
  • Fernando Saunder's Spin (1993) – Double violin
  • SXL's Into the Outlands (1994) – Electric violin
  • Peter Gabriel's Blood of Eden (UK) (1994) – Violin
  • Peter Gabriel's Secret World Live (1994) – Violin, vocals
  • Bill Laswell's Deconstruction: Celluloid Recordings (1994) – Violin
  • Material's Hallucination Engine (1993) – Violin (Electric)
  • Midge Ure's Breathe (1996) – Vocals, double violin
  • Percy Ensemble Jones' Propeller Music (1996) – Violin
  • Tony Levin's World Diary (1996) – Vocals, double violin
  • Marianne Faithfull's Perfect Stranger: The Island Antholgy (1998) – Double violin
  • Saro Cosentino's One's & Zero's (1998) – Vocals, double violin
  • Antony Hindson and Friends' It's a Curious Life (1999) with Jack Bruce and Scott Thunes – Violin
  • Frank Zappa's Everything Is Healing Nicely (1999) – Violin
  • Trilok Gurtu's African Fantasy (1999) – songwriting credit
  • Warren Cuccurullo's The Blue (2000) – Violin
  • Peter Gabriel's OVO (2000) – Violin, vocals
  • Robin DiMaggio's Blue Planet (2001) – Violin, vocals, double violin
  • Peter Murphy's Dust (2002) – Tabla, dholak
  • Peter Gabriel's Long Walk Home: Music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) – Double violin
  • Queen of the Damned OST (2002) – Vocals, double violin
  • Peter Gabriel's Up (2002) – Double violin
  • Mercan Dede's Seyahatname (2003) – Dholak
  • Phil May and the Fallen Angels' Fallen Angels (2003) – Violin
  • Frank Zappa's Halloween (2003) – Violin
  • The Passion of the Christ OST (2004) – Composer, vocals, double violin
  • John McLaughlin's Guitar & Bass (2004) – Violin
  • John McLaughlin's John McLaughlin's Montreux concerts (2004) – Violin, arranger
  • Taufiq's Taalisma (2004) – Percussion, drums
  • James Newton Howard's Hidalgo OST (2004) – Double violin
  • Peter Gabriel's Play the Videos (2004) – Violin, double violin
  • The Pretenders' Pirate Radio (2006) – Violin
  • Sarah Green's Emergency (2006) – Vocals
  • Chris Murphy's Luminous (2007) – Vocals
  • Toto's Falling in Between (2006) (as Shenkar) – Vocals, violin
  • Jonathan Davis' (Korn vocalist) Alone I Play (2007) – Violin

[edit] Compilations / Box set appearances

  • Best of Music & Rhythm (1983) – Violin, composer, vocals, producer
  • ECM Spectrum, Vol. 1 (1987) – Violin, performer
  • CMPler (1990) – Violin
  • Peter Gabriel's Shaking the Tree (1990) – Double violin
  • Pioneers of the New Age (1991) – Violin
  • Illuminations: An Axiom Compilation (1991) – Arranger, vocals, kanjira, producer, double violin
  • Yoko Ono's Onobox (1992) – Violin
  • Lou Reed's Between Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed Anthology (1992) – Electric violin
  • Plus from Us (1993) – Arranger, vocals, kanjira, producer, double violin
  • Manifestation Axiom Collection 2 (1993) – Arranger
  • The Best of Shakti (1994)
  • Narada Michael Walden's Ecstasy's Dance: The Best of Narada (1996) – Violin
  • John McLaughlin's This is Jazz Vol. 17 (1996) – Violin
  • Phil Collin's Hits (1998) – Violin
  • Jewels of the Subcontinent (2000) – Performer, double violin
  • Asian Travels, Vol. 1: A Six Degrees Collection (2000) – Performer
  • Echo & the Bunnymen's Crystal Days: 1979–1999 (2001) – Strings
  • Bombay Jazz Palace (2001) – Violin
  • Meta Collection (2002) – Violin
  • Asana: Soul Practice (2002) – Violin, arranger
  • Classical Indian Collection (2003) – Violin
  • Bhakti Music: Medicine Buddha (2003) – Photography
  • Talking Heads' Once in a Lifetime (2003) – Violin
  • Left of the Dial: Dispatches of the '80s Underground (2004) – Strings
  • Phil Collins' The Platinum Collection (2004) – Violin, tamboura
  • Triloka Gurtu Collection (2005) – Violin
  • Monterey Pop Festival (2007) – Arranger
  • John McLaughlin's Eseential John McLaughlin (2007) – Violin

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Music department

[edit] Additional soundtracks

  • Ali (2001) – Writer, performer on Track: "Dreams"
  • Queen of the Damned (2002) – Vocals, double violin on Tracks: "Forsaken," "Redeemer," "System," "Slept So Long," "Not Meant for Me"
  • Born into Brothels (2004) – Performer on Track: "Sankarabaranam Pancha Nadai Pallavi"

[edit] References

  1. ^ Shankar Biography. AllMusicGuide. Retrieved on 10 December, 2007.
  2. ^ a b c d L. Shankar: Short Biography. World Music Central. Retrieved on 25 February, 2007.
  3. ^ I had to impress my dad. Times of India. Retrieved on 29 January, 2008.

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Shankar, Lakshminarayanan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shenkar; Shankar; Shankar, L.
SHORT DESCRIPTION Violinist, composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, arranger, record producer, engineer, pedagogue
DATE OF BIRTH 26 April 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Madras, India
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Languages