L. Shankar
Shankar Lakshminarayana (born 26 April 1950),[2] better known as L. Shankar, is an Indian violinist, singer and composer who also goes by the stage name Shenkar. Known for his innovative contributions to world music,[3] he is often regarded as one of the pioneers of East- West fusion, blending the rich traditions of Indian classical with Western genres[4] such as jazz, rock, and electronic music. His world music albums with the band Shakti during the mid-70s became the ‘standard to gauge the playing and composing abilities of any world musician following in Shakti's expansive wake”.[5] He is credited with inventing the stereophonic double violin (known as the LSD - L.Shankar Double Violin), which covers the orchestral string family's range. In 1990, Shankar's talam-bending (time cycles of 9 3/4 & 6 3/4 beats) Pancha Nadai Pallavi' album was on the Billboard top ten world music chart for three months becoming the first traditional Indian record to reach those heights.[5] His 1995 Raga Abheri album was nominated for a Grammy Award, in the Best World Music Album category.[1] With Peter Gabriel, he worked on the Grammy winning album Passion(1989), the soundtrack album for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988),[6] and wrote and performed vocals on Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' (2004) which won a Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year at the 36th GMA Dove Awards. He also worked on the soundtrack for the 2002 film Queen of the Damned with Jonathan Davis and Richard Gibbs and recorded eight songs of which five were picked for the movie.[6] Additionally, he collaborated on the original score for NBC's hit TV series Heroes with Wendy & Lisa. As an acclaimed musician, Shankar is ranked as one of the top famous male violinists [2] by Ranker and one amongst the greatest violinists of popular music [3] by Digital Dream Door. His extensive body of work spans a wide spectrum of genres, encompassing vocal and instrumental compositions.
For the Hindustani classical vocalist, see Lakshmi Shankar. For other uses, see Shankar.
L. Shankar (Shenkar)
Shankar Lakshminarayana
Shenkar, L. Shankar, Shankar
26 April 1950
Madras, India
- Vocalist
- electric violinist
- lyricist
- arranger
- producer
- Double Violin
- vocals
- keyboards
1960s–present
Influences[edit]
Shankar was encouraged by his father to absorb influences from the Northern Indian music traditions as well as Southern Indian traditions. According to Shankar "there is not one music that is superior to another – just different ways of expressing the beauty of our culture.”[5] He was also advised to become familiar with Western classical music[13] and had been exposed to various Western genres such as rock and pop music since his early teens.[14] At Wesleyan University, he studied world music and learnt the music systems of different cultures.[13] According to Shankar, “Music is universal, it connects all races, religions and ages. It's the only language everyone can understand and feel”.[15] Shankar had always been open to experimentation in music.[10] He said that from a young age, he perceived music visually[14] and often compared it to the colors in an artwork. He said “I’ve tried to combine different traditions…musical styles are like colors in painting: there are so many things you can do with them”.[11]