Ravi Shankar and George Harrison "Collaborations" Box Set Announced For October 19 Release
by RHINO on Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 3:21pm

Los Angeles – Dark Horse Records announced today the October 19th release of a limited edition deluxe box set entitled RAVI SHANKAR GEORGE HARRISON COLLABORATIONS. The release honors the sitar master's 90th birthday.

Collaborations is a 3 CD and 1 DVD uniquely numbered limited edition box set. All compositions were composed by Ravi Shankar and produced by George Harrison over a period of 20 years.

The DVD is a rare concert performance of Ravi Shankar's Music Festival From India recorded at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1974. The albums include the acclaimed Chants Of India (1997), The Ravi Shankar Music Festival From India (studio version1976) and Shankar Family & Friends (1974). The 56-page book includes a foreword by Philip Glass, a history of Georgeand Ravi "in their own words" and rare photographs from both family archives.

The personal and musical friendship between Ravi Shankar and George Harrison has been known and well documented for decades now. It was a friendship that was powerful enough to make an impact on the large, musicallife of the late nineteen sixties and it reverberates, as clearly, even today – from the Foreword by Philip Glass

In 1973 George Harrison signed Ravi Shankar to his Dark Horse Records label. The first joint recording project between George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, Shankar Family & Friends brought together renown Indian classical musicians suchas Ustad Alla Rakha, Lakshmi Shankar, and Shivkumar Sharma alongside Western jazz and rock musicians including George, Ringo Starr, Tom Scott, Klaus Voormann, Jim Keltner and Billy Preston. One half of the album comprises instrumentals and songs, while the second half is a thematic ballet to a yet un-staged performance.

Ravi Shankar's Music Festival From India (live from the Royal Albert Hall) was the first artistic event organized and sponsored by George Harrison's Material World Charitable Foundation; bringing together a 17-piece Indian classical ensemble as well as a solo sitar performance by Ravi Shankar accompanied on tabla by Alla Rakha.

In 1997 George Harrison and Ravi Shankar again collaborated on an album. This time Ravi created music for ancient Sanskrit chants with the challenge of maintaining the authenticity of the ancient verses. Released in 1997, Chants Of India are timeless, Vedic verses chanted for thewell being of man and mankind.

Collaborations is available on Dark Horse Records and distributed worldwide by Rhino Entertainment.

anything unreleased? Thanks Jay

Shankar Family & Friends is a great lp - have it on vinyl always wanted it on cd. Also have Chants. I am hoping for unreleased material.

Great! I was wondering if there were gonna be any Beatles-related releases for me to pick up this fall...

And it has already been stated, that also in October, Shankar's own label will reissue the "Raga" soundtrack, and release the film on DVD. So, there will be no shortage of Ravi.

Poor Ringo.

Yeah. I doubt that there are enough Apple-era Ringo outtakes to even make a 30 minute CD.

His Apple LPS could stand a good remastering.

I've only got the son, Ananda Shankar, in my collection, so perhaps I should move on to the pure Indian ragas now, with this lovely reissue.

Nice to see. I remember looking online into that second "collaroration" mentioned here, the "Music Festival From India" album. So hard to find any information on that! Is that REALLY a collaboration? Is George really playing on that one? I'm familiar with the other two -- always liked those. George Harrison also plays on the Ravi album Tana Mana! I have that one! Is that represented here somehow? Any info from anyone in the know very much appreciated!

I'll get this, too. There's so much Beatles-related October stuff that I'll be able/need to spread it out well into next year.

Amazon currently lists this as an exclusive. That doesn't really jibe with the article Patrick posted upthread, but maybe Dark Horse changed their plans. Regardless, the "exclusive" and "limited edition" nature of this release make me think it's a strong candidate to be this Christmas season's version of last year's Beatles box debacle. So this time I'm pre-ordering RIGHT AWAY. (Not that I expect to listen to this quite as much as the Beatles box .... )

I'm still disappointed that it is not complete. I should write to Rhino and ask why they overlooked Tana Mana.

Bump: added another product image to the first post. (It's a gorgeous-looking package.)

I saw this yesterday at a local independent record shop and was so impressed with how beautiful this is. I mean, just judging the package by its cover! I was so tempted to buy it, but didn't. So tonight I saw that Amazon is selling it for $42.33! At that price I couldn't resist! Even if it DOES omit Tana Mana! Buy now! Here's a link. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00405DV0M/?tag=imwan-20

I finally had a weak moment and ordered this from Amazon. It arrived today. It's probably the most beautiful box set I have; it's probably the most beautiful box set I've ever seen. I haven't even listened to it yet, but I love looking at it. As gorgeous as it is outside, it's even more gorgeous inside.

I have to agree that it's one of the most beautifully put-together box sets I've seen (although my copy came slightly damaged from the UK last year, with two corners of the box slightly ripped...it wasn't worth going through the hassle of processing an overseas return). I've only had a chance to listen to two of the CDs and watch part of the DVD, but it's an impressive set. My wife, who's a yoga enthusiast, really enjoyed the "Chants Of India" CD, although that's my least favorite, as I prefer instrumental Indian music to chanting.