Ananda Shankar was a Bengali

Bengali people

The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...

 musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 best known for fusing Western

Western culture

Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...

 and Eastern musical styles. He was married to Tanusree Shankar

Tanusree Shankar

Tanusree Shankar is one of the leading dancers and choreographers of contemporary dance in India and is based in Kolkata, India. She earned her fame as a danseuse as the leading dancer of the Ananda Shankar Centre for Performing Arts in the 1970s and 1980s.Tanusree Shankar was born in Calcutta...

.

Early life

Born in Almora

Almora

Almora is a municipal board, a cantonment town in the Almora district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Almora was founded in 1568.It is a town bustling with activity and a rich cultural heritage and history. It is considered the cultural heart of the Kumaon region of...

 in Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Shankar was the son of Amala and Uday Shankar

Uday Shankar

Uday Shankar , the pioneer of modern dance in India, and a world renowned Indian dancer and choreographer, was most known for adapting Western theatrical techniques to traditional Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian classical, folk, and tribal dance, thus laying the roots of...

, popular dancers, and also the nephew of renowned sitarist Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...

. Ananda did not learn sitar from his uncle but studied instead with Lalmani Misra

Lalmani Misra

Lalmani Misra , M.A., Ph.D., D. Mus. , M.Mus. , B.Mus. , Dean & Head, Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, was an eminent Indian classical musician known as much for his art as for his scholarship.-Initiation into music:Lalmani learnt Dhruvapada Dhamar in the...

 at Banaras Hindu University

Banaras Hindu University

Banaras Hindu University is a public university located in Varanasi, India and is one of the Central Universities of India. It is the largest residential university in Asia, with over 24,000 students in its campus. BHU was founded in 1916 by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya under the Parliamentary...

.

Professional career

In the late 1960s Shankar travelled to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, where he played with many contemporary musicians including Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

. There he was signed to Reprise Records

Reprise Records

Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...

 and released his first self-titled album in 1970, featuring original Indian classical

Indian classical music

The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...

 material alongside sitar

Sitar

The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

-based cover versions of popular hits such as The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

' "Jumpin' Jack Flash

Jumpin' Jack Flash

"Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a song by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released as a single in 1968. Called "supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London" by Rolling Stone, the song was perceived by some as the band's return to their blues roots after the psychedelia of their preceding...

" and "The Doors

The Doors

The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...

' "Light My Fire

Light My Fire

"Light My Fire" is a song by The Doors which was recorded in August 1966 and released the first week of January 1967 on the Doors' debut album. Released as a single in April, it spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and one week on the Cash Box Top 100, nearly a year after...

".

Returning to India in the early 1970s Shankar continued to experiment musically and in 1975 released his most critically acclaimed album, Ananda Shankar And His Music, a jazz-funk

Jazz-funk

Jazz-funk is a sub-genre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat , electrified sounds, and often, the presence of the first electronic analog synthesizers...

 mix of Eastern sitar

Sitar

The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

, Western rock guitar, tabla

Tabla

The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...

 and mridangam, drums and Moog synthesizer

Moog synthesizer

Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...

s. Out of print for many years, Ananda Shankar And His Music was re-released on CD in 2005.

After working in India during the late 1970s and 1980s, Shankar's profile in the West began to rise again in the mid-1990s as his music found its way into club DJ sets, particularly in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. His music was brought to a wider audience with the release of Blue Note Records

Blue Note Records

Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...

' popular 1996 rare groove

Rare groove

Rare groove is defined as very hard to source or relatively obscure soul or jazz music. Rare groove is primarily associated with funk, jazz and pop, but is also connected to sub-genres including jazz fusion, Latin jazz, soul, R&B, northern soul, and disco. Vinyl records that fall into this...

 compilation album, Blue Juice Vol. 1., featuring the two standout tracks from Ananda Shankar And His Music, "Dancing Drums" and "Streets Of Calcutta".

In the late 1990s Shankar worked and toured in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 with London DJ State of Bengal

State of Bengal (artist)

Sam Zaman , recording as State of Bengal, is a British DJ and Music producer associated with the UK and Asian Underground movement.-Biography:...

 and others, a collaboration that would result in the Walking On album, featuring Shankar's trademark sitar

Sitar

The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

 soundscapes mixed with breakbeat

Breakbeat

In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...

 and hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

. Walking On was released in 2000 after Shankar's sudden death from heart failure the year before.

In 2005, his song Raghupati was used on the Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories soundtrack

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories soundtrack

The soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories comprises radio stations that broadcast music and information to Liberty City, circa 1998. The only time a player can hear the radio is when the protagonist acquires a car...

, and in 2008 his song Dancing Drums was used on the LittleBigPlanet

LittleBigPlanet

LittleBigPlanet, commonly abbreviated LBP, is a puzzle platformer video game, based on user-generated content, for the PlayStation 3 first announced on 7 March 2007, by Phil Harrison at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California...

soundtrack.

Recently, 2010 and 2011, his music has been featured in a number of episodes of popular NBC comedy show Outsourced

Outsourced

Outsourced is a romantic comedy film, directed by John Jeffcoat, released in 2006.-Plot:When Todd Anderson's job and entire department are outsourced, he reluctantly travels to India to train his replacement...

. Following is a list of episodes and music featured:
Episode 103: Party of Five - 10/7/2010 - Night in the Forest.
Episode 105: Touched By an Anglo - 10/21/2010 - Dancing Drums.
Episode 106: Bolloween - 10/28/2010 - Radha -- inst..
Episode 107: Truly, Madly, Pradeeply - 11/04/2010 - Dancing Drums.
Episode 109: Temporary Monsanity - 11/18/2010 - Dancing Drums.
Episode 110: Homesick to my Stomach - 12/02/2010 - Renunciation.
Episode 112: Sari Charlie - 1/27/2011 - Exploration.
Episode 114: The Todd Couple - 2/10/2011 - Cyrus.

Discography

• Ananda Shankar, 1970 (LP, Reprise 6398/CD, Collectors' Choice CCM-545)
• Ananda Shankar And His Music, 1975 (EMI India)
• India Remembers Elvis, 1977 (EP EMI India S/7EPE. 3201)
• Missing You, 1977 (EMI India)
• A Musical Discovery of India, 1978 (EMI India)
• Sa-Re-Ga Machan, 1981 (EMI India)
• 2001, 1984 (EMI India)
• Temptations, 1992 (Gramaphone Company of India)
• Ananda Shankar: Shubh- The Auspicious, 1995
• Ananda, 1999 (EMI India)
• Arpan, 2000 (EMI India)
• Walking On, 2000 (Real World 48118-2, with State of Bengal)
• Ananda Shankar: A Life in Music - The Best of the EMI Years, 2005 (Times Square TSQ-CD-9052)