When music fans who came of age in the 1960’s hear the term “East meets West” our guess is that their mind shoots right to the musical friendship of two dudes — Ravi and George. Of course Ravi is Indian classical sitar master Ravi Shankar, and George is the Beatles’ George Harrison. They met in the mid-1960s when Harrison implored Shankar to teach him sitar, bringing Indian classical sounds and sentiments into the most popular rock band of all time. Their collaboration opened the gates for musical explorers everywhere to leave their comfort zones, and, like George, maybe end up playing sitar on the coast.
Next week we start our “Connecting the Dots” season in earnest, connecting African rhythms with songs from Spain.
