RAGA MALA: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Edited and introduced by George Harrison, who dubbed him the "Godfather of world music"; 336 pages. Ravi Shankar's autobiography reflects the qualities that made him the world's leading sitar player and an elder statesman of Indian culture-a mixture of charm and candor, dignity and humility, and a deep spirituality tempered by a wide-eyed, impish sense of humor. Shankar spent his teenage years as a dancer in Paris and New York before studying classical Indian music with Allauddin Khan, culminating in a 1954 tour of Soviet Russia with Jawaharlal Nehru's cultural delegation and Shankar's 1956 move to European and American audiences. Shankar's 1966 introduction to Harrison produced a lifelong friendship and collaboration that made his name a household word throughout most of the world, and Shankar continues to perform Hindustani classical music to this day. Shankar's friendships, his collaborations with Yehudi Menuhin, Zubin Mehta, and Philip Glass, and his belated marriage and a conversion to a more settled family life are reflected here in warm, frank prose and color and black and white photographs. Fine condition in a fine dust jacket.…