Show #169: Kartik Seshadri

September 15th, 2008

Here’s an excerpt from the bio of this week’s featured artist, Kartik Seshadri:

Seshadri had already embarked on an illustrious performing career when in 1965 he met the renowned maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, who was a profound musical influence in his life. In 1974, Seshadri became a disciple of the maestro and has since been receiving talim (knowledge) steeped in the distinctive and pure styles of the Senia, Beenkar and Dhrupad traditions.

I won’t even pretend to be knowledgeable about those three styles. Most of what I know of Indian classical music can be summed up in two words: Ravi Shankar. Head to Seshadri’s webpage or another Internet venue for the skinny on Indian music. However, I will give you a few things to start you off. Firstly is that the performance here is of Northern Indian music. How this differs from that of the Southern part is something I can’t help you with. Secondly the recording is of two or three ragas which, I gather, are mostly improvised. Lastly, Seshadri plays the sitar here while accompanied by tablas (Indian drums) and tanpura which is similar to a sitar but without frets. It provides a drone to sort of anchor the music.

My advice is to sit back and enjoy because this is some incredible stuff.

(Photos found at Flickr.)

I really don’t have much information on the recording. The concert was recorded somewhere in California on 15 August 2001 by a generous individual who was in the audience.

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Kartik Sehsadri

Here’s Seshadri performing Raga Malgunjii. Unknown date and venue.

Related posts:

1. Show #94: Anoushka Shankar
2. Ravi & Anoushka Shankar Coming to Madison
3. Blues from the Delta to Chicago and Beyond
4. Show #129: Debashish & Subashish Bhattacharya
5. Show #145: Indigenous