Ravi Shankar & Bud Shank - Improvisations

2021 reissue

Improvisations is a 1962 LP album by Ravi Shankar. The opening piece is based on music from Shankar's score for Satyajit Ray's 1955 movie Pather Panchali with flutist Bud Shank playing in Indian style. Shankar composed "Fire Night" influenced by the 1961 Los Angeles fires and the song features jazz musicians Shank (flute) and Gary Peacock (bass) improvise over Indian percussion instruments. The concluding ragas are in classical Indian style: the first raga, Kirvani, with South Indian origin, and the second, Rageshri, with North Indian origin.

First released in 1961, Improvisations features some ahead-of-the-curve jazz-Indian fusion, thanks to Ravi Shankar's collaboration with bassist Gary Peacock and saxophonist Bud Shank. The album also includes Shankar's improvisations on the theme he wrote for the film "Pather Panchali," by Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, as well as the three-part "Raga Rageshri." A visionary recording.

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