Ravi Shankar – the man behind ‘Concert for Bangladesh’

*My very short tribute take on the Legend

Ravi Shankar – the man behind ‘Concert for Bangladesh’

Pandit Ravi Shankar ‘got by with a little help from his friends’ and made this concert one of eastern classical and rock’s greatest acts of philanthropy. Writes Faizul Khan Tanim

I wonder if i could accommodate one minute’s silence in this article to show respect to the legend Pandit Ravi Shankar who paved his way to the other side of the world on a sombre December 11 at age 92 in San Diego California.

As Bengalis we would remember him as one of the greatest musicians to have represented us at peaks of musical heights worldwide. And as Bangladeshis, we must remember the value of friendship through the mellifluous tunes and weeping strings of his sitar when he helped assemble one of the greatest musical groups during our Liberation War in 1971 to perform in front of a strong 40,000 audiences on a hot August night at New York’s epicenter for life – the Madison Square Garden.

Shankar spoke about the mass devastation brought on his fellow Bengalis through disasters of both natural and political magnitude. Shankar’s idea was to organize a concert to benefit scores of Bengali/Bangladeshi refugees running towards India, and so he asked a very popular Beatle George Harrison to help, and as Harrison narrated in the song he wrote and performed, probably the greatest rock song produced for this country, at the concert, ‘Bangla Desh’ which sings - My friend (Shankar) came to me with sadness in his eyes.  He told me that he wanted help before his country dies. Although I couldn’t feel the pain I knew I had to try. Now I’m asking all of you to help us save some lives.  Bangladesh, Bangladesh Where so many people are dying fast and it sure looks like a mess I’ve never seen such distress . Now won’t you lend your hand and understand? Relieve the people of Bangladesh.

The Concert for Bangladesh, hailed as rock’s pioneering act of philanthropy, this event was called an av ant-garde initiative and a benefit concert of such a magnitude which was termed at that time as an unprecedented assemblage of big-name rock stars and a semi-reunion of the world’s most profound rock group, The Beatles : Harrison, in his first major appearance since the breakup of the Beatles; Ringo Starr, whose presence made the event the first Beatles semi-reunion sort; Eric Clapton; Leon Russell; Billy Preston; Badfinger; Bob Dylan, and more. The show, the documentary film of the event, and the double-album of the music produced by Phil Spector and packed with a cover photo of a hungry and distressed Bangladeshi child, suddenly succeded to catch the attention of millions worldwide for the Bangladesh cause. The Concert for Bangladesh was a major critical and commercial success, topping album charts around the world, and went on to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1973. Together with the 1972 Apple concert film directed by Saul Swimmer, the album was re-released in 2005, in remastered form.

The maestro Shankar assembled his own group of superhero musicians - Ustads - and played his own assorted set of musical pieces which translates one word greatly – peace. So it was Shankar on Sitar, sarod player Ali Akbar Khan, tabla player Alla Rakha, and Kamala Chakravarty on tamboura and played mind-boggling piece like Bangla Dhun.

Shankar in an interview about The Concert for Bangladesh, said, “Within twenty-four hours, the name Bangladesh became known to everyone. It was my conception, but I couldn’t have done it in this huge scale. Thanks to George it was such a wonderful event, first of its kind.”

It is evident that Shankar inspired a lot of great artistes to translate messages of peace through music. Pandit Ravi Shankar will not only be remembered as a man of music, but as a spirit of tranquility as well.