"Most hippes started associating drugs with Indian music and that's a problem for Ravi. He had spent years and years of disciplined life to play like this and people think he must have taken dope to play that good" - George Harrison
Indeed... but Ravi Shankar wouldn't have played at Monterey if The Beatles and Rolling Stones hadn't introduced to the sitar into western pop music. Paul McCartney, who selected UK acts (including Hendrix, who was based in UK at the time) for the concert, insisted Shankar be included on the bill. It remains my favourite performance in the movie.
Robert Lantaff How loud was the PA? I mean, it was before volume became important and that you could hear it was more the thing back then I suppose. I always wondered as all we hear now are the recordings off the desk and ambient mics. Seems an odd question but being a musican and sound engineer myself I've always wondered! :o)
@The Conscious Indian I demur and return your respect. But isn't that exactly what I was saying?? Rakha's job appears to be more difficult because he has to follow a leader who is improvising. It's seems that this music is like jazz in that it revolves around a central theme. Tell me if I'm wrong and I'll accept it.
@@Bonzerboy you're right. Keeping up with the main performer and that too a legend can be challenging but Allah Rakha was more than equipped to face the challenge. What a brilliant performance!
I remember being home alone and bored in 1979, turned on the TV and Monterey was playing. I had never really heard of sitar or tabla or rava shankar. I sat transfixed through this incredible set. never been the same since! Eternity lives in this incredible music..bless you Mr Shankar!
It was about 1984 for me, when I as 16 or 17. My friend had just introduced me to The Doors and Jimi Hendrix, which were 'old music' by then. We rented the vide of this concert, and we were both completely blown away by Ravi Shankar and crew. I have never forgotten it. I stopped renting, and then when I discovered RU-vid, about the 5th thing I looked up was this concert. Was there then that I could find, I've watched it numerous times since I found it. It gives me shivers, and almost no music does that for me these days. Had a deep affect on me as well.
I wanted to go to this, but my parents didn't thing a nine year old should attend such a thing. I was robbed. this man had talent beyond comprehension. I love the sitar and studied ragas ever since.
Good for you! Parents can be sick. I wanted to go to Ali Akbar Khan's School of Music in San Rafael. They prohibited it. They didn't know how much SEPARATION makes THE HEART GROW FONDER! Hare Krsna. Ravi married Ali Akbar Khan's sister.
And the personal applause he got seemed to have flustered as well as delighted Rakha. In India, I gather tabla players expect to go pretty much unnoticed, and all the applause goes to the sitarist. Which sucks, if you think about it, and especially for someone this brilliant.
@@yashmundada8811 bruv if u think so then u lack the understanding of the intricacies of Indian classical music.. all professional musicians improvise on the go, and here we are talking about the legendary Pandit Ravishankar, it goes without saying that ofcourse he can pull this performance off without any rehearsal whatsoever.
He seems like the best in the world at what he did 🤔☯️ And any time someone is the best in the world at something there’s a fine line between talent and natural destiny lol 😅☮️
And it is legitimately CLASSICAL, even though it grooves like a monster. India had the backbeat THOUSANDS of years before the West! But listen to the last 5 minutes or so, and think like you are watching the London Symphony winding up a major composition, 1812 Overture-style. Or a solo piano Concerto. The majesty of the melodic development is right up there - and coming right out of the history, tradition (and thousands of hours of practice...)
I somehow don’t think ANCIENT is the right term to use there, but this tradition of music is really fantastic. It’s like jazz before jazz, and the instruments produce such a heady and hypnotic sonic glow.
I remember reading an interview Shankar did shortly after his performance at Monterey Pop. What really stood out to me was Ravi's statement that he normally improvises about 95% of what he plays. So when you watch this video, remember that Shankar is MAKING IT ALL UP AS HE GOES ALONG! If that isn't musical genius, I don't know what is.
+UberYooTuber Yeah, notice Hendrix was sitting right there listening very carefully. Another genius who made up a lot of what he played as he went along. Composed new pieces right on the stage in the middle of a show. Amazing people in a unique time and place. May it never be forgotten.
That look on Jimi Hendrix's face (and everyone else's), that "I have experienced something beyond what I imagined", gets me every time. To have been there when the idea of "what music can be" expands. That would have been something.
this is one of the most important events of its kind filmed and recorded for history, which also led the way to the famous Woodstock festival ... the quality of camera work and audio recording is super professional and pre planned by the filmmakers who did it ... (one of them is shown holding his 16mm camera @ around 02:05 btw ...) this copy is 360p ... if reconverted into video by modern standards, it can result in higher resolutions up to 1080 and possibly higher to yield even better images! and the sound quality is just great too! more info in the link below ... there's additional info at the bottom of the page about those who made produced and filmed the event ... there are more info regarding the concert and the crew also available online ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterey_Pop_Festival
The plan was to use Ravi as outro music for the film. A little way into Ravi playing and Pennebaker gathered the camera guys and told them to get to the stage.
There were other gems also Pt Nikhil Banerjee, Alauddin Khan sahab etc and in tabla also pt lacchu maharaj, birju maharaj kishan maharaj, samta prasad They were and even now considered as great. Don't denigrate them
One of the most electrifying performances of all time, brilliantly filmed. I love how during the early parts attendees are shown milling around, talking, sleeping, doing their own thing, and as the music ramps up faster and more intense, the attention moves to the musicians, and the audience gets more and more into it, exploding in applause at the end.
Sir that’s just editing. On other Monterey performances these same B roll shots are used. The editor was simply trying to create a story around the performance here although the standing ovation at the end is obviously real.
@@southlondon86 Uh, yeah, filmmaking is editing footage to tell a story. It’s cute how you think you’re naysaying me or something, like I don’t know that all that footage wasn’t necessarily shot contiguously with the performance onstage. I think it does tell the story of how the excitement ramped up among the crowd as the performance intensified, and that’s all that matters.
what really amazes me is how low the energy of the crowd is when he starts and how he slowly raises the crowd's energy level higher and higher and higher, absolutely incredible
Whoever filmed this is an artist. I love the way it starts showing people in the crowd doing whatever their weird thing is, and then focuses more and more on the music and the people starting to realize they were hearing greatness, and then does a phenomenal job showing the skill of the players, plus their joy in playing. And then finally shows the huge appreciation of the crowd at the end - the people blown away by having heard something truly truly amazing beyond words.
Don't forget the other filmmaker artist..the EDITOR! In French cinema the most essential characteristic of the film is 'de montage', from the French monter, “to assemble.” Montage refers to the editing of the film. As a side note I was there for this show in Monterrey in June 0f '67 with my pregnant wife we were 19 and 20..and still listening to Ravi's Ragas!
He's got blisters on his fingers! That climactic ending and the ovation gets me every time. I am delighted to say that I showed this to my daughter when she was 11 and she totally got it. She is now 29 and it is on all her music devices and has been since she first heard it. Parenting success! Also my mum, wearing an orange sari with gold sequins, went to see Ravi at Covent Garden in London. Around 68? Maybe 67. Parenting success!
Indian music takes you to the pinnacle of spirituality after which you just feel helpless. Tears flows down your cheeks. You become humble, a sense of gratitude flows henceforth. Listening to Indian classical music is a spiritual experience much much more than just a leisure experience.
@@ayushgangwar8 Persian descendants who are the Muslims and the other converted ones wouldn’t agree. They have their own classic and Indian classic doesn’t just mean the Hindu classical. Go to north east and you’d get a different type of classical music. So, thinking Hindus are the only ones surviving in India is just hypocritical. We are diversified and so is our music
Imagine what Pandit Ravi could do with a Les Paul or Stratocaster . I've watched this for 50 years and it is just as astonishing in 2017 as it was when I was a teenager in 1967 . Vale Pandit .
Sincere thanX from a 73 y.o. Indian from New Delhi, India, to Afwan Floyd for this upload. 1967 , 51 years ago , Pandit Ravi Shankar ji and Ustad Alla Rakha ji , the two were in their PRIME , prime of youth , prime of their respective talents , prime of their synchronisation , a total perfection in world of Indian classical music . All of which are standards to emulate for the generations that have followed
JC Edwards I'm an Indian and I know sitar tops every string instrument and these players are the best in human history but I gotta say I love rock music and what jimi did with his guitar was truly exceptional.
Values my country represented, an Ustad and a Pandit from different communities shared brother like bond and rocked the west world together with monumental performance. Look at us now. I am ashamed of the hatred fueled in us.
Didn't start now, it was always there. Just amplified by social media. Like every thing else. Don't be naive. Watch what's happening in the world right now.
Around the 6:20-6:40 mark, Jimi is digging it, and Bloomfield is, too. My dad brought home the Shankar/Menuhin LP the year it came out and it left an indelible mark on my 7-year-old mind. Thanks, Dad!
Me Yehudi and Mr Shankar created music that is so pure that it can't be expressed in words.. living in India I first experienced this music when I was 23 years old and it has changed me.. from the core
1960s...the west still very much anti Indian and racism still at its peak. To see the hundreds of young people stand up and applaud and appreciate even though they had no idea of the genre of music was the break through in the march towards a racism free world. The master sitarist who is a Hundu and the music he played also based on hindu ragas was accompanied by the great tabla maestro Allah Rakha, a muslim -with no religious divide - superb!
+2006minesh I saw your comment and i thought that I would let you know not all westerners are anti Indian :) I love Indian culture, the music, the food and the people. It's history so rich from when my people sadly sapped it dry to today where it is a country on the rise. To say it lightly I always have and always will be in love with India
***** Your apology is insignificant. My "in the blood" is spot on. As an indian I have endured tons of racial abuse from whites over the years, not from just a few individuals but white corporate culture.
+2006minesh This is really sad because this dude was being polite and loving and you totally shot him down. Love and acceptance has to come from both sides of of the world or you're just as bad as everyone you so quickly throw into a stereotype. Peace and love man, I hope you can someday give it as well as receive it.
the crowd are so damn serious at first, as that new soud/joy seeps in, then as Ravi and his drummer man get so seriously into the GROOVE and start to play off each other, the crowd feeds off the humour and playfulness of it, and the laughing and cheering starts. most auspicious occasion!!!! people being intuitive and glorious. beauty beauty beauty. what a fucking day they had!!
It's kinda' hard to imagine yourself in the place of the audience. They didn't have access to music outside the local scene or local radio. Before this, none of them had heard Indian classical/folk. They weren't running on the internet-fueled musical stimuli myself and my generation soak up. I wish that I could live this twenty minutes in their shoes.
Good god, I dont want to sound cliché, but I do wish i was born in the 50s, just so I could've lived my teenage youth in that beautiful era. The audience looks like they're in a trance. Ah, how destiny works out
Fair to say that 99.99% of the audience had no clue what Ravishankar and Alla Rakha were all about but they were gripped and mersmerised, hash pipe or otherwise, by the pure magic only this duo could create. As for me, had rewind this 3 times with no smoke or anything whatsoever. Powerful.
Alla Rhaka playing those tablas and producing such sound with just his fingers blows me away. Once you get into the groove this is very danceable music.
@@vikascharan3460 no, in my opinion, Ustad Allah Rakha is the greatest, and also, he was the one who popularized the tabla in the first place. Ustad Zakir Hussain just took over and continues from where his father leftover. Still, nonetheless, Ustad Zakir Hussain's skill cannot be compared with any living artist!
PaulGreen11 guys, this is just one example of Indian Classical music. There must be a million videos just as amazing as this on RU-vid. Dig a little and you will find an endless cache of gold. Karthik Seshadri, for example, a pupil of Ravi Shankar.
Rest in Peace Ravi Shankar. Thank you for exposing the world (and myself) to a sound we've never heard before. One of the greatest musicians to ever live!
I was there.June 16th,1967.Awesome.A jr in highschool.Totally blew there minds with everyone Asli passing out the drug whoever wanted it for free.A day I have tattooed on my mind some 53 years ago.Groovy man.🇱🇷😎👁️🌻 power.
Thank God the tape machines and film cameras were rolling that day to capture one of the most thrilling and astounding musical performances of the 20th century. But this is only a small part of Ravi Shankar's performance at Monterey. With the 50th anniversary of this festival coming up in 2017, I truly hope that whoever owns the master tapes will release Shankar's ENTIRE four-hour concert from Monterey Pop!
Ravi came to Berkeley and showed these kids how to blow it up.none of them had any idea how hard he was going to hit it. he became a rockstar on this day.
Thank god, apparently Sitars are made out of non flammable material because there is no other way to explain how Ravi's Sitar didn't catch fire from the epic performance. Fuck me sideways that's is amazing!!!
Do please also include the lineage ('gharana') of Ustad Vilayat Khan (often described as the Imdad 'gharana') ... he was born in Mymensingh District of Bangladesh, and was a purist. Not someone who would play to the gallery ! Very smooth, genteel .. his son, Ustad Shujaat Hussain Khan is the reigning best (arguably, of course!) ... and he also sings north Indian folk! For the less initiated .. Indian Classical music has many 'Gods' :D
To look up some really GREAT Tabla players, you must listen to the genius of Ahmad Jaan 'Thirakwa' of Lucknow, India. Thirakwa was the sobriquet he had earned, which actually means TREMORS ... is what is audience often felt when he was playing in full flow !
two things. one: this is one of the most incredible performances ever. the way so many in the crowd jumped to their feet screaming as soon as the music stopped--you see all that sincere joy in their faces. it's beautiful. two: I really hate that RU-vid ruins this with commercials.
Just imagine that most of the people in the audience would be long gone by now, but they lived, they lived that day to witness this body-goosebumping performance LIVE from two of the greatests. They lived that one day as an entire life, a day which might've changed their entire life. Take a bow, maestros!
I was 17 yrs old..I was there...all music at Monterey pop festival changed my life!! I still here with 9 great grandchildren now. Peace my bros and sisters. Saw ravish at UCLA also.🙂
@b wap You see movie director Roger Vadim and his wife Jane Fonda. Is this discussion in the correct demographic for Jane Fonda trivia? Maybe I should search for the Women’s Media Center demographic.
The young children would be in their 50s and early 60s today. The teens would be in their late 60s and 70s. The adults would be in their middle to late 70s, then the middle aged people their would be in their 80s and 90s now. Plenty of them still alive..... Just the older folks then would be about all died off by now.....
Truly MASTERS and their instruments. they created something profound and massive here. I have no doubt many lives were touched and forever changed by this performance, just incredible.
I first encountered this when I was 16. It shocked me to my core and changed my life by giving me new ways to understand beauty, music and art. Thank you, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Ali Akhbar Khan for opening my ears and showing me a path that has enriched my life in more ways than I can ever count. I will be grateful always.
Amazing that they were able to step on stage in a festival dominated by blues and rock bands, play this wonderful instrumental music that must have sounded very exotic and strange to many people in the audience at the time, and still blow everyone away. Shankar and his band delivered a pure psychedelic and transcendental experience with no drugs or theatrics necessary to fuel their performance.
I was only 14 when this concert was performed, but I was already aware of Ravi Shankar, probably because of (Beatle) George Harrison's adaption of sitar music, into The Beatles music. As the years went by I learned more about this kind of music, and interest in it world wide, made it more available. I owned an album, one of my first couple of them, which featured Ravi Shankar. My generation was more likely to have 45 RPM small records with a single tune per side. Albums were what "the adults" listened to, and they costed more. Stereophonic recordings weren't readily available yet, in 1967. We got our first "stereo" record album phonograph (turntable) in 1969. I was just beginning to attend high school, and it was the beginning of an explosion of all music being recorded onto stereo albums.
One of the greatest moments in musical history, celebrating 50 years this summer. I have that album and I've listened to Dhun monthly at the minimum, which would make at least 600 times. Every single time, it gives me chills.
First saw this nearly 45 years ago and watch it regularly. it still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Stunning performance by Ali Akbar Khan. Thanks RU-vid - Thanks Afwan Floyd.
His great legacy is his music, giving it to George Harrison and the Beatles, and his daughter, Anoushka, and all his other students, and his other daughter, Norah Jones. Anoushka not only plays great Indian classical music, but has also brought the sitar into modern music. I imagine that soon no orchestra will be considered complete without at least one sitar and one tabla.
David Kelley - I don't know if you're still around but you're a bit mixed up about Indian Classical music. George Harrison is not his legacy. He was influenced by Ravi-ji's music and helped spread it around the world, but george could barely play the sitar let alone Indian classical music. Also, Anoushka is not his legacy either. She plays pretty good sitar but she is absolutely not one of the great sitar players and she absolutely didn't bring sitar into modern music. If anyone brought sitar to modern music it was George Harrison.
David Kelley - Also, Sitar will most likely never be considered a normal instrument in orchestras. Indian Classical music is completely different from Western classical. There is no harmony or polyphony in Indian classical music. And Western classical has nothing like the rhythm cycles of Indian music.
@@sunkintree I'm not saying that orchestras have no use for sitars, or tabla. A few years ago I saw Zakir Hussain in London play a tabla concerto with orchestra and it was fantastic. I've also seen some really nice pieces with sitar and orchestra. I'm just saying that it will most likely never become a standard orchestral instrument. Sitar players usually don't read western notation.
I was 15 living smack down in the middle of Monterey peninsula. I wonder why so many long hair colorful people where hitchhiking South on highway 1. The whole 3 TV stations that where available where advertising Monterey international Pop festival. We couldn't afford the tickets my brother and Friends drove down there anyways and caught Ravi Shankar performance at the outskirts of the festival ground. And it blew our minds and still blows my mind every time I see this wonderful concert we couldn't afford to pay at witness him in person.
My mum said Ravi Shankar ruined Monterey for her because after listing to this the rest was mundane That's was back in the late 60's or early 70's when it was still on the theatre :) Personally Jimi Hendrix is my favorite act but i've always loved Ravi Shankar 1>3
Someone at work today told me he saw this artist live, and his description of the experience sounds exactly like how these people in the video look… hypnotic! Truly beautiful music, can’t believe I never heard of him until today.
I was never a big fan of Shankar until I watched this. I would be hard pressed after six decades to think of any performance that can top the energy this one does! Sadly, we forgot what we were all trying to "make right" with this World. Some day we may get it "right". Sadly, it won't be in my time. Love is all around. Really.
I'm not what you call an emotional kinda guy but that music is so beautiful it made me cry no music has ever done that to me before..there was something Devine going on that day and he channeled it through him to the sitar to the people to there souls....amazing
What isn't sublime about this piece of film? A superb musical moment in history perfectly captured, cut and delivered. So much going on, and all so subtly portrayed.
Couldn't agree with you more Dave. It was a stroke of genius having Ravi Shankar's performance appear last in the Monterey Pop film!! IMHO this was the apex of the peace and love movement....before Charles Manson...before the proliferation of destructive drugs (amphetamines, heroin, etc)...before the Altamont/Hells Angels tragedy, etc. Most people associate Woodstock as the defining moment of the counterculture but it was really more of its last stand. Monterey was when the optimism and good vibes were at a peak---and Shankar's performance beautifully captures the hopes and dreams of the time!!
Very perceptive. And yet I like to think it will happen again. Maybe in the next generation, when they rebel against their device addicted parents. Full circle.
marinman39 so we dropped out, went on the inner journey, the existential trip, plugged in for the information age, and promptly rebelled against all logic? sounds about right. the time is here for change. Peace man.
As some have posted before it's so obviously true. Music is the language that transcends all barriers, geographical, political, cultural and otherwise. Music has perhaps been the single most influence on our world to lead mankind to a greater respect and curiosity to try and understand each other's differences and to reconcile misunderstanding. When the world is at war due to political and organized religious quarrels musicians thru the ages have promoted peace, love and brotherhood of all mankind. I give my highest respect and praise to such beautiful souls such as Ravi Shankar and so many countless and some nameless like him. You brought joy and light into this world to share with all. Yahweh bless your place in heaven
Brilliant repertoire by the sitar genius himself. To those who had never heard his music or and Indian music as a whole it must have a very uplifting and spiritual moment. I know it was for me when I first heard it in San. Fran in 1968, @ 16 yo. I was blown away. Still am today, 50 years later when I here Ravi's songs, nice to get stones still too as well, LOL Namasta friends!
@@heartbreakkid5757 I am always surprised when someone says it being psychedelic. It's probably a cultural thing but for us Indians it is like exploring very deep and profound emotions like melancholy, joy, sadness it's basically living through those moments in your life which you might never go through, it is that abstract....
@@heartbreakkid5757 yeah it feels so bad that many of my western friends associate hindustani classical music with drugs and trippy stuff, when actually it is very spiritual and used in many bhajans (songs made for the hindu gods)
This is HISTORY, not only music history. The camera person must have felt this was an auspicious occasion and used his true genius gift to capture the look of awe and deep appreciation on these unsuspecting faces. There is so much joy and beauty, we are all blessed to share in this moment of world peace. Brothers and sisters, let this call out to ALL OF US to honor this performance by putting our lives back upon this path. LOVE to everyone of us. You have our most sincere gratitude Ravi Shankar and Ustad Allah Tahka!!! Your magical music has caused many hearts to grow in eighteen minutes and forty two seconds!
Have watched this so many times. Makes me laugh and cry for sheer joy at the beauty of the moment. Was n't there, but thank god it was captured on film. Always makes me feel joyful. Christopher C.
Now I'm a time traveler. I was there in spirit but my body was elsewhere. The important thing was that I was alive, and I still am. All those hippies happy on dope listening to sitar, while Ravi remained pure.
I was fortune to take several tabla lessons with him before I discovered the Ali Akbar College in San Fran (he told his translator I had the best beginner's Na he ever heard ) But his kid ain't bad, either... Both amazing monsters.
Shradhnjali to Pt.Ravishankar. He died 11 years ago today! Om shanti! This video wonderfully captures the beautiful music and the intense reaction of the crowd wonderfully capturing the 60s of USA!
The next day, in the afternoon, It was cloudy, cool, it had rained a little and that's when I played and it was like magic. Jimi Hendrix was sitting there. (Jerry) Garcia was there. I remember a few names. All of them were there and you can see on the film what magic it had. I was so impressed and it is one of my memorable performances. I didn't plan for this. I was grateful to God that I was sitting in the atmosphere without anyone disturbing me. It drizzled for a few minutes and then it stopped. So, it was cloudy and there were flowers from Hawaii and you know, what atmosphere! After my set, it was crazy. I have never felt such a commotion of this sort. I was so pure, in spite of the fact that there were many people who were also strong. But it didn't matter, because the whole atmosphere was so clean and beautiful and I could give my best. That's all I can say.
The height of the psychedelic era 1966-1971. 1967 being like an explosive kick off to the Hippie generation...which was around....but not in mainstream press really before 1967
I missed this because I was born in 1963. Now that I'm 56 years along, I hear this and fall in love with it. Such progressive units, pitch, tempo.... they keep changing all around in an ancient, perfect Mode. The lady in this band, not shown enough in this video is the beautiful, smiling with red lipstick, mature female pickin' or pluckin' her stand up stringed instrument I saw in the audience: Jimmy Hendrix, Mike Bloomfield, Mary from Peter Paul and Mary. hahaha I'm glad folks got to see this live.
What an amazing performance! I've been a fan of Ravi's for 40 years, but sadly, never got to see him perform. What skills! He's at the top of his game during this era. It's so thrilling, too, to witness the audience's reaction. Thanks for this...
