The Lifetime Achievement Award is not
an award that artists look forward to receiving when they are alive, because it
is often considered a message in disguise asking the recipient to retire.
"We
know he was very excited to be receiving this award. We really miss him. He
lived and breathed music."
However,
Ravi Shankar won the Life Achievement Award along with an award for the best
world music album for “The Living Room Sessions Part 1.” The only put off was
that he missed it by two months, for it seems like only yesterday for those who
were paying attention to his work post Beatlemania.
He was almost forgotten to those who caught on to his work through The Beatles and in India the audience had mixed opinions; after all, he was not the only sitar player when he came back to India. Connoisseurs of the past and careful listeners of today would be able to point out the intricacies of his musical presentation; however, what you should know is that at the age of 92 many alleged that his sitar had begun to sound like the human voice, which is the end of the road for all classical music aspirants.
To receive his Lifetime Achievement Award, his two daughters, Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones, came on stage and voiced their own reminiscent speeches. Norah who only got in touch with her father at the age of eighteen said, “We know he was very excited to be receiving this award. We really miss him. He lived and breathed music. He was tapping out rhythms on the breakfast table and making me do five over seven... I am still trying to get it. We are very happy to accept the award for him.”
Anoushka Shankar who has been daughter, disciple and co-musician with her father for a while now had a lot more to say with an anecdote that went well with the occasion. She also said, “It was 60 days ago today that he passed away. It's kind of difficult to be standing up here, like Norah said, I am thrilled that he knew about this award before he passed away at least. But I wish we weren't standing up here for him.” And no, she wasn’t sad that she lost to her father as a nominee in the same category.
He was almost forgotten to those who caught on to his work through The Beatles and in India the audience had mixed opinions; after all, he was not the only sitar player when he came back to India. Connoisseurs of the past and careful listeners of today would be able to point out the intricacies of his musical presentation; however, what you should know is that at the age of 92 many alleged that his sitar had begun to sound like the human voice, which is the end of the road for all classical music aspirants.
To receive his Lifetime Achievement Award, his two daughters, Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones, came on stage and voiced their own reminiscent speeches. Norah who only got in touch with her father at the age of eighteen said, “We know he was very excited to be receiving this award. We really miss him. He lived and breathed music. He was tapping out rhythms on the breakfast table and making me do five over seven... I am still trying to get it. We are very happy to accept the award for him.”
Anoushka Shankar who has been daughter, disciple and co-musician with her father for a while now had a lot more to say with an anecdote that went well with the occasion. She also said, “It was 60 days ago today that he passed away. It's kind of difficult to be standing up here, like Norah said, I am thrilled that he knew about this award before he passed away at least. But I wish we weren't standing up here for him.” And no, she wasn’t sad that she lost to her father as a nominee in the same category.
