Sad to say goodbye - Ravi Shankar, sitar player and fixture for decades - passes today.

Oh, my. That’s a big one. What an icon he was, and what an influence. I saw him in concert once, and of course heard many recordings. I’ll light a stick of sandalwood for him tonight.

That happened three years ago.

Oh, no! Well, I didn’t hear about it. My first reaction when I hear of some ancient celebrity’s death is usually “I didn’t know he was still alive.” In this case, I guess he wasn’t.

Despite this being old news…one of my favorite shows ever was Ravi and John McLaughlin live. WOW does not even come close to describing the talent on the stage that night.

Then there was the joint recording made by Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin.

Funniest Ravi Shankar story I ever heard:

He was to perform at the Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth, which is many acts all in sequence, most doing one or two songs at most.

Mr. Shankar sat on the stage with his sitar, and the heat of the lights on stage through his instrument way out of tune. Tuning 21 strings to be just right for the Queen took quite a few minutes, but after a bit he was complete and ready to play. But the audience leapt to their feet in applause, thinking he was done, the lights came down and the curtain closed.