The Egg Presents: L. Shankar feat. Selvaganesh Vinayakram & Amit Kavthekar

Electric double violin & vocals / kanjira & mridangam / tabla

L. Shankar is the groundbreaking, Indian classical, pop and jazz violinist and vocalist, and co-founder of the legendary jazz ensemble Shakti. Joining Shankar is a duo of extraordinary Indian percussionists, Swaminathan Selvaganesh on kanjira & mridangam and Amit Kavthekar on tabla.

L. Shankar (Shenkar) is widely considered a living legend, a pioneer and a musical genius by his peers who hold him in the highest esteem. As a prolific international touring artist, he has released 28 solo albums and has worked on soundtracks for award-winning films, documentaries & TV series. With a career spanning decades, Shankar has sold over 100 million albums and has earned international acclaim through his award-winning solo projects and collaborations with industry icons & esteemed musicians worldwide.

Since playing his first solo concert at the age of seven, L. Shankar has gone on to accompany many of South India’s leading vocalists and became a major soloist of Indian classical music. In 1970’s, after arriving in the USA, Shankar started to play and record with jazz musicians such as Archie Shepp and Clifford Thornton. In 1973 Shankar and jazz guitarist John McLaughlin co-founded Shakti and wrote all of their music together. The legendary “Indo-jazz” supergroup was rounded out with Shankar’s uncle and percussionist Ramnad Raghavan and a young Zakir Hussain. Ghatam player Vikku Vinayakram replaced Raghavan for their first world tour and following albums and their pioneering collaborations are now considered to be the early foundations of “World Music” or “Global Jazz”.

In the 1980s, Shankar specially created a 10-string, double neck, electric violin capable of covering the whole range of the orchestra’s string section from violin to double bass and his unique playing style has led to many legendary recordings and touring collaborations with pop and rock artists such as Peter Gabriel, Frank Zappa, Lou Reed, and Stewart Copeland to name a few. His violin work is featured on hit songs such as “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins, “Rise” by Public Image Limited, “Making Flippy Flappy” by Talking Heads and many songs by Peter Gabriel, a longtime collaborator. Shankar also co-wrote the Grammy nominated soundtrack ‘Passion’ for the Martin Scorsese film ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ with Gabriel and he has gone onto work on many other award winning film and TV soundtracks and scores.

Outside his work on film, pop, rock and jazz music, Shankar has continued to expand international audiences for Indian classical music, often combining North Indian (Hindustani) and South Indian (Carnatic) styles. He has released over 25 albums to date including 7 full length albums on the famed ECM record label which have become benchmark recordings of Indian classical music. In 2024 he released two world music albums alone, ‘Over The Stars’ in August with fellow past Shakti member Vikku Vinyakram, along with V. Selvaganesh and Swaminathan Selvaganesh and also ‘Full Moon’ in September with tabla player Abhijit Banerjee and reaching number #3 on the World Music Charts Europe.

This show is part of The Egg’s Resonance Series, curated by Arun Ramamurthy.

Selvaganesh Vinayakram & Amit Kavthekar