Interaction with non-Indian music
In the late 1970s and early 1980s,
rock and roll fusions with Indian music were well-known throughout
Europe and
North America.
Ali Akbar Khan's 1955 performance in the
United States was perhaps the beginning of this trend.
Jazz pioneers such as
John Coltrane—who recorded a composition entitled 'India' during the November 1961 sessions for his album
Live At The Village Vanguard (the track was not released until 1963 on
Coltrane's album
Impressions)—also embraced this fusion.
George Harrison (of
the Beatles) played the
sitar
on the song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" in 1965, which
sparked interest from Shankar, who subsequently took Harrison as his
apprentice.
Jazz innovator
Miles Davis
recorded and performed with musicians like Khalil Balakrishna, Bihari
Sharma, and Badal Roy in his post-1968 electric ensembles. Virtuoso
jazz guitarist John McLaughlin spent several years in Madurai learning
Carnatic music and incorporated it into many of his acts including
Shakti which featured prominent Indian musicians. Other Western artists
such as the
Grateful Dead,
Incredible String Band,
the Rolling Stones,
the Move and
Traffic
soon incorporated Indian influences and instruments, and added Indian
performers. Legendary Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia joined
guitarist Sanjay Mishra on his classic CD "Blue Incantation" (1995).
Mishra also wrote an original score for French Director Eric Heumann
for his film
Port Djema (1996) which won best score at Hamptons film festival and The Golden Bear at Berlin. in 2000 he recorded
Rescue
with drummer Dennis Chambers (Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin et al.)
and in 2006 Chateau Benares with guests DJ Logic and Keller Williams
(guitar and bass).
Though the Indian music craze soon died down among mainstream
audiences, die hard fans and immigrants continued the fusion. In 1985,
a beat oriented, Raga Rock hybrid called Sitar Power by
Ashwin Batish
reintroduced sitar in western nations. Sitar Power drew the attention
of a number of record labels and was snapped up by Shanachie Records of
New Jersey to head their World Beat Ethno Pop division.
In the late 1980s, Indian-British artists fused Indian and Western traditions to make the
Asian Underground. Since the 1990s, Canadian born musician
Nadaka
who has spent most of his life in India, has been creating music that
is an acoustic fusion of Indian classical music with western styles.
One such singer who has merged the Bhakti sangeet tradition of India
with the western non-India music is
Krishna Das and sells music records of his musical
sadhana.
In the new millennium, American
hip-hop
has featured Indian filmi and bhangra. Mainstream hip-hop artists have
sampled songs from Bollywood movies and have collaborated with Indian
artists. Examples include
Timbaland's "Indian Flute",
Erick Sermon and
Redman's "React", Slum Village's "Disco", and
Truth Hurts' hit song "Addictive", which sampled a
Lata Mangeshkar song, and
The Black Eyed Peas sampled
Asha Bhosle's song "Yeh Mera Dil" in their hit single "
Don't Phunk With My Heart". In 1997, the British band
Cornershop paid tribute to
Asha Bhosle with their song
Brimful of Asha, which became an international hit.
British-born Indian artist
Panjabi MC also had a Bhangra hit in the U.S. with "Mundian To Bach Ke" which featured rapper
Jay-Z.
Asian Dub Foundation are not huge mainstream stars, but their politically-charged
rap and
punk rock influenced sound has a multi-racial audience in their native UK. In 2008, international star
Snoop Dogg appeared in a song in the film
Singh Is Kinng. In 2007, Hip-Hop producer
Madlib released
Beat Konducta Vol 3–4: Beat Konducta in India; an album which heavily samples and is inspired by the music of India.
Sometimes, the music of India will fuse with the traditional music of other countries. For example,
Delhi 2 Dublin,
[3] a band based in Canada, is known for fusing Indian and
Irish music, and
Bhangraton is a fusion of
Bhangra music with
reggaeton, which itself is a fusion of hip hop, reggae, and traditional
Latin American music.
[4]
In a more recent example of Indian - British fusion,
Laura Marling along with
Mumford and Sons collaborated in 2010 with the
Dharohar Project on a four song EP.
[5]