ANOUSHKA SHANKAR

At just 25, Anoushka Shankar has toured the world twice, recorded four albums, played with George Harrison, Herbie Hancock and Sting, and remains the only person to be exclusively taught by her father, sitar legend Ravi Shankar. Ramsay Short spoke to her just prior to her European tour. Pictures by Tarun Khiwal

SHE has a musical pedigree any young artist would sell their soul for. She is beautiful in an elegant, refined way. On stage she’s a burning flame – visceral, indefinable, shining brightly. Her slender hands flit over her sitar in complex movements, instinctual, free. Her sound is magical, spiritual. She is Anoushka Shankar and, as you can probably tell, she is mesmerising. The last time we met was in an ancient palace overlooking the Mediterranean in Lebanon’s Chouf Mountains two years ago. Anoushka was performing with her father on his 85th birthday tour in a concert of classical Indian ragas. Her upcoming 13-date European tour, which concludes at London’s Southbank Centre on 4 June, will be quite different, however. This time Anoushka is bringing her Anoushka Shankar Project to town, a sextet featuring Indian flute, tablas, sax, piano, drums and, of course, sitar in what will be a meld of free jazz and modern ragas, nearly all her own compositions.

She is as perky and eloquent as ever as she describes it. “It’s going to be more free and expressive than the specific tracks from Rise [her Grammy Award-nominated last album] and the classical ragas I perform with my father, although we might play some of his compositions too,” she says over the phone from Madison, Wisconsin, in the US. “I’m really looking forward to it. The musicians and I are really connected now as we have been playing together for so long and really understand the way we play

“You’re calling me on my first day off for months by the way,’ she adds with a seductive chuckle. “I was having a lie-in.”

“Sorry, I didn’t wake you, did I?” I say.

“No, no, it’s OK, though it has been a bit hectic here. We have been on the road in the US for a while now and it gets tiring. Thankfully we have an amazing tour bus and that makes all the difference in terms of comfort. Avoiding American airports is such a relief !”

“It is?”

“Well, it’s true, I am afraid. Every time I go through security at an airport here I am stopped for extra checks and everyone in the band is too. And the problem is you are made to feel like a villain. I support extra security being necessary, but it’s the attitude that’s the problem. And there is definitely a race element involved too.”

Anoushka Shankar is not someone afraid to speak out. The first Indian ambassador for the United Nation’s World Food Programme and an extensive campaigner in India for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, she is fast becoming a role model for young independentminded women, not just in her native Delhi but around the world.

“I definitely believe it’s important to speak out on issues that I care about because I do have a voice that can be heard and if change can be effected that’s a good thing. But I am very careful to speak in an uplifting and positive way,” she says.

That optimism and passion is clear in her music, perhaps even stems from it.

“Music is my greatest joy and expression, on a personal level and as a means to share my joy and vision with other people, especially when people connect to it. That’s why I love the stage and spend so much time touring,” Anoushka explains.

Watching her perform, you understand. Glamorous, black-haired, dressed in a sari or traditional Indian tunic and trousers of her own design, this diminutive woman has massive stage presence. And that’s without playing a note. When she does, it takes your breath away. Indian ragas almost always begin slowly before building to upbeat percussive rhythms and melodies. Like her father, Anoushka’s emphasis is on improvisation within the formal structure of the raga, with patches of repetition matched against rapid-fire flurries and challenges to the tabla players. Her fingers are fluid and her playing as virtuoso, as balanced and as articulate as you’d expect.

“From my father, from my studies… Indian music is just very deep. I hate to say because it sounds so clichéd, but it is transcendental,” says Anoushka. “When I play, it fills all of me. Very Zen and meditative – that’s the feeling when we play in concert.”

The spiritual side of the music as much as her father’s influence is clearly what drives the musician, which is not altogether unsurprising as the system of Indian music known as Raga Sangeet can be traced back nearly 2,000 years to its origin in the Vedic hymns of Hindu temples, the source of all Indian music. Raga is a musical form that defines a characteristic scale of notes, and as in jazz, performers improvise over basic tunes.

The Anoushka Shankar Project will fuse such ragas together with Western influences as she did previously on Rise but it will be an acoustic show without any electronic elements. The sitar player may even highlight work from her brand new album, Breathing Under Water, which is to be released in late August in the US and by the end of the year in Europe.

“I’m excited about the new record – I shouldn’t be telling you anything about it yet though,” she says.

“Why? Is Norah involved? Is it finally going to happen?” Norah Jones is Anoushka’s elder and arguably more famous half-sister. “Ok, ok, ok!” she says excitedly. “It features Sting and my father on different tracks I composed alongside the Indian-American percussionist and DJ Karsh Kale and there is a track I wrote which Norah sings.

“Ok, ok, ok!” she says excitedly. “It features Sting and my father on different tracks I composed alongside the Indian-American percussionist and DJ Karsh Kale and there is a track I wrote which Norah sings.

“People always ask me if we are going to collaborate and to be honest it is not something we planned but I just wrote these lyrics and they were perfect for Norah so I asked her and we recorded it,” Anoushka says.

“Any chance of some guest appearances at the upcoming gigs?” I venture.

“I’m not saying anymore,” Anoushka chuckles seductively. “And now I have to go and practise. Byeeee.”

Whether Norah Jones, Sting or anybody else turns up, Anoushka Shankar live in a concert is an experience not to miss.

Tour dates

See the The Anoushka Shankar Project at these venues across Ryanair destinations in Europe this May and June. For more info go to www.anoushkashankar.com and www.ryanair.com

TUE 15 MAY
Muffathalle, Munich www.muffathalle.de
WED 16 MAY
Vienna Konzerthaus (Grosser Saal) www.Konzerthaus.at
FRI 18 MAY
Kaufleuten, Zurich www.kaufleuten.com
SAT 19 MAY
Centralstation, Darmstadt www.centralstationdarmstadt.de
SAT 19 MAY
Centralstation, Darmstadt www.centralstationdarmstadt.de
SUN 20 MAY
Philharmonie, Luxembourg www.printempsmusical.lu
TUES 22 MAY
Helsinki Festival – Savoy Theatre www.helsinkifestival.fi
WED 24 MAY
Sodra Teatern, Stockholm www.sodrateatern.com
FRI 25 MAY
Arrecife de Las Músicas 2007, Gran Canaria Auditorium Alfredo Kraus, Chamber Hall www.auditorioalfredokraus.com
SAT 26 MAY
Theater Coliseum, A Coruña, Galicia
WED 30 MAY
Petit Palau (Palau de la Musica), Barcelona www.theproject.es www.telentrada.com www.palaumusica.org
SAT 2 JUNE
Wychwood Festival, Cheltenham Race Course www.wychwoodfestival.com
SUN 3 JUNE
Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool www.liverpoolphil.com
MON 4 JUNE
Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London www.southbankcentre.co.uk www.rfh.org.uk

For ticket prices and concert times see individual websites.

Ryanair flies to numerous destinations in Germany, the Canary Islands, the UK, Spain, Sweden and Austria, including London, Liverpool, Santiago de Compostela, Barcelona Girona and Reus, Salzburg, Stockholm and Tenerife.

For more information on routes, flight times and ticket prices see www.ryanair.com