L. Shankar
Shankar in 1978
Shankar in 1978
Background information
Birth nameShankar Lakshminarayana
Also known asShenkar, L. Shankar, Shankar
Born (1950-04-26) 26 April 1950
Madras, India
OriginSri Lanka
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Vocalist
  • electric violinist
  • lyricist
  • arranger
Instrument(s)
  • Double Violin
  • vocals
  • keyboards
Years active1972–present
Labels
Websitelshankar.com

Shankar Lakshminarayana (born 26 April 1950),[2] better known as L. Shankar, is an Indian violinist, singer and composer who also goes by the stage name Shenkar.

Early life, family and education

Shankar was born in Madras, India,[2] and raised in Ceylon (current-day Sri Lanka), where his father V. Lakshminarayana, a violinist and singer, worked as a teacher at the Jaffna College of Music.[3] He learned to play the violin and first performed in public in a Ceylonese temple at the age of seven.[3]

In 1969, he went to the United States, where he studied ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University.[2]

Career

After performing with various Indian singers for several years, Shankar founded a trio with his brothers, L. Vaidyanathan and L. Subramaniam, that performed throughout India.

While attending college at Wesleyan University, he met jazz musicians like Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Garrison, and John McLaughlin.[2] With McLaughlin, Shankar founded the group Shakti in 1975, one of the early groups in which Eastern and Western musical traditions met.[2] They released three albums: Shakti (1975), A Handful of Beauty (1976), and Natural Elements (1977).

After the band dissolved, Shankar was a violinist with Frank Zappa for a short time, and then founded the group The Epidemics and released a number of albums as a band leader.[2] With Peter Gabriel, he wrote part of the soundtrack for the film The Last Temptation of Christ (1989),[2] for which he received a Grammy Award. In the following years, Shankar worked on several of Gabriel's albums. Since 1996, he has been working with the violinist Gingger Shankar (his niece, daughter of L. Subramaniam) as the duo Shankar & Gingger.

Shankar has also performed with Elton John, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Yoko Ono, Stewart Copeland, John Waite, Charly García, Steve Vai, Ginger Baker, Nils Lofgren, Jonathan Davis and The SFA and Sting.

Discography

  • Shakti (with Shakti) (1975)
  • A Handful of Beauty (with Shakti) (1976)
  • Natural Elements (with Shakti) (1977)
  • Violin Ecstasy (1978)
  • Touch Me There (1979)
  • Who's to Know (1980)
  • Vision (1984)
  • Song for Everyone (1985)
  • The Epidemics (1986)
  • Evening Concert (1986)
  • Do What You Do (1986)
  • Eye Catcher (1987)
  • Pancha Nadai Pallavi (1989)
  • M.R.C.S (1989)
  • Nobody Told Me (1990)
  • Soul Searcher (1990)
  • Raga Aberi (1995)
  • Enlightenment (1999)
  • Live in London, Vol. 1 (2000)
  • Eternal Light (2000)
  • One in a Million (with Gingger Shankar) (2001)
  • Celestial Body (2004)[4]
  • Open the Door (2007)
  • In a Box (2012)
  • The Revelation (2013)
  • Champion (2014)
  • Transcend (2015)
  • Face to Face (2019)
  • Chepleeri Dream (2020)
  • Christmas from India (2021)

Filmography

  • Bombay Jazz (1992, documentary)[5][6]
  • Secret World Live (1994) (violin, backing vocals)
  • Queen of the damned (film) (2002) (Violin)
  • Heroes (2006–2009, TV series) (vocals)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jurek, Thom. "Shankar Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 356. ISBN 0-85112-580-8.
  3. 1 2 "L. Shankar - Singer, Violinist, Composer, and Producer". lshankar.com. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  4. ↑ "Celestial Body - Lakshminarayana Shankar | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic.
  5. ↑ "BBC World Service - The Documentary, Bombay Jazz". BBC. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  6. ↑ "Bombay and Jazz – A documentary 1992". Bluerhythm.wordpress.com. 12 June 2011.
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