Rock-raga jam is a sweet hit

A rock legend met the Lolita of Indian classical music at Palace Grounds yesterday.

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull played some unusual music with Anoushka Shankar, the talented and pretty daughter of sitar maestro Pandit Ravishankar, even as the audience kept an eye out for rain.

Anoushka kicked off the show with a couple of her father's raga compositions. She avoided the traditional alaap-jod-jhala elaboration, with its slow, meditative unfolding, and rushed straightaway into fast tempo compositions.

Don't hold that against her. Her illustrious dad has tried that very technique when faced with an audience more familiar with headbanging than concert-hall connoisseurship. He has been able to convert some from among such crowds into more sober listeners.

Perhaps Anoushka also will as she grows into her role as the inheritor of the Ravishankar legacy, but here she was doing some well-thought-out short numbers rather than inspired raga essays, and brought a youthful exuberance and innocence to the overall proceedings.

Her playing was good and showed some of the lyricism and sparkle of her dad's style; she excelled when it came to fast improvisation, but then, it might take a lot more than speed for her to become a rasika's delight.

Anoushka wound up after playing an unusual raga called Pancham se Gara, and set the stage for Jethro Tull, who made a dramatic entry and gave their fans music they had heard and loved through five decades.

The British band comprises, besides singer and flute player Anderson, guitarists Martin Barre and David Goodier, keyboardist John O'Hara, and a drummer, all of whom played with the kind of ease that comes only from constant concert experience.

Jethro Tull was founded about 50 years ago, and its musical emphasis has changed from time to time. Many of those changing influences were reflected in the songs they chose to play yesterday. Most numbers from the 1972 albums Living from the Past and Thick as a Brick had rock adrenaline as the defining element, and the pulsating intensity was emphasised by the aggressive, stylish flute playing of Anderson. But the band also played some very acoustic-sounding soft numbers, using instruments such as the bazouki, the harmonica and the congos.

The final session, when Anoushka came back on stage to perform with Jethro Tull, was mellower and more friendly to ears not accustomed to the Jethro Tull style. Irish cradle was among the softer numbers that provided a contrast to the band's more insistent songs. In one number, Anoushka played snatches of ragas such as Kiravani and Yaman, and Anderson came in and played some unison passages with her and the keyboardist. The band also offered, with some Indian flavour from Anoushka, a witty, thoroughly enjoyable reworking of a Bach movement titled Bouree.

Anderson spoke, sang, clowned, danced and played a variety of instruments. He saluted Sir Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, who recently turned 65, but deserves similar applause for his own performing zest. The music he and Anoushka are playing on their Indian tour may not be in the same league as the music played by Ravishankar and Yehudi Menuhin, but it isn't kitschy pop either. Jethro Tull and Anoushka are musicians whose sophistication can't be denied, and they are determined to keep you entertained.