The Ragasamay Festival in Philadelphia will present the screening of “Play Like A Lion: The Legacy of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan” on Wednesday, April 3 at 7:00 pm at International House, 3701 Chestnut Street.
The film shows American born Alam Khan, son of legendary Indian sarodist Maestro Ali Akbar Khan, traveling from California to India on his first concert tour without his ailing father. Ali Akbar Khan, who introduced Indian classical music to the United States at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1955, was “The Emperor of Melody,” a national treasure in India and the US, a Grammy nominee, and according to renowned master violinist Lord Yehudi Menuhin, “possibly the greatest musician in the world.”
Alam finds it’s not always easy following a legend, so when he feels the weight of living up to his family’s North Indian Classical music tradition, he remembers his father’s advice: “Don’t worry, Play like a Lion!”
Shot throughout India and California, Play like a Lion features Carlos Santana, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, blues slide guitarist Derek Trucks, jazz saxophone great John Handy, world class percussionist and tabla artist Ustad Zakir Hussain, master tabla player Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, master Indian flutist Pandit G. S. Sachdev, master sarodist Ustad Aashish Khan, and Alam Khan. With narration by Mark Cohen.
More about the festival at www.ragasamay.org
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central
