Lakshminarayana Shankar (born April 26, 1950), or L. Shankar, was born in Madras, South India. Growing up in Sri Lanka where his father V. Lakshminaraya Iyer was a professor at the Jaffna College of Music, Shankar was exposed to Carnatic music from an early age. His father was an esteemed violinist, his mother L. Seethalakshmi played the veena and all his five older siblings were also proficient in music. At the age of seven he gave his first public concert. He gained considerable reputation in his early youth as an accompanist to some of the most eminent names in Carnatic music In 1975 Shankar and McLaughlin founded Shakti pioneering a groundbreaking and highly influential east-meets-west collaborative, fluid sound that managed to successfully combine seemingly incompatible traditions. After the disbanding of Shakti in 1978 Shankar founded his own band - The Epidemics. April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Madras refers to: the Indian city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras, the former Indian state, now known as Tamil Nadu (Plural of Madra): Ancient people of Iranian affinites, who lived in northwest Panjab in the Uttarapatha division of ancient India. ... A map of South India, its rivers, regions and water bodies. ... Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, Jaffna Jaffna (Tamil யாழ்ப்பாணம், meaning யாழ்=harp, பாணம்=town of harper) the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. ... Timeline and Samples Genres Classical (Carnatic and Hindustani) - Rock - Pop - Hip hop Awards Bollywood Music Awards - Punjabi Music Awards Charts Festivals Sangeet Natak Akademi – Thyagaraja Aradhana – Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana Media Sruti, The Music Magazine National anthem Jana Gana Mana, also national song Vande Mataram Music of the states Andaman and... Woman playing the vina, by Raja Ravi Varma Veena (also spelled vina) is a stringed instrument used in Carnatic music. ... Carnatic may mean: Carnatic, a region of Southern India Carnatic music SS Carnatic, a shipwrecked steamer This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... Shakti was a group which played a novel acoustic fusion music which combined Indian music with elements of jazz; it was perhaps the earliest practitioner of the musical genre world fusion. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ...

His first solo album, Touch Me There, was produced by Frank Zappa in 1979. Touch Me There is a 1979 album recorded by Lakshminarayana Shankar (credited as Shankar) and produced by Frank Zappa, who wrote all of the lyrics and cowrote the instrumental The lyrics for the albums opening track, Dead Girls Of London were originally supposed to be sung by Van Morrison... Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, guitarist, singer, film director, and satirist. ... This page refers to the year 1979. ...

During the 1980s, Shankar recorded periodically as a leader, doing both jazz-based material and Indian classical music. His 1980 release of the album Who's To Know introduced the unique sound of his own invention, the ten-string, stereophonic double violin. This instrument, designed by Shankar and built by noted guitar maker Ken Parker, covers the entire orchestral range, including double bass, cello, viola and violin. He has recently developed a newer version of his instrument which is much lighter than the original. The tonic-dominate tuning (EBEB or DADA) of his violin allows his harmonics to ring giving his playing its distinctive sound. 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Side and front views of a modern double bass with a French bow. ... A cello The violoncello, almost always abbreviated to cello (the c is pronounced /ʧ/ as the ch in church), is a stringed instrument and a member of the violin family. ... The viola (in French, alto; in German bratsche) is a stringed musical instrument played with a bow which serves as the middle voice of the violin family, between the upper lines played by the higher violin (soprano register) and the lower lines played by the deeper cello (bass) and double...

In 1994 Shankar won the Grammy, music’s highest award, for The Last Temptation of Christ in which he co-wrote 13 of the tracks with Peter Gabriel. In 1996 Shankar, with fellow-violinist Gingger and daughter of his brother L. Subramaniam, toured internationally as the duo "Shankar & Gingger". 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... The Last Temptation of Christ, also published as The Last Temptation, is a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1951. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

Shankar has played with some of the greatest musical contempories of his time, including Frank Zappa, Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Stewart Copeland, Yoko Ono, John Waite, Steve Vai, Ginger Baker, Toto, Nils Lofgren, and Sting. He has also effortlessly married Eastern and Western influences, assimilating Carnatic music with pop, rock, jazz and contemporary world music. "Ultimately, I would like to bring the East and West together. That, I think, is my role," says Shankar. Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, guitarist, singer, film director, and satirist. ... Cover art from the album So, Gabriels biggest commercial success Peter Brian Gabriel (born February 13, 1950, in Cobham, Surrey) is an English musician. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Eric Patrick Clapton CBE (born March 30, 1945), nicknamed Slowhand, is a Grammy Award winning British guitarist, singer and composer, who became one of the most respected and influential musicians of the rock-era, garnering an unprecedented three inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ... Philip David Charles Collins (born January 30, 1951 in London), better known as Phil Collins, is a British rock/pop musician. ... Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American rock and folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. ... George Ivan Van Morrison (born August 31, 1945) is a singer and songwriter from Belfast, Northern Ireland. ... Stewart Armstrong Copeland (born July 16, 1952) is a professional American musician. ... Yoko Ono in 2005 Yoko Ono Lennon (born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese-American musician and artist who has lived most of her life in the United States. ... John Waite, born July 4, 1952, in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, is an adult contemporary singer. ... Steven Siro Vai (born June 6, 1960 in Carle Place, New York) is an American guitarist, composer, and record producer, notable for having received a Grammy Award (along with nine nominations) and being cited as an influence by many guitarists from the 1980s and onwards. ... Peter Edward Ginger Baker (born August 19, 1939) born in Lewisham, London, is a British percussionist who gained fame as a member of Cream from 1966 until 1968 with Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton, and later joined Clapton and Steve Winwood in the 1969 group Blind Faith. ... Toto (pronounced toe-toe) is an American pop/rock/prog band which had their greatest commercial success in the 1980s. ... Nils Lofgren (born June 21, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois), is an American rock music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. ... Sting in Budapest, 2000 Gordon Matthew Sumner, CBE (born October 2, 1951), usually known by his stage name Sting, is an English musician from Newcastle upon Tyne. ... For Popular music (music that is popular, rather than of a specific genre or style), see Popular music. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... Jazz is an original American musical art form originating around the early 1920s in New Orleans, rooted in Western music technique and theory, and is marked by the profound cultural contributions of African Americans. ... World music is, most generally, all the music in the world (Bohlman 2002, Nidel 2004, p. ...

"The violin is no longer a secondary instrument...today, it is a very big solo instrument," says Shankar.