East Meets Western Suburbs
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Khan is one of the greatest practitioners of northern Indian (or Hindustani) classical music in the world, and is more than qualified to run his own academy. But his qualifications are both a blessing and a curse. He’s the son of famous sarod player Ali Akbar Khan, and his pedigree stretches all the way back to Mian Tansen, a musician in the court of the 16th-century Indian emperor Akbar. Indian musicians traditionally pass their knowledge down to their children, but Ali Akbar pushed music education into the public sphere, founding the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta. In 1955 he came to the U.S. at the behest of violinist Yehudi Menuhin, released the first Western recording of Indian classical music, and became the first Indian musician to perform on American TV. By the mid-60s he was spending most of his time here, and in 1967 he launched a branch of his school in San Rafael, California. It’s still the most prestigious institution devoted to Indian music in the United States.
But his relationship to Ali Akbar has always shaded his accomplishments. “I’ve always been overshadowed by my father and I’m always compared to him,” he says. “I just try to overlook it.” He says he perceived the need for a good Indian music school away from the west coast, and hopes that founding his own school will give him the chance to forge his own identity. He hopes it will let him tour less regularly, too. “I want to devote more time to teaching,” he says. “I’m growing old, and traveling is so hectic these days with all of the security checks and carrying an instrument like the sarod. I just want to settle down in one place and teach my students.”
Lucas Santtana, who cowrote one of Monte’s new songs and plays on several tracks, has also released his own giddy, energetic debut album, Eletro Ben Dodo (Natasha), in which he brings the funk (as well as some electronics-enhanced grooves) to Brazilian forms like samba and afoxe (percussive Carnaval music). At one point he even revamps James Brown’s “Doing It to Death” for an arrangement featuring the berimbau, the twangy bow used in the musical martial art known as capoeira.
