Chatur Lal was more prominently an accompanist than a solo player and supported many Indian classical musicians who toured in the West. One of these musicians, Ravi Shankar, first toured the West in the thirties as a dancer in his brother's (Uday Shankar) dance troupe. World War II made touring impractical, and Ravi changed his focus from dancing to playing the sitar. He trained in Maihar under master sitarist Allaudin Khan with Khan's children Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi. By 1944, Shankar completed his training and got a job at All India Radio where he composed music. He also worked with filmmaker Satyajit Ray composing music for the director's Apu Trilogy.
At the behest of a visiting American violinist Yehudi Menuhin, Ravi Shankar was invited to perform in New York in 1955 for a demonstration of Indian Classical Music. Unable to leave India for personal reasons, his friend Ali Akbar Khan reluctantly performed to large audiences in the West, performed on TV, and recorded the first record of Indian Classical Music in the West. Hearing of the success of Khan's tour, Shankar quit his job at All India Radio to tour in the West himself where he'd perform classical ragas while teaching smaller audiences about Indian music. He released his first recording Three Ragas in 1956 with Chatur Lal supporting him on tabla.
Here is the discography surrounding Ravi Shankar's debut album:
Three Ragas
"Raga Ahir Bhairav" by Ravi Shankar
"Raga Simhendra Madhyamam" by Ravi Shankar
Pass the Headphones!!
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