A little more than fifty years ago, in 1955, Ali Akbar Khan issued an LP called "Music of India: Morning and Evening Ragas", with spoken introduction by violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Until then, Indian music was terra incognita in the West. When the same album was reissued as a CD in 1995, under the title "Then and Now", it was nominated for a Grammy. Between "then and now" has been the explosive influence of Indian music and culture in the West. Words such as karma, yoga, raga, nirvana, all once unknown here, have entered the language. Most famously, the wonders of the Indian - musical world were spread by George Harrison and the Beatles. The music also had a profound effect on Mickey Hart and the Grateful Dead, John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra), the Byrds, John Coltrane and many others. The annus mirabilis 1967 saw the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi spreading the wonders of transcendental meditation, Swami Prabhupada founding the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in New York City and the growing influence of Ravi Shankar. Four years later, George Harrison organized the groundbreaking Concert for Bangladesh, the first charity event of rock. Shankar had already wowed audiences at the Monterey Pop Festival, and he achieved stardom at the Madison Square Garden event (where Westerners, new to the sounds they heard, applauded after the musicians had finished tuning their instruments!). Peter Lavezzoli, a Buddhist and a musician, has a rare ability to articulate the personal feeling of music and at the same time narrate a history. In his discussion on Indian - music theory, he demystifies musical structures, foreign instruments, terminology and the Eastern - musical framework. Lavezzoli has interviewed more than a score of musicians, including Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, David Crosby, Philip Glass, Zakir Hussain, Mickey Hart, Zubin Mehta, and John McLaughlin. These interviews add an unforgettable immediacy and authority throughout the book. The chapters on the relationships between Indian music and jazz, rock and electronic music will be judged definitive. A glossary and rare photos further enhance a fascinating story.

Twenty-five years ago in his hit song, "Sir Duke," Stevie Wonder sings: "Music knows it is and always will be one of the things that life just won't quit. / Here are some of music's basic pioneers that time will not allow us to forget: / There's Basie, Miller, Satchmo, and the King of All, Sir Duke! / And with a voice like Ella's ringing out, there's no way the band can lose! / You can feel it all over!" To say that Ellington was a prominent jazz-band leader of the 20th century would be like saying William Shakespeare was simply a prominent English playwright of his time. This book begins with personal reflections as well as the life before going on to consider - through anecdote, musical scholarship and personal interviews - Ellington's profound and direct influence on an amazing range of pop artists: Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Miles Davis (who, in the ultimate tribute, had himself interred next to The Duke in New York's Woodlawn Cemetery), Sun Ra, James Brown, Sly Stone, George Clinton, Prince, Frank Zappa, Charles Mingus, Ravi Shankar and others.