Live At Carnegie Hall

As daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar, 20-year-old Anoushka Shankar has had some pretty big expectations put upon her. Obviously, the elder Shankar thought the then-18-year-old student was ready for the challenge of recording live at Carnegie Hall (he trained her and used her in his group), and he was right. Recorded in October 2000, Anoushka's third album displays her thrilling playing. The young Shankar covers a wealth of emotions, from highs fueled by rapid-fire plucking to mellow lows that float upon her hypnotic drone. Fortunately for non-meditating listeners, the younger Shankar tends to keep the songs (all composed by Ravi) fairly short by raga standards. She also shows herself to be a generous leader on "Bhupali Tabla Duet," letting tabla players Bikram Ghosh and Tanmoy Bose take the lead. The CD features an additional live track from England added for good measure, but even without it, this live performance is a stunning musical display from Indian music's next generation of Shankar. --Tad Hendrickson