Ali Akbar Khan - Bear’s Sonic Journals - That Which Colors the Mind (Family Dog At The Great Highway San Francisco, California 5-29-70)

“There would be no Grateful Dead without Ali Akbar Khan. Was I listening all night to the music? Yes. And was Jerry Garcia listening all night to the music? Yes.” -Mickey Hart, the Grateful Dead

The Beatles helped to popularize Indian music in the West in the 1960s. But on this influential night in 1970, Ali Akbar Khan, the greatest sarod master of the century, crossed over to a rapt audience of psychedelic pilgrims, spawning a generation of followers. Captured by the Grateful Dead’s legendary soundman Owsley “Bear” Stanley, the infamous LSD chemist, this release is a mind-expanding journey.

·         Featuring a May 29, 1970 live performance at Family Dog at the Great Highway, San Francisco, CA 

·         Exquisite sound quality from the newly-preserved master tapes of legendary Grateful Dead soundman Owsley Stanley’s archive.

·         Ali Akbar Khan was the court musician of the Maharaja, a MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, and has been called “the Bach of India” and “perhaps the greatest musician in the world.”

·         Ali Akbar Khan influenced the Beatles, Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, and Santana.

·         Booklet includes original cover art by Chris Gallen and  liner notes featuring new interviews from Ali Akbar Khan’s family and colleagues, produced with support from the Ali Akbar College of Music.

·         With the master Ali Akbar Khan on sarod, and then-rising stars Zakir Hussain on tabla, and Indranil Bhattacharya on sitar.

·         More than two hours of  transcendent, virtuosic music