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While the "nature v. nurture" argument may rage for years to come, two respected musical patriarchs showed that regardless of which is the more important, nature and nurture in tandem are a most formidable combination. Oliver Lake (pictured right), a trailblazing elder statesman of jazz, and Ravi Shankar (pictured below), the most celebrated Indian classical musician in the world, each performed at the Kennedy Center this past weekend with gifted progeny in tow. The result was two wonderful performances that had the added emotional dimension of being true family affairs.
The two gentlemen took different approaches in presenting their children. Lake simply announced the names of his two sons, drummer Gene Lake and turntablist Jahi Sundance Lake, and left it to the audience to make the connection. On the other hand, Shankar announced his daughter by introducing her as "my life, Anoushka." Regardless, both concerts featured a parent who successfully passed on his musical tradition to offspring that have embraced that knowledge while still developing their individual voices.
Lake's performance, his Kennedy Center debut, took place Friday night at the KC Jazz Club, a small room that tries to evoke the ambience of a storied jazz club. 
The Cadillac sponsorship keeps any sense of authenticity at bay, but is an unfortunate necessity as the concerts in this room are very reasonably priced given the caliber of the musicians that perform. While the club's atmosphere might feel a bit artificial, it is a cozy sized room with clear sight lines and comfortably spaced seating. Characteristic of performances at the Kennedy Center, the sound was nearly flawless.
The band featured Lake on alto sax, his sons, who have spent time playing together in Me'shell N'Degeocello's band, trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, and B-3 organist Jared Gold. The turntablist, who proved extraneous in the more traditional tunes, shined on the more experimental pieces by providing strong textural underpinnings and some choice samples. Organist Gold laid down a lush harmonic cushion that proved an effective contrast to the sharp and angular approach of the two horn players and drummer Gene Lake.
Image of Oliver Lake from his website; Image of Ravi Shankar from the Washington Performing Arts Society website
The 7:30 p.m. set, recorded for a future NPR broadcast, was representative of this under-appreciated musician's diverse career. The opening tune was "In Walked John," a piece that began with a traditional New Orleans second line groove and went into a charging hard-bop swing for the lengthy solos. An avant-garde tendency was present throughout, as even the more swinging numbers saw the horn players reaching outside the traditional framework while the rhythm section held things together. The group went way outside on tunes such as "Amreen," and "Yo Dance," which were more free form pieces that demanded a lot of concentration from the audience because they lacked a clear structure. Still, the musicians maintained an underlying conversation that displayed a strong group simpatico.
Ravi Shankar's Saturday afternoon concert, presented by the Washington Performing Arts Society and held in the main concert hall, was on the opposite end of the musical spectrum, presenting a program of traditional Hindustani classical music. The recital began on a touching note as the audience, an unusually colorful one thanks to all the sari-clad ladies in the crowd, rose to a standing ovation as Shankar's daughter, Anoushka Shankar (pictured right) escorted her 87-year old father onto the stage. Frail with age, the legendary musician is no longer capable of sitting cross-legged on the floor, as is customary in the Indian classical tradition, and therefore he performed while sitting on a small, raised platform.
Accompanying the father-daughter team for the 90-minute performance was tabla virtuoso Tanmoy Bose, Ravichandra Kulur on kanjira, as well as Kenji Ota and local musician Dave Cipriani on tanpura. The three song set consisted of a traditional raga performed over a seven beat rhythmic cycle, a thumri , which is a less rigid framework for Indian classical music, and it concluded with a short folk tune.
Like one of America's aged musical greats, B.B. King, the elder Shankar used experience along with pure expressiveness and emotion to overcome any technical abilities he has lost. It was revealing to see how his daughter and fellow musicians still looked at him in awe as he entered his own world during his improvisations. Bose's tabla playing was supportive, nuanced, and highly interactive while the younger Shankar is proving that she is worthy of the mantle that will one day be passed to her. Unlike the Lake performance, however, there were some technical issues during this concert. Anoushka Shankar's sitar could have been louder and the kanjira was not coming through the P.A. at all. Despite these flaws, this recital was still memorable, not because of the music heard, but because of the affection seen between a proud father and his devoted daughter.
Image from Anoushka Shankar's MySpace page
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