REMEMBERING GEORGE HARRISON

On Saturday night, my family and I attended a concert in Los Angeles,
which commemorated George Harrison and his love of Indian Music. Five years ago this November, Harrison died of lung cancer in Beverly Hills, and with his passing, he left behind not only a wife and son, but also a body of work that the world will always treasure.

The concert, held at the Japan America Theatre in Little Tokyo, resonated with the beautiful music of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and other talented musicians. Bhatt's instrument, the mohan veena, is a 19-string guitar played lap-top. Bhatt was accompanied by Subhankar Banerjee on the tablas.

After the intermission, Laksmhi Shankar (Ravi Shankar's sistr-in-law) performed four classical vocal pieces.

To the audience's surprise, Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison, and son,
Dhani (17 years old), were both in attendance. Before the concert began, Olivia came up on the stage and spoke of her late husband and his love of Indian music. Even though Harrison was not with us, his presence filled the theater and remained palpable throughout the evening.

At the end of the concert, all the musicians stood on stage along with Olivia and Dhani. The audience was clearly in awe and many people were crying when "Here Comes the Sun," started playing. George Harrison looked down on us from a photo on an easel draped with garlands of marigolds.

A very memorable evening...

In 1973, George Harrison founded the Material World Charitable Foundation to sponsor diverse forms of artistic expression and to encourage the exploration of alernative life views and philosophies. To learn more about his foundation, and to visit other sites of interest please click on the links below:

George Harrrison website
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt website
The Music Circle