Ravi Shankar (1920–2012)

From the New York Times obituary:

Mr. Shankar, a soft-spoken, eloquent man whose performance style embodied a virtuosity that transcended musical languages, was trained in both Eastern and Western musical traditions. Although Western audiences were often mystified by the odd sounds and shapes of the instruments when he began touring in Europe and the United States in the early 1950s, Mr. Shankar and his ensemble gradually built a large following for Indian music.

Shankar’s 1967 Monterey Pop Festival performance of “Dhun (Dadra and Fast Teental)” with Alla Rakha and Kamala Chakravarty must be one of the most exciting moments of music on film, preserved in Monterey Pop (dir. D. A. Pennebaker, 1968).