Lakshminarayana Shankar, a violinist, singer, and composer, teaches Indian Classical styles by incorporating them into Western musics. He has found a comfortable style that melds and combines classical Indian influences and jazz devices. He moved to America in 1969, eventually earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan, where he began meeting jazz musicians like Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Garrison, and John McLaughlin while working as a teaching assistant and concert master of the university chamber orchestra. He studied with McLaughlin in 1973, and two years later, they co-founded the group Shakti, which was active until 1978. During the '80s and beyond, Shankar recorded periodically as a leader, doing both jazz-based material and Indian classical music. He's also worked with rockers Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Frank Zappa, Talking Heads, Bruce Springsteen, and Lou Reed.

The Epidemics, the rock band he co-formed (with British composer Caroline) in 1982, released several albums, including The Epidemics, Do What You Do, and Eye Catcher. The two also worked in an Indian quartet with Shankar's father, V. Lakshminarayana, and his sister, Gana Rao. (Those group's four albums are Panca Nadai Pallavi, Galaxy, Nobody Told Me, and Soul Searcher.) ~ Ron Wynn & John Bush, Rovi