Ravi Shankar and Ray Charles

Photo:Charles Hammarsten

See the video from the prize ceremony

"This day of my life I'm truly overwhelmed, I want you people to know that. For a little boy coming from the country, very poor. And to be in the company of a King... I could never in my wildest dreams... I thank you from the bottom of my heart." - Ray Charles

"När hjärtat är fullt, liksom magen blir man mållös - ialla fall blir jag det. Jag har egentligen inget annat att framföra än ett stort tack från djupet av mitt hjärta för denna underbara tillställning, denna Polarprisfest, som jag delat med min nye vän Ray Charles." - Ravi Shankar

Citations

Ravi Shankar - legendary sitar player, composer, teacher and, in recent years, far and away India's most outstanding ambassador of music, is awarded the 1998 Polar Music Prize for nearly six decades of achievement as a brilliant performer and explorer of his country's art music and at the same time a leading representative and communicator to western civilisation of the musical traditions of the Orient.

In India itself, his position as a master of his instrument, the sitar, was long established when, in the 1950,s he embarked on the international career which was eventually to earn him a global reputation in music. Through innumerable concert tours, gramophone recordings and joint projects in large parts of the world, Ravi Shankar has done more than anybody else to build bridges of growing understanding and interest between Eastern and Western music.

His innate curiosity and desire for exploration beyond the established boundaries - always in a process of mutual inspiration - have led him to establish friendships and fruitful contacts with eminent musicians in many different places and many different kinds of music, ranging from Yehudi Menuhin to Hosan Yamamoto and The Beatles. As regards his own musical language, the result has been an extensive amalgamation of Indian and various western elements, for example in both musicals and film music.

For half a century now, a half-century characterised by pluralism and by a breath-taking global development of cultural interchange, Ravi Shankar, by virtue of his consummate musicianship and his unique efforts for the propagation of his country's music, has stood out as one of the great musical personalities of our time.

Ravi Shankar Web Site:
www.ravishankar.org

The 1998 Polar Music Prize goes to pianist, singer, arranger and composer Ray Charles, one of the leading figures of soul music and an important stylistic innovator with an unusual diversity of musical roots - tapping the principal genres of American music - a man whose presence, ever since the 1950s, has been perceptible behind generations of innumerable pop musicians and singers.

The musical characteristics of his mature style - a continuation of the blues and jazz elements of black music and of the living gospel tradition with its intensity and powerful soul character are already emphatically present in such breakthrough compositions as "I've got a woman" (1954). During the 1960s, his focus on the entertainment scene and white his music and quarters but amounted to a major and enduring success with audiences, setting the seal on an important international career.

Ray Charles, with his music and his powerful personal vocal style, has inspired and guided succeeding generations of musicians, and not only in his own country - people like Stevie Winwood, Aretha Franklin and Joe Cocker - in a way which few can rival.

The importance of Ray Charles and his artistry can be summed up in many ways: compelling, expressive and versatile singer and pianist, charismatic stage artist and crowd-puller, ingenious music-maker....But no epithet, probably, could be more accurate and profoundly honourable than that which he has above personified throughout his career, namely "Father of Soul".

Ray Charles Web Site:
www.raycharles.com