Showing posts with label sarangi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sarangi. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Musique traditionelle de l'Inde - Recorded 1954 by Deben Bhattacharya


Musique traditionelle de l'Inde
Ragas de Bénarès recueillis et enregistrés en 1954 par Deben Bhattacharya
Bôite à Musique - BAM LD 014 - P.1964


Side A

A1 Mya Ki malhar (vina et acct)
A2 Bhairavï (flûte de bambou et tampura)
A3 Adana (sarangi et tabla)
A4 Chant de Mirabai (chant et accompagn' instrumental)

Side B

B1 Marubihag (2 sahnai, 2 duggis et svara)
B2 Bageshri (chant, sarangi et tabla)
B3 Puravi (esraj et tabla)




Here are some more recordings by Deben Bhattacharya. These must be some of the first recordings he ever made in India after having practiced in London on the expatriate Indian musicians there. The following are some of his own words about the hardships of financing the recording trip to Benares, culled from a quite interesting interview made with him in 1982 by Kevin Daly.

"I needed £80 for the tape recorder, about £20 for the transformer, and another £25 or so for 20 blank tapes to take with me, plus about £60 for a one way boat ticket to Bombay. Where was I going to get all this money? The Third Programme wouldn’t give me an advance, although I had a guarantee that they would take programmes when I came back. Then I met a lady called Sunday Wilson – extraordinary name – who was a producer for the overseas service. She commissioned me for six five-minute programmes. I got five pounds – no! – five guineas each, so that was £30.6.0 towards it! Some weeks after that, the poet Stephen Spender had started his new magazine ‘Encounter’, and had approached me to write an article on Indian poetry. We met, and when I told him I was going to India, he was very kind, and gave me an advance on two further articles. So that’s how I collected the money for my first recording trip: from Encounter, from Sunday Wilson, and from Harley Usill. Argo didn’t have much money, but they gave me £25, they paid for the Gaumont-British machine, and the tapes against future royalties." Read the full text here...

This record contains more of the classical repertoire. It was recorded in 1954 in Benares but was not issued until ten years after that under the sponsorship of l'Association Française des Amis de l'Orient, so I guess it consists of material that was not selected for publication by the Argo company. Liner notes are again in french...


vina

shahnai & duggi


esraj





Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Ram Narayan - Master of the Sarangi




Ram Narayan - Master of the Sarangi - Classical Music of India
Nonesuch - H 72062 P. 1975



Side 1

A1 Rag Shri 20'28
A2 Tabla solo in Jhaptal 4'10

Side 2

B1 Bhupal Todi 11'23
B2 Kafi Malhar 9'36


Suresh Talwalkar, tabla


Having had access to the internet since the early days of the eighties,(I got my first email adress
in 1984,) I am still today completely overjoyed as a little child with regards to the speed of getting information and the relative ease with witch one can find likeminded spirits through this facility. I have to repeatedly rub my eyes to realize that this is not a dream, and lately I have come across so many nice and generous people that makes sharing these records and the doing my small edits to a genuine pleasure.

Having collected so much music over the years it feels very good to make at least some of them available to more listeners.

So, since there was a real rapid interest in Ram Narayan and also from some of my local and distant friends from pre-internet days I decided to post some more right away before I go on to the next set of records and other artists.

Don't miss that there is a good discography on the wikipedia you can consult here.
And don't forget to read the liner notes on the backside!




Ram Narayan - Sarangi, the voice of hundred colors





Ram Narayan - Sarangi, the voice of hundred colors
Nonesuch - H 72030 - P.1968




Side 1

A1 Nand Kedar 19'45

Side 2

B1 Jogia (Thumri) 11'57
B2 Dhun Khamaj That 7'43

Mahapurush Misra, tabla

This is another very good recording of the master musician Ram Narayan. He is still a favourite of mine and I still find this recording to have a freshness and a vitality of a remarkable quality. There is quite a bit to read about him in the Wikipedia here, and for once the liner notes on the back of the record sleeve, (included as always) are most informative and the first few paragraphs puts Ram Narayan and this record in perspective of the times it was issued. Don't miss the Jogia!




Saturday, June 12, 2010

Classical Music of India - Recordings by John Levy P.1969



Classical Music of India
Featuring renowned soloists
Recordings by John Levy
Nonesuch Explorer - H 72614 - P. 1969




Side 1

A1 Bansri (tranverse flute) Yaman 8'10 Devindra Murdeshwar
A2 Sarangi (fiddle) Puriyadhanashri 6'12 Fateh Khan
A3 Jaltarang (cup-harmonicon) Bhupali 4'35 Chintamani Jain
A4 Thumri (love-song) Bhairavi 6'11 Mohammed Ismail

Side 2

B1 Rudra Vina (stick zither) Chandrakauns 5'40 Zia Mohiuddin Dagar
B2 Haveli Sangit (devotional song) Gauri 14'25 Amarlal
B3 Naubat Shahna'i (Royal Gateway Music) Todi 7'40 Suleiman Jumma & Sumar Jumani, Abdullah Ramatulla



This LP comes with an accompanying leaflet with annotations by John Levy and Jairazbhoy.


Graciously recieved by his Excellency, who was in very good spirits, I partook in an unplanned and most impromptu repast at his mansion some afternoons ago. As on previous occasions music is always omnipresent, and in the continued sitting that ensued, where selfless presence were being expounded while leisurly sipping tea contemplating the there and now, we came upon the topics of many good artists that have long passed. And sighing, that even thou there are many young budding talents, the reasons for making the music seems to have fundamentally changed.


Suleiman Jumma & Sumar Jumani, Abdullah Ramatulla

His Excellency suddenly mentioned the Naubat Shahna'i piece represented on the LP in the latest blogpost, the John Levy compilation on CBS. I was bemused that he took time to follow my blog and even more so when he said he had been inspired by the idea to preserve these old records and I was very happy indeed to see him pulling out another record, saying that those recordings, also by John Levy, must have been made around the same time as the one in my post. To my big surprise there was not only tracks with Naubat Shahna'i, but one more track with jaltarang, also by Chintamani Jain, a sarangi track by Fateh Khan and above all, a short but very good Chandrakauns, played on the been by Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.


Zia Mohiuddin Dagar


Chintamani Jain

Hidayat Khan

Mohammed Ismail

He kindly lent me his copy of the record and I hope you will all enjoy. He was even kind enough to let me botanize on my own in the shelves, so I can assure you that there are several other good and rare records that will follow. It was also understood that our meetings could maybe be elevated to a jour fixe, set aside for music and contemplation.


Devindra Murdeshwar

Fateh Khan

Amarlal




Thursday, June 10, 2010

Hindustani - A Panorama of North Indian Music



Hindustani - A Panorama of North Indian Music - Sounds of the World
CBS - CBS 63519 P. 1969 (recordings by John Levy)



A1 Surbahar - Rag Kirwani - Chandrashekar Naringrekar
A2 Mirabai Bhajan - Rag Madh - Mohanlal Rayani
A3 Jaltarang - Rag Gunakri - Chintamani Jain

B1 Naubat Shanna'i - Rag Sindhu Bhairavi
B2 Tabla solo - Fayyaz Khan
B3 Sarangi - Raag Maru Bihaag - Sabri Khan




I'll share some more instrumental Hindustani Classical before I move on to the vocal.
I passed by the editorial office of Panchamkauns the other day and as they were all out for lunch, I started to skim through the dimly lit shelfs in a storageroom behind the office when I stumbled upon this absolutely forgotten wax. It was standing there with some Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, a few Balachanders, and generally items that no one seemed to have given a thought about for ages.

As I had never seen it before and as it contained a track that I had never heard by my friend Chandu, the Sitar & Surbahar player who prematurely passed away only a few years ago. I decided to quickly save that and some of the others for posterity and as it turns out, no one at the office has missed them yet. I guess they are all busy writing critiques of newly released CD's anyhow. I will return them of course, but not until I've digitized them and shared them here...


Chandrasekhar "Chandu" Naringrekar 1936 - 2004


Sabri Khan 1927 -


Naqqara & Shahnai - The Royal Gateway Music




Here is the first of the records I lifted off their shelfs ...