Wednesday, 29 March 2017
Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Vilayat Khan & Bismillah Khan - Duets - LP released in Great Britain in 1967
This was one of the most popular LPs of classical Indian music in the 1960s and 1970. It is very surprising that it never was released on CD. Perhaps the master tape got lost.
This was one of my first LPs of Raga music. The first one was the legendary "Pakistani Soul Session" with the great Sarangi master Ustad Nathu Khan (see here), the second the very beautiful LP "North Indian Master of the Sarod" by Ali Akbar Khan (see here). One or two years later (1969 or 1970) I bought in Holland two LPs: my very first Ravi Shankar (see here) and the one posted here.
Saturday, 18 March 2017
Vilayat Khan - The Supreme Genius of Ustad Vilayat Khan - LP released in India in 1968
Here one of the most legendary LPs of Vilayat Khan. It was later also released on CD, but unfortunately it seems that they lost the master tape and took a defective recording as the source for the CD. I checked copies from several generations of the CD. They all had the same defect.
So the best is to have the original LP. I bought this one in Southall near London in the mid 1970s.
Tuesday, 14 March 2017
Friday, 10 March 2017
Vilayat Khan - Ameer Khusrau - A Tribute by Ustad Vilayat Khan - LP published in India in 1975
Here we present a wonderful LP by the great Ustad Vilayat Khan. It is interesting to compare his Raga Saazgiri, a creation by Ameer Khusrau, with the one performed the same year by another outstanding Sitar player, Ustad Mohammad Sharif Khan Poonchwale of Pakistan, also performed as a tribute to Hazrat Amir Khusrau. See here.
We will post in the next couple of weeks about four more LPs by Ustad Vilayat Khan.
Sunday, 5 March 2017
Folk Music of Central Asia - West Turkistan - LP published in Japan in 1968
Here we present another LP from Japan which was never on the market in Europe or the US, but this time for license restriction reasons, as the recordings were licensed for sale in Japan only from the Soviet state owned label Melodiya.
On side 1 we have three recordings from Turkmenistan and three from Uzbekistan, on side 2 there are three tracks from Tajikistan and three from Kyrgyzstan, at that time all republics of the Soviet Union.
Wednesday, 1 March 2017
Jurakhan Sultanov (1893-1964) - Old Masters of Arts of Uzbekistan, Vol. 18 - LP published in Soviet Uzbekistan in 1986 (1950s)
Jurakhan Sultanov (Jura-Khon Sultanov, Джурахон Султанов) was considered the greatest voice in classical Maqom music in Uzbekistan in mid twentieth century. He had an extremely powerful and beautiful voice. In 2011 we posted a double LP which had one track by him. See here. He belonged to the Maqom tradition of the Ferghana Valley. Unfortunately there are not many recordings by him. Partly this is due to a Russian who was the director of the radio at that time. He always thought that the singer had a sore throat and asked him to come back when he felt better.
Here we present an LP re-released in 1986. It was originally published in the 1950s. At least one track (no. 4) was recorded already in 1938.
For a long time he sang together with his best student Mamurjan Uzakov (1904-1964). See the two cassettes we posted in 2011 here. Around 1955, Mamurjan Uzakov started a career on his own.
On this LP one hears in most tracks two singers in perfect "vocal unison" (jura avazi), also called "in a single breath" (ham nafas).
Information partly taken from the booklet of the wonderful CD "Ouzbekistan - Les Grandes voix du passé (1940-1965)", unfortunately no longer available for many years (Ocora, C 560142, 1999). This CD has three tracks by the singer. The booklet was written by Jean During.
Here the track information of our LP in transcription and translation:
1. Okh, kim (folk music - Z. Furkat); 2. V sadu (folk music - Z.
Khabibi); 3. Besh parda suvora (classical melody - Agakhi, A. Navoi); 4.
Sodirkhoi ushshogi (folk music - Dzhami); 5. Savti suvora (classical melody - Agakhi); 6. Gde moya lyubimaya (folk music - Lutfi); 7. Khanuz
(folk music - A. Navoi); 8. Bulmish (A. Khatamov - A. Navoi).
The names in the brackets are the poets of the songs. The first name in the last track is probably the composer of the song, the famous singer Orifxon Xatamov. See our posts of this great singer here.
The accompanying singers are:
Mamatbuva Sattarov, Zakirdzhan Ergashev (7), Mamurdzhan Uzakov (4),
Arifkhan Khatamov (Orifxon Xatamov) (8).
Accompanied by an ensemble of folk instruments.
Recorded in the 1950s.
Seriya «Stareyshiye mastera iskusstv Uzbekistana» (Old Masters of Arts of Uzbekistan), vypusk 18 (volume 18).
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