Damodarlal Kabra demonstrates Ragalap - Recorded in Jodhpur on 23.7.1975

New covers created by Coltra (see comments):

With these very beautiful privately recorded Alaps we conclude our posts on Damodarlal Kabra. See here our other posts on the artist:

http://oriental-traditional-music.blogspot.de/search/label/Damodarlal%20Kabra

We received these recordings recently from our friend KF. Many thanks to him for sharing.

"Ustad Ali Akbar Khan came to Jodhpur in 1944 as court musician of the erstwhile Marwar state and came across Damodarlal Kabra. Soon Kabra became Ustad Ali Akbar Khan's first disciple and started learning the fine notes of Maihar Gharana. His hard work and commitment for pure music found new dimensions under his Guru's teachings. 

Damodarlal Kabra loveably called 'Damoodada' never had quest for publicity. He maintained a low profile instead. In 1956, he first played in Calcutta and won a big acclaim there. In May 1959, his Sarod recital was first heard by the Radio listeners across the country in Akashwani's National Programme of Music. 'Dada' always wanted to promote the rich Indian classical music. In 1957, he founded "Rashtriya Kala Mandal' in Jodhpur. Many musicians worked here as teachers, in this college and many great musicians have been students of this college.

'Dada' passed away on 4th August, 1979. After hearing about this legendary tabla player of Banaras Kishan Maharaj uttered " The front page of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan's music has flown away". 'Dada' taught music to many people. His disciples include Manju Mehta, Vikas Gupta, Amubhai Doshi, Imu Desai, Krishna Mohan Bhatt and Laxmi Kant Doshi.

This humble and great musician always maintained a low profile, but his music is still alive and his son Basant Kabra is a true representative of this."

from: http://www.kabrabasant.com/BIOGRAPHIES.html

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Damodarlal Kabra's only commercial LP (republished as a CD) was a Jugalbandi with his younger brother Brij Bhushan Kabra, today also available on many download and streaming services:

2 Ragas - LP published 1969 in Sweden

Here the promised LP with another side by Damodarlal Kabra and Manju Bhatt. See the one before here. Recorded in Jodhpur, India, in 1968 by Deben Bhattacharya. About the flutist on side 2 I don't know anything.

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The Sitar of India - LP published in UK in 1971

Here we post a LP published in "The Living Tradition" series, recorded in India in 1968 by Deben Bhattacharya. This LP is interesting mainly because it contains one of the very few recordings of the great, but unfortunately little known Sarod player Damodarlal Kabra, the older brother of the famous Slide Guitar player Brij Bhushan Kabra. Damodarlal Kabra was the very first student of Ali Akbar Khan during the time when he was court musician in Jodhpur. That was in Ali Akbar Khan's early twenties. On Damodarlal Kabra see here.

We had already posted in 2013 a LP with one side by Damodarlal Kabra, also recorded in 1968 by Deben Bhattacharya. See here. Next we will post another LP published in Sweden, also with one side by him and Manju Bhatt, recorded at the same time as this one. 

Manju Bhatt, later after marriage known as Manju Mehta, with whom he plays here a Jugalbandi, was at that time completely unknown. She is the older sister of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and studied with Damodarlal Kabra and Ravi Shankar. In the last years a couple of CDs by her were published in India and UK. She also was the co-founder of one of the biggest festivals of Classical Indian Music in India, the Saptak Festival. 

On side B there is another important, but little known musician: Umashankar Mishra, one of the very first students of Ravi Shankar and a very fine musician. On him see here. One would have wished that Deben Bhattacharya would have recorded a solo performance by him.

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Damodarlal Kabra (Sarod) & Jyotish C. Choudhury (Surbahar & Surashringar) - Ragas - Sunrise and Sunset - LP published in US in 1968

Damodarlal Kabra, older brother of the famous slide guitar player Brij Bhushan Kabra, was a well-known Sarod player in the 1960s and 1970s. He was one of the early students of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

Jyotish C. Choudhury was a Surbahar and Surashringar (Surshringar) player from Benares.

Recorded in India by Deben Bhattacharya.

Side 1:

Damodarlal Kabra (Sarod) - Raga Natabhairava (20:36)

Side 2:

Jyotish C. Choudhury 

1. Surbahar - Raga Yaman-Kalyan (13:18)

2. Surashringar - Raga Bhimpalashri (7:05) 

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