Oriental Traditional Music from LPs & Cassettes

Sunday, 26 November 2017

Ram Narayan plays Sarangi - A Treasure from Solomon's Mines - A very rare 10" LP published in India in 1957

I never came across another copy of this very rare LP except for the one I was able to buy recently. A couple of years ago I even never had heard that this LP exists. In july 2012 we posted another 10" LP by the same label, their very first one, by the great Vilayat Khan. These were the first LPs ever published in India.

See: http://oriental-traditional-music.blogspot.de/2012/07/vilayat-khan-treasure-from-solomons.html

flac

mp3

Friday, 24 November 2017

Chaturlal (1925-1965) & Ramnarain (Ram Narayan) - Beat and Bow - LP published in India in 1967

flac
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Thursday, 16 November 2017

Imrat Khan - Surbahar & Sitar - Music from India Series 10 - LP published in Great Britain in 1969

Here another LP from the Music from India Series, in which between 1965 and 1969 a number of beautiful recordings were released, which were at the time amongst the most easily available recordings of classical Indian music in Europe. Earlier EMI - His Master's Voice had already released a number of other LPs. We had posted recently two by Vilayat Khan from 1962 and 1963.

See here a complete discography of the Indian releases in the British ASD series:

http://discog.piezoelektric.org/hmvindia/index.php?prefix=ASD

This our 7th LP by Imrat Khan.

flac
mp3

Monday, 13 November 2017

Vilayat Khan - The Genius of Vilayat Khan - LP published in India in 1962

Here our last LP - for now - by the great Vilayat Khan. The two Ragas are from the same recording sessions as the ones on the LP with Tilak Kamod and Bhairavi which was released in 1961. In effect it seems that there were two recording sessions, one with Mohammad Ahmad on Tabla and the other with Santa Prasad on Tabla. The Ahir Bhairav here and the Tilak Kamod on the LP from 1961 are with Mohammad Ahmad and the Khamaj on our LP here and the Bhairavi on the LP from 1961 are with Santa Prasad.

These two LPs are amongst the very first LPs of classical Indian music published by the Gramophone Company of India. The EALP series started with the number 1251 (Ravi Shankar & Ali Akbar Khan) in 1960.

See: http://discog.piezoelektric.org/hmvindia/index.php?prefix=EALP/EASD

flac

mp3

Wednesday, 8 November 2017

Vilayat Khan - Music of India - Vilayat Khan - No. 2 - LP published in Great Britain in 1963

The first volume from 1962 we had posted in 2016. See here. On the back Imrat Khan is also mentioned as playing the Surbahar. But this was true only for the first volume.

flac

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Saturday, 4 November 2017

Vilayat Khan - Raga Yaman - LP published in 1972 in India

flac

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Thursday, 2 November 2017

Vilayat Khan - Music from India Series 11 - LP published in England in 1969

We continue now our series of LPs by the great Vilayat Khan. Here we post the English edition of an LP which was released also the same year in India, but with a different cover:

The reason why we choose the English edition, though we have the Indian edition in our collection, is that English pressings are of better quality.

This English edition we received from LF from Scotland. Many thanks to him for sharing so generously.

flac

mp3

Monday, 30 October 2017

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

flac

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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:

Wednesday, 25 October 2017

Girija Devi (8 May 1929 – 24 October 2017) passed away yesterday - In her memory a program from AIR Delhi broadcast on 7th of July 1989

'Girija Devi's demise an irreparable loss to Banaras Gharana'

VARANASI: Demise of great vocalist and Thumri queen Girija Devi came as a big shocker to the music lovers of Varanasi, the birth place of the eminent singer. Girija Devi, fondly known as Appa ji, passed away in a hospital in Kolkata on Tuesday evening. She was 88.

"It is an irreparable loss to Indian music and Banaras Gharana of music. She was a guiding figure for us," said noted Sarod player and Yash Bharati recipient Pt. Vikash Maharaj. "She was ailing for some time, and admitted to BM Birla Hospital in Kolkata in the morning. She left for the heavenly abode in the evening," he said adding that she had been living in Kolkata with her daughter.

"No one can fill the gap. Even at 88 her scintillating voice could leave the audience spell bound. She was perhaps the last exponent of thumri, tappa, chaiti and khayal. I heard her singing in an award ceremony in New Delhi on August 27," said Ashok Kapoor, founder of a cultural organization Kala Prakash working for the cause of Indian music.

Though settled in Kolkata, she regularly visited Varanasi. She was born in Varanasi in 1929. She took lessons in singing khayal and tappa from vocalist Sarju Prasad Misra in early childhood. She worked as a faculty member of the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata in the 1980s and of the Banaras Hindu University during the early 1990s. She was a prominent performer of purabi ang thumri style of Banaras gharana. She was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2016.

from: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/demise-of-girija-devi-an-irreparable-loss-to-banaras-gharana/articleshow/61211761.cms

Tuesday, 24 October 2017

Ibrahim al-Haggar (1922 - 2000) & Takht Ensemble - Classical Arab Music from Cairo, Egypt - WDR 1972

Here we present - as promised in our post on Salah Abd al-Hayy - broadcasts by Ibrahim al-Haggar, the great Maqam singer from Egypt. The recordings are from a concert that took place in the framework of a Unesco Festival in Cologne (and also Berlin), probably in 1972. The concert was never broadcast as a whole, but parts of it were broadcast by WDR between 1972 and 1975.

We received these recordings recently from our friend KF. Many thanks to him. He also send us notes on the pieces he had written down back then. See here the corresponding pages as a pdf file.

In the same year a wonderful LP by the same singer and his ensemble was published in the Unesco Collection "Musical Sources" under the title: "Taqasim and Layali - Cairo Tradition". The LP contained only one vocal track, all the others were instrumental pieces. The LP was later rereleased as a CD by the French label Auvidis in their Unesco collection. Now it is available as a download in mp3 and flac formats here. The booklet can be downloaded for free here.