Oriental Traditional Music from LPs & Cassettes

Monday, 16 March 2015

Gharanon Ki Gaiki - Schools of Music - Set of 20 cassettes published in 1978 in Pakistan

Over the next couple of weeks we will post the 20 cassettes from this wonderful box devoted to the vocal Gharanas existing in Pakistan. Many of the singers were amongst the greatest of their times, though some were hardly known outside some circles of connoisseurs. The singers were accompanied by equally great Sarangi and Tabla players. Just wonderful. I bought this box in the early 1980s in a Pakistani record shop in Southall near London.

Saturday, 7 March 2015

Chitti Babu (1936-1996) - Veena - LP published in India in 1967

Another beautiful LP by Chitti Babu. See here the one we had posted last year.

Download flac

Download mp3

Wednesday, 25 February 2015

Ali Akbar Khan (1922-2009) - Sarod - Raga Ahir Bhairav - Raga Durgeshwari - LP published in India in 1973

Download flac

Download mp3

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

Dhyanesh Khan (1942-1990) - Master of the Sarod - LP published in Germany in 1978

The only commercial recording by the late second son of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. I saw him live in Düsseldorf, Germany, probably the same year this LP was recorded.

Download flac

Download mp3

On the artist see:
http://sarod-atish.technokraftsolutions.com/mygurus.html

Friday, 13 February 2015

Anjanibai Lolekar (born 1928) - LP published in India in 1968

Here the third post of great female voices of the Agra Gharana. Anjanibai Lolekar was born on 8.9.1928. She learnt from Ustad Anwar Hussain Khan (1910-1966), a brother of Ustad Khadim Hussain Khan and Ustad Latafat Hussain Khan. If she is still living, I don't know. Hardly anything can be found about her in the internet.

Download flac
Download mp3

Thursday, 5 February 2015

Dipali Nag (1922-2009) - Raga Jaijaiwanti, Raga Jaunpuri & Bhairavi Thumri - LP published in 1972 in India

Here the second great female voice of Agra Gharana.

Download flac

Download mp3

On the artist see:

http://www.itcsra.org/sra_news_views/obituary/dipali_nag.html

Wednesday, 4 February 2015

Recently found in the internet: some treasure troves containing many jewels of classical Raga music.

A true wealth of partly very rare historical recordings:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjTZsoYEKdqaqwgtQZqVS3A/videos

Another treasure trove of rare historical recordings:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJM1Py5-MyetFGG7M0fyQqQ/videos

Abhimonyu Deb started recently a channel with old videos from Doordarshan:
https://www.youtube.com/user/bileydeb/videos

Here his Mediafire folder with many rare AIR recordings and some 78 rpm records:
http://www.mediafire.com/?stpc5rgt65o4i

Nicolas Magriel has redesigned his Sarangi website and included now many videos by some of the Sarangi teachers he had recorded in the 1990s:
http://www.sarangi.net/index.php/8-about/2-about-sarangi-net

Here you can find on video the complete program of the Dhrupad Festival in New Delhi in memory of Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Khan Dagar and Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar held from Friday, Feb 21 till Sunday, Feb 23, 2014. If anybody finds a way to download them please share this with us.
http://webcast.gov.in/ignca/index.html

Friday, 30 January 2015

Lalith Rao - Raga Bihag, Raga Kedar, Thumri - LP published in India in 1985

We will publish here three LPs by great female voices of the Agra Gharana. We start with the only LP by Lalith Rao (born in 1942). More recent recordings are available on several CDs.

Download flac
Download mp3

About the Agra Gharana, a particularly masculine style, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agra_gharana
http://sahapedia.org/the-agra-gharana-of-hindustani-music/
http://www.nadsadhna.com/Pages/IndianMusic/Gharanas.asp?About=Agra
https://agragharana.wordpress.com/

About Lalith Rao see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalith_J._Rao

Recently this wonderful box was published in India
(can be ordered from info@raga-maqam-dastgah.com):

Khadim Hussain Khan, Lalith J. Rao a.o. - Agra Gharana – Ek Vatavriksh – The Legacy Continues – An Agra Gharana Heritage Collection, Set of 4 CDs in box, CD 1: Khadim Hussain Khan (Vocal) – Rare Live Concert Recordings: Raga Bhim: Alap & Rupak Tal (1979) (26:58), Raga Bihag: Alap & Dhamar, Vilambit Ektal & Drut Teental (1978) (39:24), Raga Bhairavi: Keherwa (1976) (8:16), CD 2: Lalith J. Rao (Vocal), Purushottam Walawalkar (Harmonium) & Deppak Nerurkar (Tabla) – Volume 1: Raga Shree: Vilambit Teental, Madhyalaya Jhaptal & Drut Teental (1987) (65:32), CD 3: Lalith J. Rao (Vocal), Purushottam Walawalkar (Harmonium) & Deppak Nerurkar (Tabla) – Volume 2: Raga Dhanashri: Vilambit Ektal & Drut Teental (1987) (28:25), Raga Barwa: Alap & Drut Teental (1987) (38:30), CD 4 (MP3): Khadim Hussain Khan (Vocal) – Raga Maluha Kedar (30:33), Raga Darbari Kanhada (10:11), Raga Sajan Sohini (6:13), Lalith J. Rao (Vocal) – Raga Gorakh Kalyan (53:04), Raga Basant – Tarana (19:22), Torch Bearers of the Agra Gharana – Bharathi Prathap (Vocal) – Raga Bageshree Bahar (35:50), Pilu Thumri (11:17), Deepa Karnad (Vocal) – Raga Shuddh Sarang (37:31), Kailash Kulkarni (Vocal) – Raga Malkauns (45:28), Meera Sahasrabudhe (Vocal) – Raga Jog (30:52), Nishant Panicker (Vocal) - Raga Kedar (31:25), Pratima Ganesh (Vocal) - Raga Jaunpuri (35:07), Susheela Mehta (Vocal) - Raga Miyan ki Todi (27:47), Raga Khem Kalyan (11:08), Tara Kini (Vocal) - Raga Bahaduri Todi (36:46), PRAGNYA

Excellent product with wonderful recordings. The prodigiously learned Ustad Khadim Hussain Khan Saheb (1907-1993) was considered to be one of the foremost Agra gayaki singers of his time. Born in Atrauli (in Uttar Pradesh) in 1907, he studied music from his father Altaf Hussain Khan and then went on to receive the rich and varied repertoire of the Agra Gharana from his grand uncle Kallan Khan, both celebrities of their time and court musicians of Jaipur. Young Khadim`s studentship with the latter who was the younger son of Ghagge Khuda Baksh, the gharana`s pioneer was long and arduous: it lasted for 12 hours everyday for over 12 years.

He was far more widely known as an ideal teacher than as a concert performer. Moreover, his proficiency in Layakari was beyond the comprehension of the uninitiated listener. The number of Khadim Hussain’s pupils is legion and includes well-known artistes of the past and present. Ustad Latafat Hussain (his younger brother) and Lalith Rao were among his disciples who made a name in the field.

Lalith Rao (born 1942) is an outstanding singer of the Agra Gharna, one of the very rare singers today who still keep alive the magnificient style of the Agra Gharana in all it’s facets.

Excellent recordings with good sound quality. The MP3-CD (7 hours long) contains next to recordings by the two masters a number of beautiful new studio recordings by students of Lalith Rao, all accompanied on Tabla by Shashibhushan Gurjar or Gurunandan Kallianpur and on Harmonium by Vyasmurti Katti.

Saturday, 24 January 2015

Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan - Sitar - Raga Araj & Raga Madhyami - LP published in India in 1973

Another beautiful LP - the 8th posted on this blog - by the great master.

Download wave

Download mp3

Friday, 16 January 2015

Ali Akbar Khan (1922-2009) - Sarod - LP published in 1967 in India

Another beautiful LP by the great master - the 10th we post here on this blog. I received this one - which I used to have in the 1970s as a LP, but later only as a copy on CD - recently as an additional free LP when I ordered some LPs in India. The condition of the LP itself and of the cover is not the very best, unfortunately.

Tabla: Shankar Ghosh