Bahauddin Qutbuddin Hamnava - Ya Habibi Ya Muhammad - Qawwali - Cassette from Pakistan

Ustad Bahauddin Qawwal (1934-2006) came from a family which traces its musically extremely rich lineage back to the Qawwal Bachche formed by Amir Khusrow (1253-1325). He received formal musical training from his father, Suleman Khan, and his uncle, Sardar Khan, a legendary Khyal singer of Delhi Gharana. The Delhi Gharana of Tanras Khan is a branch of the Qawwal Bachche Gharana and in both there were many famous singers of classical Raga music and of Qawwali. For example the cousin of Bahauddin, Munshi Raziuddin, a very famous Qawwali singer, was the teacher of his nephew Naseeruddin Saami, an oustanding Khyal singer from Karachi and a cousin of Bahaudin, who used to live just opposite him in the same street.

In the 1950s and 1960s Bahauddin was, together with the legendary Munshi Raziuddin, part of the ensemble of Manzoor Ahmed Khan Niazi Qawwal of whom we had posted earlier an LP (see here). In 1965 Bahaudin formed with his brother Qutbuddin his own ensemble, as did also later Munshi Raziuddin Qawwal. These three ensembles were the great representatives of the old tradition of Qawwali. Today Munshi Raziuddin's son Farid Ayaz is the best one of those carrying on this tradtion.

The German musicologist, producer and festival organizer Peter Pannke brought Bahaudin Qutbuddin Qawwal several times to Germany and Europe. He also produced a CD by him and several beautiful compilations of Pakistani Sufi music like the double CD "Troubadoure Allahs", on which there are tracks by Bahauddin. These can be obtained from: info@raga-maqam-dastgah.com.

See more about Bahauddin in the links given below. Here we present a beautiful cassette from Pakistan. It seems that the name of Bahauddin is not correctly written on the cassette (Bahaddin) but its definitely him.

Side 1 (29:06)

Side 2 (29:18) 

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Many thanks again to Danny for sharing this cassette.

for Bahauddin Qawwal see:
http://www.qawalbachchay.com/?page_id=34
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qawwal_Bahauddin_Khan
see also the excellent blog: http://qaul.blogspot.com/2008/05/1969-mehfil-qawwals-raziuddin-niazi.html

For good articles on Qawwali:
http://www.qawalbachchay.com/?page_id=16
http://www.qawwalniazi.com/#!?page_id=23

Moulvi Ahmed Hassan Beranwale Qawwal & Party - Volume 2 - Cassette published in 1980 in UK

Wonderful Qawwali cassette I bought in the 1980s in Southall. The person on the picture is the senior member of the group and father of the singer Moulvi Ahmed Hassan Beranwale Qawwal. See article below.

Side A:

1. Ya Shah-e-Jillani Pa De Khair (10:34)

2. Dekha Ke Jhalak Tum Chup Hi Gaye (19:26)

Side B:

 1. Music (5:06)

2. Yeh Sach Hai Deegar Nabion Se (24:37)

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"Qawwali has been blessed with many unique voices. Some of them, like Nusrat's, Munshi Raziuddin's or Ghulam Fareed Sabri's,  are justifiably well known. Others, like Murli Qawwal's, Mubarak Ali-Niaz Ali Qawwal's or Rasheed Ahmed Fareedi Qawwal's , are probably not as widely acclaimed as they ought to be. One of the most unique voices in Qawwali was that of Maulvi Ahmed Hassan Akhter Bheranwale Qawwal. Emotive, raspy, mellifluous, with the ability to elicit tons of feeling out of a few notes. He performed mainly in the '70s and 80's with his father - who I'm 90% sure was named Maulvi Akhtar Hassan Qawwal, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong - and his younger brother Maulvi Haider Hassan Qawwal, who currently performs with the remaining members of his elder brother's Qawwali party..

Maulvi Ahmed Hassan quit performing in the late 1980s, which is a real shame because he had a voice and a performance style that was second to none. Performing traditional sufi Kalam in Urdu and Farsi with the same verve and vigour as his Punjabi performances, Maulvi Ahmed Hassan was a true representative of the Punjabi school of Qawwali; imparting a distinctly earthy feel to whatever he sang. The studio recordings he made for OSA are brilliant, with my only gripe being the fact that the recordists didn't place a microphone in front of Maulvi Akhter Hassan, with the result that we can barely hear the senior Qawwal's voice in most of them." 

from: http://lalioutloud.blogspot.de/

Agha Bashir Ahmad Qawwal - Vol. 1 - Qawwali - Cassette from Pakistan

Beautiful old style Qawwali. His full name: Agha Bashir Ahmad Faridi Qawwal.

Side A (30:27)

Side B (30:01)

Download

Many thanks again to Danny who brought all these jewels from a trip to Pakistan many years ago.

Here some background information about the traditions he belonged to:

"Ustad Muhammad Ali Faridi Qawwal:

Ustad Muhammad Ali Faridi is a seminal figure in the history of 20th Century Qawwali, influencing everything from how it is performed to the position of the performers in a Qawwal party. Incorporating Classical Sufi texts with the tradtional Doaba ang of Punjabi gayeki, he created a potent style of Qawwali that proved popular both with the discerning listeners and the masses. Although his recordings date from the mid '30s to the late '60s, he started performing much earlier. Accompanied on his latter recordings by his son Abdul Rahim Faridi, the Ustad displayed a unique and very malleable voice that was very expressive in the upper registers and displayed glimpses of his rather formidable classical training. His list of shagirds includes giants like Agha Rasheed Ahmed Faridi and Agha Bashir Ahmed Faridi along with his son Abdul Rahim Faridi, who in turn instructed modern practitioners like Faiz Ali Faiz Qawwal. The Ustad's lineage continues through his grandson Moeen Ali Faridi Qawwal.

Baba Din Muhammad Jalandhri Qawwal:

When I wrote the earlier post on the Qawwals of the earlier half of the 20th century, I added Din Muhammad Jalandhri almost as an afterthought, because I didn't have any information about him that I could append to his rather wonderful recording. Over time however, I have come to learn a great deal about him and have come to realize his stature among the great Qawwals of the early 20th century. Apart from having an amazingly robust and vociferous andaz, Din Muhammad Qawwal, or Baba Deena Qawwal as the gentlemen over at Rehmat Gramophone House call him, is the forbear of not one but TWO illustrious Qawwali lineages. He was the uncle and ustad of arguably the greatest Qawwals of the 20th century, Fateh Ali - Mubarak Ali Qawwals (who are rightly called Ustadon ke ustad, which makes Din Muhammad Ustadon ke ustadon ka ustad). In turn, Fateh Ali-Mubarak Ali taught performers like the above mentioned Agha Rasheed Ahmad Faridi and Agha Bashir Faridi as well as Bakhshi Salamat Qawwal and of course, their successor Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. And in Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, we see the fourth generation of Baba Din Muhammad carrying the torch forward. His direct lineage too, is impressive to say the least. He was the father of the amazing Miandad Khan Qawwal. Miandad Khan Qawwal and his brother Hafiz Dad Qawwal were affiliated with the shrine of Hz Baba Farid (RA) at Pakpattan and performed till Miandad's death, after which the mantle was taken over by his son, the supremely gifted Badar Miandad Khan Qawwal, who unfortunately like his father, died at a very young age. His younger brothers Sher Miandad Qawwal et al currently perform all over the world."

from: http://lalioutloud.blogspot.de/2012_03_01_archive.html

Robab Dhol Naghma - Robab music from Afghanistan - Cassette published in Peshawar, Pakistan

Wonderful Robab and Dhol music from Afghanistan. Cassette published in Peshawar in Pakistan. Don't be irritated by the western instruments on the cover: this is pure Afghan music at its best.

I'm not able to decipher all the infos given on the cover. One thing I can decipher is the name Abdul Rauf. Probably the name of the Robab player. It would be very welcome if anyone could help

Side A (30:26)

Side B (30:26)

Download

Many thanks again to Danny for sharing this cassette.

More Anokhelal Mishra (1914-1958) - Tabla Solo in Teental in Balaram Pathak's house on 11.9.1957

Here an unpublished Tabla solo by the great master 

recorded by his student Mahapurush Mishra.

Anokhelal Mishra - Tabla

Lahara: Khanna Banerjee

Teental (32:14)

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Pandit Anokhelal Mishra was born in Kashi in 1914. He belonged to the Benaras Gharana of the Tabla. Both his parents died when he was very young and he was brought up by his grandmother. She detected his talent and enrolled him as a student of the Tabla in the Benaras Gharana of Ram Sahaiji. As a child, Anokhelal had to suffer poverty and deprivation. He was put under the tutelage of Pandit Bhairavprasadji, who gave him a rigorous education for 15 continuous years. This really worked wonders. Anokhelal put in unremitting practice, which went on for hours together, every day.
Anokhelalji’s relentless practice lent a unique clarity to his Tabla syllables. He was applauded for his superb ‘Nikas’ (sound production). He was called the wizard of ‘Na Dhin Dhin Na’. He could play these syllables with exceptional clarity, even at a supersonic speed. This assured him a place in history. Anokhelal was a soloist as well as an excellent accompanist.
At a time, when appearance in the National Programme of Music on All India Radio was a matter of immense prestige, Anokhelal figured in the same, a number of times. In the late fifties, his programmes were broadcast by the Voice of America as well. He was afflicted by Gangrene in 1956 and succumbed to it in 1958 at the very young age of 44. Humble and friendly by nature, he was popular all over the country. To him goes the credit of making the audience familiar with the Benaras style of Tabla. Anokhelal trained a number of pupils. His son Ramji Mishra, the late Mahapurush Mishra, Ishwarlal Mishra, Chhotelal Mishra and Kashinath Mishra are some of the prominent pupils of Pt. Anokhelal Mishra.
from: http://www.shawnmativetsky.com/html/tabla/the-benares-tabla-gharana/

Anokhelal Mishra (1914-1958) - Tabla Solo in Teental - recorded on 26.12.1957

Pandit Anokhelal Mishra was a legendary Tabla player of the Benares Gharana.

See about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anokhelal_Mishra

A couple of years ago the Indian label Legendary Legacy published a CD by him. See here. Unfortunately this CD has a completely wrong speed and is therefore very frustrating. A number of years ago somebody shared in the Chandrakantha Forum the same recording with much better sound quality and a more correct speed. It seems that the download link for this recording has disappeared. So here it is again.

Teental: Peshkar, Kaida, Gat, Tukre

Lahara: Jnan Prakash Ghosh

Recorded 26.12.1957

Part 1 (45:38)

Part 2 (7:22)

Apparently from a 90 minutes cassette. There is a small part missing between the two sides. On the CD and also on the YouTube video there was anyway only the first part.

A member of the Chandrakantha Forum community wrote: "On the assumption that the speed was slightly slow beginning at 1:16 I've restored the speed at that point by +2% so that it is now nearly impossible to tell the difference before and after 1:16. I've also removed about 90% of the hiss that's especially prominent in the first half. There's another slight slow down at 11:25. I've also fixed this (by +2%). "  Many thanks for your efforts.

The new sound file is here:

Download corrected version

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Rapidshare: all links work perfectly.

First of all: all links work perfectly. But qite a number of visitors of this blog don't seem to know yet the new policies of Rapidshare: they limited their public traffic as of 27^th of november 2012. So if the message comes up that the public traffic is exhausted you just have to wait till next morning (European time as Rapidshare is based in Switzerland). Please be aware of this when you want to download recordings from this blog. Thank you.

Budhaditya Mukherjee - Sitar Wizard - LP published in India in 1977

This is the very first LP by Budhaditya Mukherjee, published when he was 21 years old. Unfortunately the LP is not a perfect pressing.

Side 1:

Raga Mian Ki Todi (19:00)

Side 2:

1. Raga Yaman (11:13)

2. Tappa in Raga Misra Kafi (7:19)

Download MP3

Download Wave Pt. 1

Download Wave Pt. 2

Ustad Fateh Ali Khan - Vol. 1 - Lok Virsa GM-7 - Cassette from Pakistan

Recently Bosmart had posted on his blog a couple of beautiful cassettes from Pakistan by some of the masters of the Patiala Gharana under the title "Maitres de Patiala". Here a small contibution: a cassette by the great Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, a grandson of one of the two founders of the Patiala Gharana. See about him: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bade_Fateh_Ali_Khan 

Ustad Fateh Ali Khan (born 1935) - Vocal

Amjad Amanat Ali Khan (1953-2002) - Vocal Support

Nazim Ali Khan (died 1999) - Sarangi

Mian Shaukat Hussain Khan (1930-1996) - Tabla

Side A:

1. Raag Megh (Vilambit) (Interview & Demonstration) (4:13)

2. Baat Geet (12:13)

3. Raag Shub Kalyan (Khyal & Tarana) (13:19)

Side B:

Raag Darbari (Khayal & Tarana) (29:48)

Download

Seyed Jalaleddin Mohammadian & Seyed Khalil Alinejad - Ashnayane Rahe Eshgh - Mystical music from Kermanshah, Iran - Cassette from Iran

Seyed Jalaleddin Mohammadian, a singer from Kermanshah, was in the 1980s and 1990s a quite well known classical and mystical (Irfani) singer. He published a couple of cassettes (partly republished as CDs) of classical Iranian music and several cassettes (only one of them published also as CD) with the typical mystical or Irfani music from Kermanshah in Iranian Kurdistan, based on the music of the Ahl-e Haqq sect for which the Tanbur (a long-necked lute) is sacred and plays an important role in their rituals. But in contrast to the ritual music of the Ahl-e Haqq, which is a solist music of a master Tanbur player singing mystical poems from their tradition, Jalaleddin Mohammadian and some other singers like Shahram Nazeri used Sufi poetry by some of the great Persian Sufi poets like Hafiz and Rumi (Molana) and were accompanied by an ensemble consisting of several Tanbur players and several Daf players - the Daf is the big Kurdish frame drum originally used in the Sufi rituals of the Qadiri dervishes. Here we present a very beautiful cassette from the mid 1980s by Seyed Jalaleddin Mohammadian and the famous Tanbur player Seyed Khalil Alinejad (1968-2001). They are accompanied by an ensemble of Tanbur and Daf players.

Side 1 (28:27)
Side 2 (28:59)

Download

Note that on the cover a Tar is pictured, but the instrument played is the Tanbur.

Here a foto of Seyed Khalil Alinejad with his Tanbur.

Raga Maqam Dastgah (contact: info@raga-maqam-dastgah.com) carries a huge selection of CDs of classical Iranian music, music of the Ahl-e Haqq and a number of great Tanbur players. They also have several CDs with the Dhikr rituals of the Qadiri dervishes from Iranian Kurdistan, the origin of the big frame drum Daf. 

Mahmud Mirza & Latif Ahmed Khan - Inde - Musique classique du nord de l'Inde - LP published in France

Probably the first LP by Mahmud Mirza, maybe 

from the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Side A:

Raga Behag (19:24)

Side B:

1. Tabla Solo: Teen Tal (10:16)

2. Kajri (10:04)

Download MP3

Download wave - Pt. I

Download wave - Pt. II

Al-Haj Abd ar-Rahman ben Moussa (1908-1997) - Al-Qur'an al-Karim - TCK 679 - Cassette from Morocco

We post here another cassette by Haj Abd er-Rahman ben Moussa with beautiful Quran recitations, based on so-called "Andalusian" melodies, a style which has almost completely disappeared.

Before we had already published Vol. 1 and Vol. 60 of a complete Quran on 60 cassettes and two of the preceding cassettes (TCK 676 and TCK 677). Cassette TCK 678 is unfortunately in bad shape: in most of it the sound is very muffled. So we omit it here.

Haj Abd er-Rahman ben Moussa was very well known in Morocco as he used to recite the Quran on Moroccan TV and radio for decades. 

This volume is from a series of 8 cassettes. Some volumes were given to me as a gift by some Moroccan friends, some I bought in the late eighties in Brussels. There is also a complete Qur'an on 60 cassettes by him, of which we have posted already the first and last volumes and which I bought in the early or mid nineties, also in Brussels. I don't remember what inspired me in the beginning to look for recordings by him, but I did for many years. Two or three years ago one could still not find anything about him in the internet, but now there are a couple of sites from which one can download his recitations. As this style has more or less completely disappeared, now there seem to be people who feel the loss and are eager to get hold of his recordings.

Side 1:

1. Surat Ibrahim (9:33)

2. Surat al-Kahf (10:40)

Side 2:

Surat Yusuf (18:06)

Download