Ustad Rahimuddin Dagar - Raga Shudh Sarang & Ustad Sayeeduddin Dagar - Compositions in Ragas Kedar & Malkauns

Yesterday Raagam, the internet radio of All India Radio, which broadcasts 24 hours a day 7 days a week classical Indian music, had a Dhrupad program with Ustads Rahimuddin Dagar and Sayeeduddin Dagar. 

Raga Shudh Sarang by Ustad Rahimuddin Dagar (1902-1976) was wrongly announced as being by Dagar Bandhu (Dagar Brothers). But it is performed by the great Rahimuddin Dagar, probably with vocal support by his son Fahimuddin Dagar (1927-2011). Another great performance by the great master.

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This program was preceded by a performance of some Dhrupad compositions by Ustad Sayeeduddin Dagar (1939-2017): 

Raga Kedar - Dhrupad & Dhamar

Raga Malkauns - Dhrupad

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For Raagam see:

http://www.airbengaluru.com/cue-sheets/raagam-2/

http://allindiaradio.gov.in/Default.aspx

Rahimuddin Khan Dagar (1901-1976) - Raga Rageshri-Kanhara - Recording (1960) from the archives of AIR released as a cassette in India in 1990

We continue our Dhrupad series with an outstanding recording by Ustad Rahimuddin Khan Dagar. Our blogger friend Bolingo had posted in 2011 the LP which was released the same year, but unfortunately only in mp3 format, as was normal at that time when storage space was still a big issue. Here we offer the cassette both in flac and mp3 formats.

We bought this cassette in the same shop in Little India in Mahattan, NY, as the Mushtaq Ali Khan cassette. I still remember very vividly how happy I was to find these two cassettes as I had heard of these musicians a lot before, but never was able to obtain any music by them.

Last month we had already two posts by the artist. There you can find more information on the artist.

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Ustad Nasir Aminuddin Khan Dagar - Ragas Lalita Gauri, Adana, Bhatiyar & Komal Rishabh Asavari

Here we present some recordings from Saptak Festival in 1982 (apparently from a 90 min. cassette) and an All India Radio Program broadcast in March 2001. Many thanks to KF for the recordings and the covers.

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CD 2- flac

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Nasir Aminuddin Khan Dagar (1923-2000) - Cassette published in India in 1985

Here a beautiful cassette by Aminuddin Dagar of the Senior Dagar Brothers. Judging from the sound of the recordings it was recorded at the same time as the LP published in 1983. Bolingo posted this LP in 2011 on his wonderful blog. See here.

On the artist see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aminuddin_Dagar

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In my shop on Discogs are still nine volumes of the "The Lyrical Tradition of Dhrupad" series, published by Makar Records, available at a good price. 

See: https://www.discogs.com/seller/Tawfiq49/profile?q=Makar+Dhrupad

Rahimuddin Khan Dagar (1901-1976) - AIR programs & EPs

Here three AIR recordings by the great Dhrupadiya. The two EPs on the second CD were released in 1961.

See: http://discog.piezoelektric.org/hmvindia/index.php?prefix=7EPE. 

Many thanks to KF for the recordings and the covers.
Frontcover: background right: Behram Khan, background left: Allabande Khan, front: Rahimuddin Khan.

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Rahimuddin Khan Dagar (1901-1976) - Raga Asavari

Ustad Rahimuddin Khan Dagar was one of the very few from the 18th generation of the Dagars of whom quite a number of recordings exist. See the  wonderful LP which Bolingo on his excellent blog posted in 2011  It also exists as a cassette. Here we present a long Raga Asavari by this outstanding Dhrupad master. We received the recording on a CD in the early 2000s from our friend DM, who also made the covers. Many thanks to him. 

This Raga Asavari seems to be the same that was published, slightly edited, on the double CD "The Dhrupad of the Dagar Bani", Edizioni Musicali III Millennio, Roma, Italy, 2003. The source of our version here seems to be a cassette, as the timings suggest. Here from the CD the correct track information:

Raga Asavari:

Alap vilambit 

Alap nom tom madhya and drut 

Dhrupad chautal "Ayo jit hi" & Dhrupad sultal "Ana sunai bansuri Kanha" (same composition that the Senior Dagar Brothers sing on the Unesco LP)

with vocal support by R. Fahimuddin Dagar

Pakhawaj: Pandit Purushottam Das

Ustad Rahimuddin Khan Dagar is the father of Ustad Fahimuddin Dagar. See our post from 2011 here.

Next we will post some AIR broadcasts and two EPs by the great master.

On the artist see:

http://www.dhrupad.info/rahimuddin.htm

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Moinuddin & Aminuddin Khan Dagar - Dagarvani - Gunkali & Brindavani Sarang from AIR

Here two more recordings by the Senior Dagar Brothers from the archives of All India Rado (AIR). I received these recordings in the late 1990s from VN, a Dhrupad collector from UK. The recordings in our previous post might also come orginally from him. Many many thanks to him. Our friend KF made a CD out of them and created a cover. Also many thanks to him.

Like the Jayjayvanti in our previous post also the Gunkali here is different from the one on the commercial CD from Akashvani. See below.

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Here a commercial CD from the Archives of Akashvani (All India Radio). It can be obtained from: info@raga-maqam-dastgah.com

Dagar Brothers: Nasir Moinuddin Dagar (1919-1966) & Nasir Aminuddin Dagar (1923-2000) (Vocal) - Dhrupad Tradition of Dagarvani - Akashvani Sangeet: Raga Gunkali (29:51), Raga Jaijaiwanti (29:43), AKASHVANI ARCHIVES, H-28

Wonderful recordings by the Senior Dagar Brothers, their only studio recordings available on CD.

Moinuddin & Aminuddin Dagar - Yaman & Jayjayvanti - AIR boadcasts

Here two All India Radio (AIR) recordings by the Senior Dagar Brothers. 

Many thanks to KF for the recordings and the covers he created.

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Moinuddin & Aminuddin Dagar - Dhrupads - The Music of India III - LP published around 1966 or 1968 in Germany

We start this year with a series of Dhrupad recordings. We had already posted in the past quite a number of Dhrupad recordings, both vocal and instrumental. Here it will be only vocal recordings. 

We start with perhaps the most outstanding and beautiful recording of Dhrupad ever: a legendary LP by the Senior Dagar Brothers Moinuddin Dagar (1919-1966) and Aminuddin Dagar (1923-2000), published in the famous Unesco Collection "A Musical Anthology of the Orient" as volume 18. The recordings were done during their 1964 European tour (Berlin, Paris, Venice) in Berlin. For me it was the very first vocal Raga music I ever heard. I had listened to it many times in the end of the 1960s at the home of some friends and bought my own copy, the one we post here, in the early 1970s.

In the early 2000s there was a project to republish this whole Unesco series on CD, but unfortunately only very few volumes saw the day. I guess the label - Rounder in the US - gave up the project as the CDs didn't sell as expected. So these recordings were never republished, though there are still many copies around for sale, as one can see for example on Discogs. 

In 2011 we had posted another LP by the Senior Dagar Brothers, the one originally published in India by The Gramophone Company of India in 1965. See here.

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Sayeeduddin Dagar (20 April 1939 – 30 July 2017) passed away - May he rest in peace - In his memory two concert recordings from 1989 & 2000

Only today I received the sad news that Ustad Sayeeduddin Dagar passed away on 30th of July. May his soul rest in peace. He was the last surviving representative of the 19th generation of the Dagar dynasty. 

I met him first around 2000 in Holland, I think at a concert in Amsterdam. Afterwards we met for a couple of years at a number of other concerts and developped a very warm friendship. The most beautiful concert, for me and my wife, took place in a suburb of Paris, in a small building at the back of a garden with only around 30 visitors. My wife was very fond of him and talked about this concert for many years. This concert was one of the most memorable concerts I ever experienced. It seems that the Ustad gave the most outstanding performances in front of a small public.

In the last 10 or 15 years a couple of CDs by him were released in France and UK.

On the artist see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Sayeeduddin_Dagar
http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/inside-isha/expressions/tribute-ustad-sayeeduddin-dagar/
http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/dhrupad-maestro-ustad-sayeeduddin-dagar-dies-aged-78/article19395864.ece

Concert in Bonn, Germany, in 1989:

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Concert in Cologne at WDR in 2000:

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Many thanks to KF for the recordings and the covers.

More Sursringar - Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury (1901-1972) - Raga Gandhari

In 2014 we posted already two recordings by Ustad Allauddin Khan and Radhika Mohan Maitra, in which they play the rare Dhrupad instrument Sursringar. See here. There exist only very few recordings of this instrument. In 2013 we posted a LP which had on the second side a track played on the Surshringar. See here. Now we present another recording by the amateur musician Birendra Kishore Roy Choudhury. I received this recording many many years ago on a cassette from VN, a collector of Dhrupad recordings in UK. My friend KF digitalised the recording and made a nice cover for it. 

"Pt. Birendra Kishore Roy Choadhury (~1901-1972?) was from a family of wealthy zamindars (landowners) in East Bengal, what is now Bangladesh. The estate was called Gouripur, in the Mymensingh district. His father, Brajendra Kishore Roy Choudhury, was renowned as a patron of musicians. His son not only continued this tradition of patronage, but became the disciple of many of the great musicians of his time, including Mohammed Wazir Khan, the great Binkar of Rampur and the last descendant of Tansen's daughter Saraswati; Mohammed Ali Khan who was the second son of Basat Khan; Imdad Khan, founder of the lineage of sitar represented today by his grandson Vilayat Khan; Allauddin Khan, father of Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi and guru to Ravi Shankar, and Hafiz Ali Khan, the great sarod maestro. Birendra Kishore Roy Choudhury was a master of the Dhrupad style, especially in instrumental music, and played the Bin, the Sursringar and the Seni Rabab." 

From: http://davidphilipson.com/pages/TansenBook.html

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David Philipson shares on this link a very interesting small book "Indian Music and Tansen" by Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, which I made into a pdf file. See download link below. 

Indian Music and Mian Tansen by Pt. Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury

See here a Raga Barwa by him on Rudra Veena: https://www.mediafire.com/?stpc5rgt65o4i#09nezectr2f4o

Abhay Narayan Mallick - Gauhar - The Pearl of Darbhanga Dhrupad - Cassette published in India in 1998

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Addition on 21st of June 2017:

A friend made the following remark:

"I think there is some discrepancy between the music and what is stated in the cover which was included, and I thought you might be interested to know. The cover said there were three tracks Jaijaiwanti, Desh & Malkauns. The download from your blog does indeed have three tracks, but in fact tracks 1 & 2 are the same music, track 1 fades out, and track 2 fades in, at almost the same place (so easy to splice together). They are both Jaijaiwanti. The third track is Desh and there is no Malkauns. I suppose this is a problem with the original tape, as the tracks are exactly the same on MusicIndiaOnline."

Thank you very much. I agree completely. So the second track is the continuation of the Raga Jaijaiwanti on the first side.

Sharafat Hussain Khan (1930-1985) - 30th anniversary of his death - Part II - Raga Todi & Raga Rageshri

Here two other beautiful recordings by the great master. On the first CD we have a wonderful demonstration of his mastery over the Dhrupad format including a long Alap. Sharafat Hussain Khan was the last great singer of the Agra Gharana who reguarly performed long Alaps.

Sharafat Hussain Khan - CD 1 - Todi & covers:

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Sharafat Hussain Khan - CD 2 - Rageshri:

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Many thanks to KF for editing these recordings and creating the beautiful cover.

Gharanon Ki Gaiki - Vol. 20 - Mohammad Afzal Khan & Mohammad Hafiz Khan - Talwandi Gharana

The Talwandi Gharana is the only Dhrupad Gharana in Pakistan, very different from the better known Indian Dhrupad traditions. These two singers passed away already years ago and are succeeded by their sons Labrez Afzal Khan and Ali Hafeez Khan.

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For more information see:

http://www.naseeb.com/journals/dhrupad-in-pakistan-111674

http://www.the-south-asian.com/april2001/Pakistan%20Music-Classical.htm

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.