Showing posts with label Senior Dagar Brothers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Senior Dagar Brothers. Show all posts

Monday, 26 March 2018

Frères Dagar: Nasir Moinuddin Dagar & Nasir Aminuddin Dagar - Inde du Nord - Private CD


Here we have a private CD with beautiful recordings by the Senior Dagar Brothers. And here we have an extreme case of a private CD looking like a real release, in this case an LP published by Ocora, the well known label of Radio France. But for sure it is a private CD and never was published by Ocora. An Indian collector made out of these recordings of unknown sources a private CD and created covers for it. This person seems to take a great pleasure in creating covers and to let them look like real ultra rare releases. Which is sort of funny and sympathetic. And looks nice. But can create some confusion amongst music lovers and collectors.
There are several details proving that this is not an official recording from Ocora:
1. The release date is given as 1977. At that time it was LPs and the tracks are too long to fit on an LP. 
2. The two tracks have very different sound quality and different accompanists, but are supposed to stem from the same concert. 
3. The Dagar Brothers are accompanied in the first track by harmonium, pakhawaj and in the last composition by tabla. In the second track they are accompanied by sarangi and pakhawaj and the track is incomplete and ends abruptly (we made a short fadeout). Ocora would never have published recordings as imperfect. Also the only moment these recordings could have been recorded in France was during their 1964 tour (as mentioned on the back cover), but this tour was organised by Alain Daniélou on behalf of the Unesco and Alain Daniélou as a strict purist would never have allowed the singers to be accompanied on harmonium or sarangi in a Dhrupad performance. On the backcover are given the correct accompanists of the 1964 European tour. But in India it was not unusual for the Dagar Brothers to be accompanied by these instruments, as one can see in other recordings posted by us.
4. The track information is wrong: the first track has after the Alap as a composition not a Dhrupad, but a Dhamar, then in the last few minutes a Tarana in Khyal style with Tabla accompaniment. The second track is neither in Raga Rupashree nor in Raga Shree, as mentioned at another spot on the backside. It sounds like a Hori in Kafi - "Aaj Brij Mein Holi Khelat Nandlal" (different from the one found in the Royal Collection of Mewar CD set). Track information given to us by the Indian collector who shared these recordings. Many thanks to him.
So it is clear that these recordings are not from the 1964 European tour of the Senior Dagar Brothers. And that they were not published by Ocora. They must be recordings done in India at different moments. 
I only know of one other case of someone creating covers to make recordings look like real, but ultra rare LPs. They can be found on the Harmonium blog. See these for example:

I received these recordings from an Indian collector based in the US. Many many thanks to him for his kindness to share these.


Thursday, 22 March 2018

Darbhanga & Dagar - Various Artists - Dhrupad Series


Here another private CD with Abhay Narayan Mallik and some artists of the Dagarvani. Amongst the recordings on this CD is an outstanding Alap by Ustad Hussainuddin Dagar (Pt. Tansen Pandey) (1909-1963), next to Rahimuddin Khan Dagar the only artist of the 18th generation of the Dagars, by whom recordings exist. Ustad Hussainuddin Dagar was one of the four sons of Ustad Allahbande Khan (1845-1927) and the father of Ustad Sayeeduddin Dagar.
"Tansen Pande (1908-1963) was born Hussainuddin Khan, the fourth son of Allabande Khan. While most of the members of the Dagar musical family acknowledge their Hindu antecedents, Tansen Pande formally chose to revert to his ancestor’s faith around 1947. He ranks as one of the great Dhrupadiyas of the 20th century." From http://www.parrikar.org/vpl/?page_id=618
There exist a couple of performences by him on YouTube.
I received these recordings including the covers from an Indian collector based in the US. Many many thanks to him for his kindness to share these.

Saturday, 13 January 2018

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.



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.

Thursday, 11 January 2018

Monday, 8 January 2018

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.










Monday, 13 June 2011

Senior Dagar Brothers - Music of India - Vol. 5 - LP Columbia C 062-80105 - French edition of EALP 1291


Dagar Brothers: Ustad Moinuddin Khan & Aminuddin Khan
Mridang (Pakhawaj): S.V. Patwardhan

Side 1:
Alap - Raga Darbari Kanada (18:17)


Side 2:
Dhamar - Raga Darbari Kanada (8:17)
Dhrupad - Raga Adana (9:21)




This is - as promised to Bolingo - the French edition of the same LP of which he had posted two Indian pressings.