Monday, 5 November 2018

Budhaditya Mukherjee - Sitar Wizard - LP released in India in 1978


Here a wonderful and quite rare LP by the brilliant Budhaditya Mukherjee. Until recently it was missing in my collection. I even didn't know of its existence till a couple of years ago. It is the second LP by the artist. I bought already his first LP when it came out and then followed his career buying all his other LPs as they came out and also a number of his CDs. This is the 5th recording by the artist on our blog. We will post two more in the next couple of days.
This LP I bought recently from India. As almost always with used LPs from India it suffers from certain shortcomings. The most visible are the waterstains on the back. I think this comes with the years from the extreme humidity of the monsoon season. I even have a number of LPs which had had in the past mold on the back. The LP itself has quite some surface noises, which might have come from being played many times with a quite used needle. LPs in India suffer often also from dust. With ClickRepair it was easy to get rid of these surface noises.
The funny thing is that this LP was sold as being in a 85 to 90% perfect condition for the LP and the cover was judged excellent. This one has probably to understand in an Indian context where old LPs are in general in much worse conditions. But anyway, I'm happy to have this LP now.




Saturday, 3 November 2018

Shujaat Khan - Sitar - The New Star on the Musical Horizon - LP released in India in 1979


This is - as far as I know - the very first release by Shujaat Khan, the very able son of Ustad Vilayat Khan. He was then just 18 or 19 years old.




Thursday, 1 November 2018

Vilayat Khan - Monumental Music of Sitar Nawaz Ustad Vilayat Khan assisted by Shujat Khan on Surbahar - Cassette released in India in 1989


Here a quite rare cassette by Ustad Vilayat Khan, together with his son Shujaat Khan on Surbahar. It was never republished on CD. 
There exists another recording of the same Raga by both artists, done in 1993 live in London. It was released by Navras in 1995 on CD and DVD.




Monday, 29 October 2018

Vilayat Khan - Sitar Samrat - Raga Gawoti - Cassette released in India in 1986


Here another very beautiful cassette by Ustad Vilayat Khan. The second side was republished on a compilation CD: Aftaab-e-Sitar (1988). The complete recording was on CD 4 of a box of five CDs: The Best of Ustad Vilayat Khan Ever (2012).


Saturday, 27 October 2018

Vilayat Khan - Sandhi Prakash - Raga Purvi - Cassette released in India in 1991


Here a very beautiful, but little known recording by the exquisite Ustad Vilayat Khan. As far as I know the recording was only once rereleased on CD: on CD 2 of a compilation box of three CDs called "The Great Heritage".


Thursday, 25 October 2018

Mohammad Sharif Khan Poonchwalay - Sitar - Vol. 3 - Cassette released in Pakistan in 1988


Mohammad Sharif Khan Poonchwalay was one of the greatest Sitar players of his generation. We posted in the past already six recordings by the artist. Unfortunately I have only the vol. 3 of this series of three cassettes.

Side 1:
1. Raga Bhairavi
2. Mishra Khamaj

Side 2:
Raga Basant Bahar

From the logic of the music probably the two sides should be reversed.


Sunday, 21 October 2018

Nikhil Banerjee - Le Sitar du Pandit Nikhil Banerjee - Raga Jogiya-Kalingada - LP released in France in 1983


With the last three posts by Ustad Sarahang we arrived back to Raga Music, though from Afghanistan. Now we will post for a longer period classical Indian music. First we start with some LPs and cassettes of instrumental music.
Here the first one: a quite rare LP released later also as a CD in France. Both were not widely distributed. See here an LP released in 1985 in the same series which we posted in May 2018.






Friday, 19 October 2018

Ustad Sarahang - Live in Kabul 1978


Here a very beautiful concert recording by Ustad Sarahang containing:

Raga Malkauns (incomplete) (25:54)
Raga Todi (46:30)

We received these recordings from our friend Werner Durand. Many thanks to him.
It seems that these recordings are from two different concerts: the first Raga is a midnight Raga, whereas the second one is a late morning Raga. Also the second track has Sarangi accompaniment, which the first doesn't have. The first Raga is incomplete and ends abruptly. To make it more smooth we created a short fade out.
In the 1990s and early 2000s there were many CDs by him available in the Afghani shops. They were released inside the Afghan community, mainly in the US. Amongst these CDs were also some with a classical Raga program in Khayal format. Maybe in the future we will post some of these, as they are no longer available for many years.




Wednesday, 17 October 2018

Ustad Mohammad Hussain Khan - Sar-Auhang (Sarahang) - LP released in India in 1970


Here a wonderful LP by the great singer, recorded in India. At a recent visit to our friend KF we scanned the covers of the LP he has in his collection. The rips he made already years ago. Many thanks to him again for sharing a rare jewel.


Monday, 15 October 2018

Ustad Muhammad Hussain Sarahang (1924-1983) - Legendary Classical Singer from Afghanistan - LP released in Soviet Uzbekistan in 1984


Here a beautiful LP by the great Ustad Sarahang. Ustad Muhammad Hussain Sarahang was a legendary, very charismatic classical singer of the Patiala Gharana from Kabul, Afghanistan. He sang Khyal, but also Thumries and Ghazals, often in a typical Afghan way. He was a student of a very outstanding singer, Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan (d. 1948), son of Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, one of the two founders of the Patiala Gharana in the 19th century.
Ustad Muhammad Hussain Sarahang was very popular and highly admired in Afghanistan and is still today. He used to tour in India reguarly, giving many concerts. He recorded one LP in India which we will post next.
On YouTube there is an enormous amount of his recordings. The best and most classical ones can be found on the channel of Dr. Qayum Belal, including many concert recordings from India: 

On the artist see:
On Ashiq Ali Khan, the master of our artist, see:

Here the details of the LP from https://records.su/album/22453:

Singer Ustad Mohammad Hossein SARAHANG 
(Democratic Republic of Afghanistan) 
(series "Music of Asia and Africa", issue 21)

Side 1:
Composition based on Raga Yaman

Side 2:
Composition based on Raga Bhairav I
Composition based on Raga Bhairav II

Recorded from the concert at the International Musicological Symposium
 on the Registan, Samarkand, 1979

We post here the rip done by our friend KF many years ago, including the covers and the booklet he made. The cover scans of the LP are done by our friend Werner Durand. If I remember correctly the rip was done also from the LP in Werner's collection. Many thanks to both of them.





Here the covers and the booklet by KF:






Sunday, 14 October 2018

Annapurna Devi (1927-2018) passed away yesterday - May she rest in Peace


Yesterday one of India's greatest musicians passed away. Annapurna Devi was the daughter of Baba Ustad Allauddin Khan, sister of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and first wife of Pandit Ravi Shankar.
She was an outstanding Surbahar player and a great teacher. Amongst her many students the most famous is perhaps Hariprasad Chaurasia. I remember still very well that I bought all the LPs by him as they came out from the first one in 1968 till the ones in the 1980s. On the first LP he had not yet started to learn from Smt. Annapurna Devi, I think. Afterwards one could witness his progress in technique and in depth with each new LP.
Smt. Annapurna Devi lived, after her separation from Ravi Shankar in 1961, a very reclusive life and never performed in public. That is why there are hardly any recordings be her. The only ones - as far as I know - are the ones we posted in 2014
Maybe now some other recordings will show up.

https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/musician-annapurna-devi-passes-away/article25212211.ece
https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-annapurna-devi-legendary-hindustani-classical-musician-dies-in-mumbai-2674886
https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/music/annapurna-devi-passes-away-5400232/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapurna_Devi