The Sitar of India - LP published in UK in 1971

Here we post a LP published in "The Living Tradition" series, recorded in India in 1968 by Deben Bhattacharya. This LP is interesting mainly because it contains one of the very few recordings of the great, but unfortunately little known Sarod player Damodarlal Kabra, the older brother of the famous Slide Guitar player Brij Bhushan Kabra. Damodarlal Kabra was the very first student of Ali Akbar Khan during the time when he was court musician in Jodhpur. That was in Ali Akbar Khan's early twenties. On Damodarlal Kabra see here.

We had already posted in 2013 a LP with one side by Damodarlal Kabra, also recorded in 1968 by Deben Bhattacharya. See here. Next we will post another LP published in Sweden, also with one side by him and Manju Bhatt, recorded at the same time as this one. 

Manju Bhatt, later after marriage known as Manju Mehta, with whom he plays here a Jugalbandi, was at that time completely unknown. She is the older sister of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and studied with Damodarlal Kabra and Ravi Shankar. In the last years a couple of CDs by her were published in India and UK. She also was the co-founder of one of the biggest festivals of Classical Indian Music in India, the Saptak Festival. 

On side B there is another important, but little known musician: Umashankar Mishra, one of the very first students of Ravi Shankar and a very fine musician. On him see here. One would have wished that Deben Bhattacharya would have recorded a solo performance by him.

Download wave

Download mp3

Ravi Shankar & Ali Akbar Khan - Duets - LP published in UK in 1965

This is one of the very first LPs I bought around 1970. I loved it very much, especially Ali Akbar Khan's playing, and played it many many hundreds of times. This is the UK edition. It was published the same year also in India as EASD 1296.

Download wave
Download mp3

Roshan Ara Begum (1917-1982) - Roshan Ara Begum Sings - LP published in 1961 in Pakistan and also in India

Here the second of the two LPs by the great singer of the Kirana Gharana published in the beginning of the 1960s. The first one we posted in July 2012. See here.

We also had posted in March 2015 four cassettes by her published in 1978. See here.

This LP we bought in the 1970s with a generic cover (see below) in a Pakistani record shop in Southall, near London. Recently we bought another copy from India with the original cover. We offer here the music from the LP we bought in the 1970s (Pakistani pressing) and the covers of the recently bought LP (Indian pressing).

The generic cover of the Pakistani pressing I bought in the 1970s:

Download wave

Download mp3

Mohammad Reza Shajarian - Concert Paris September 1995 - Mahour & Dashti - Cassette published for 1995 tour

Beautiful cassette of a concert by the great master of Avaz Ostad Mohammad Reza Shajarian with Parviz Meshkatian (1955-2009) on Santur and his son Homayoun Shajarian on Tombak. The cassette was produced to be sold at the 1995 tour of the musicians. I bought it at their concert in Bonn. As always, the concert was very impressive and intense. This cassette was never republished on CD.

About the artists see:

http://mohammadrezashajarian.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Reza_Shajarian

https://fa-ir.facebook.com/shajarian

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parviz_Meshkatian

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

Shajarian has his own label in Iran named Delawaz (see first link above), on which he published over 30 CDs, all very traditional, except for 3 or 4 with symphonic orchestra. 

These albums can be obtained from: info@raga-maqam-dastgah.com You can request a list from them.

Download wave
Download mp3

Barno Ishakova (Iskhakova) (1927-2001) - MP3-CD from Uzbekistan

Here a MP3-CD by the great Shashmaqam singer Barno Ishakova (also transcribed as Iskhakova or Itzhakova), considered as the greatest female singer of the 20th century in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Outside of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan she is hardly known. Only very few tracks by her have been published in two anthologies, both produced by Jean During:

1. Asie centrale - Traditions classiques, a 2 CD set, Ocora - Radio France, C 560035-36, published in 1993, unfortunately for many years out of print.

2. Echoes of Paradise - Women Voices from Central Asia - Echos du Pardis – Voix de femmes d'Asie Centrale – Avaz-e Minu, Set of 2 CDs, published in 2015. This fantastic double CD can be obtained from info@raga-maqam-dastgah.com

A couple of tracks we posted here in 2012. See, also for more information on the artist:

http://oriental-traditional-music.blogspot.de/2012/05/barno-ishakova-iskhakova-1927-2001.html

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

Download part 1

Download part 2

Download part 3

Again many thanks to Danny, who brought this CD from Uzbekistan and shared it generously with us.

Vilayat Khan (1928-2004) (Sitar) & Imrat Khan (Surbahar) - The Great Heritage - LP published in India in 1966

 

Download wav

Download mp3

Mallikarjun Mansur (1910-1992) - LP published in 1969 in India

Here the second LP by the great singer. The first one we posted in June 2011.

See here. We provided now also flac files.

Download flac

Download mp3

Yeshwantrai Purohit (1916-1964) - Ragas Malkauns & Sohini - LP published in India in 1965

Here a wonderful LP by a great singer of the Kirana Gharana, of whom one says, that he is one of the very few whose music has this hypnotic spell for which the music of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan was so famous and which didn't come really across in the short recordings we only have of the great Ustad.

“Late Pandit Yeshwantrai Purohit was one of the foremost exponents of the ‘Kirana Gharana’. Born in Bhavnagar on 27th December 1916, he had his early training in music from the Late Pt. Shankarrao Vyas, Pt. Narayan Moreshwar Khare and Late Pandit Omkarnath Thakur of Gwalior Gharana. Later, being attracted by the Kirana style of Khansaheb Abdul Karim Khan, he became a devout disciple of Pandit Balkrishnabua Kapileshwari, a direct disciple of the Late Khansaheb Abdul Karim Khan. Possessing a rich sonorous voice with tremendous depth of feeling and understanding of the Ragas, his devotion and dedication and his purity of style in the development of the Raga, he participated in many a concerts and attained fame all over India. Unfortunately, he died at the young age of 47 years on 3rd January 1964, leaving a void in the music world. Some of his famous disciples are Pandit Vinayak Vora (Vocal and Taar-Shehnai), Arun Sewak and Dakshesh Dhruv. Padma Vibhushan Pandit Ravi Shankar, the world- renowned exponent of Indian Classical Music, has honoured Yeshwantrai by describing him as a great Sadhak.”

from: http://www.parrikar.org/vpl/?page_id=680

Regarding the music see also our post of an LP by Ustad Abdul Karim Khan and some of the comments there.

Download Wave

Download MP3

Orifxon Xatamov - MP3-CD from Uzbekistan by the great Maqom master

Orifxon Xatamov (born 1924 or 1925) - his name is given sometimes also as Orif or Arif Xatamov, and both versions can appaer in different spellings - belongs to the Maqom tradition of the Ferghana Valley and was a student of the legendary Jurakhan Sultanov (1912-1977), who was also the teacher of Mamurjan Uzakov. 

Theodore Levin devoted a very beautiful chapter to Orifxon Xatamov in his very interesting book "The Hundred Thousand Fools of God - Musical Travels in Central Asia". Some excerpts from this chapter, named "The Avatar of a Master", which is based on talks with the master in the early 1990s, can be read here. Orifxon Xatamov is depicted here as a master musician deeply rooted in the musical and spiritual (Sufi) traditions of his country.

The recordings here - again from the collection of MP3-CDs which our dear friend Danny brought a couple of years ago from Uzbekistan - are probably from the 1960s to the 1980s and were probably published originally on Melodiya LPs during Sowjet times. There is also a second MP3-CD by him which we will post in the future.

We already posted in 2012 some tracks by him. See here. But the tracks there are all included in and probably taken from these two MP3-CDs.

This MP3-CD contains 5 folders named CD 1 to 5. The first two folders are contained in the download part 1 and folders 3 to 5 in part 2.

Download part 1

Download part 2

Only today (2nd of december 2015), when I listened to the complete MP3-CD again, I realized that I forgot to post the last part of this CD. There are two more folders on it named CD 11 and CD 13. Both can be downloaded here as part 3. CD 13 is by other singers in the same tradition: tracks 1 to 7 by Ismoilon & Mukhamadon Xotamovlar and tracks 8 to 16 by Beknazar Dustmurodov. Maybe two sons and a disciple of Orifxon Xatamov.

Download part 3

Ustad Halim Jaffar Khan - His first LP published in 1962 in India

Here the very first, very brilliant LP by Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan, the 9th LP (plus a double cassette) by the great artist we posted here. As far as I know only one LP, ECSD 2432 from 1969, is missing in our collection. Perhaps somebody is so kind to come up with a copy to share.

Wave

MP3

Sharan Rani (1929-2008) - The Great Sarod Virtuoso - LP published 1967 in India

Here an early LP by the great Sharan Rani, a disciple of Ustad Allauddin Khan and his son Ali Akbar Khan.

For more infos see:

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

http://www.itcsra.org/tribute.asp?id=23

http://www.parrikar.org/vpl/?page_id=565

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/sharan-rani-backliwal-and-her-uncommon-love-for-music/1/218525.html

WAVE

MP3

Al-Munshid Tawfiq Al-Munajjid - Tafârîd - CD from Syria

We continue here our series of recordings from Syria which our dear friend Danny brought years ago from a trip to Syria. The next couple of recordings will be of Sufi music by some famous Munshidin and their groups. Mostly this "music" is purely vocal, sometimes it is accompanied by frame drums.

The Munshid Tawfiq Al-Munajjid seems to be the most famous and outstanding of the older munshidin. I couldn't find any details about his life or background nor if he is still living. He was one of the two teachers of the famous Hamza Shakkur. His singing is very intense.

wave

mp3