★Country & Eastern
Live in Stockholm 77
Bengt Berger and Kjell Westling did a live radio broadcast in 1977 and released it on vinyl. This is a cd rerelease. The music we played is improvised, restless and of very high density (many notes in short time).
Ett Minne för Livet (A Memory for Life) was a muscian’s collective in Stockholm during the seventies, part of the progressive music movement in Sweden. Iskra, Spjärnsvallet, Vargavinter, Archimedes Badkar, Bitter Funeral Beer Band and Bolon Bata were some of the bands taking part…
Raga Piloo
Virtuoso Nikhil Banerjee, one of the 20th century’s greatest masters of the Indian sitar, passed away in 1986 at the age of 55. Banerjee was widely acclaimed for his intensely individualistic pursuit of the poetry of raga. Nikhil Banerjee studied northern Indian classical music with the sarodist Ustad Allauddin Khan, father of sarodist Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna and also teacher of Ravi Shankar and Pannalal Ghosh.
Raga Puria-Kalyan
Pandit Ram Narayan, brother of Chatur Lal (the first tabla player to impress the western world on a larger scale in the company of Ravi Shankar), ranks as the most eminent sarangi player of today. His novel style of musical expression has changed the role of the sarangi forever, from that of an accompanying instrument to a full grown solo instrument. Take particular note of his alap in Puria Kalyan, perhaps the best this writer has heard him play.
Raga Desh
Virtuoso Nikhil Banerjee, one of the 20th century’s greatest masters of the Indian sitar, passed away in 1986 at the age of 55. Banerjee was widely acclaimed for his intensely individualistic pursuit of the poetry of raga. Nikhil Banerjee studied northern Indian classical music with the sarodist Ustad Allauddin Khan, father of sarodist Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna and also teacher of Ravi Shankar and Pannalal Ghosh.
For his second recording he had chosen Raag Desh.
Raag Mishra Bhairavi on sitar
Before Ustad had constructed his giant rudra veena he played the sitar, and what a sitar player he was! Very few people have heard him play the sitar and there are no recordings besides this one. This Mishra Bhairavi was recorded at one of the Sunday concerts he held in his house in Chembur every week. It was first released on LP in Sweden but here is the original one long track.
Raga Madhukauns / Raga Piloo
One of today’s finest exponents of the Sarod, Krishnamurthi Sridhar was, from very early childhood, initiated into the Carnatic music and is one of very few South Indians to have made North Indian music their playing ground. From the age of five Sridhar was the student of Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar of the Dagar School, the foremost master of the rudra veena and specialist in the traditionally classical and devotional Dhrupad Dhamar style of the North. Ustad it was who told him that the sarod was …
Raga Gangeyabushan
In 1968 Ustad did his first recording on his giant been, the rudra veena that he had designed. The recording was done in a private flat in Chembur on a quiet morning and was later released on a french label, B.A.M. with the name Raga Mangebushan. It is since long out of print. That morning Ustad did two takes of the same raga and we had considerable difficulties to choose which one to release since they were equally good and we finally settled on the first take. Ustad’s son Bahauddin Dagar has s…
Live in Stockholm 1969
Raag Chandrakauns in a recording from a private concert in Stockholm 1969 with two of the real giants of Hindustani music, Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar on rudra veena (been) and Pandit Taranath on pakhawaj.
In the spring of 1969 Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and Pandit Taranath Rama Rao were returning from their first teaching trip to U.S. Z. M. Dagar had been at Wesleyan and Taranathji at Ravi Shankar’s school in L.A. if I remember right. Since I was learning from Taranathji and had stayed in t…
Tabla Jugalbandi For Ustad Samshuddin Khan
This recording from the Puniyatithi (memorial concert) for Ustad Shamsuddin Khan in 1968 is going to be one of the finest authentic and rare tabla jugalbandis (duets) you will ever hear. Shashi & Ravi were the first to introduce tabla Jugalbandi and Sawal Jawab (question and answer between the two artists). from a very young age in the early 1940’s they became two of the most sought after players of their time.
Apart from being a celebration of their great grand guru, the occasion was fur…
Live in Frankfurt 82
Bitter Funeral Beer Band was a unique band with an early world music with an own identity that mixes african funeral music and improvisation with a nordic touch that has not existed before or after the few years in the 80’s that the band was active. Led by Bengt Berger who had studied a couple of years in Ghana, the band based a lot of the music on the funeral music concept of the Lo-Birifor people of northern Ghana.The band did its first cd, Bitter Funeral Beer, on ECM and then one more,…
Classical Bhajans
The great singer/saint Swamy Haridhos and his followers in a long concert of religious singing from New Years Day 1968. Music and devotion in equal parts. The last tracks will be found on digital-only album CEX14. Not only was Swamy Haridhos an extremely charismatic leader, preacher and singer, head and shoulders taller than ordinary bhajan singers, but as such he attracted the participation of top notch accompanists.
In this recording from Gita Govinda Hall in Bombay you hear him with his…
For Tradition Turn To Nedunuri
Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, is with his 80+ age one of the very few remaining great vocalists from the golden period of Karnatic music. In 1968 he was at the height of his powers and we managed to capture a full evening concert that lasted nearly four hours in Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu. We are extremely proud to release the complete concert in a 3-cd set. Soundwise this is a high quality release, a unique document from nearly 50 years ago with music that will delight the…
Ragini Miyan Ki Todi
Our first release with the rudra veena-vocal duet in raga Malkauns was recorded in Ustad Zia Mohiudding Dagar’s house in Chembur on the evening of february 4, 1968. On the very next morning he and his younger brother Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar recorded the raga that is the female counterpart of raga Malkauns, Ragini Miyan Ki Todi. The name means Miyan’s Todi and it is said to have been created by the famous Miyan Tansen, one of the 9 jewels of emperor Akbar’s court in the 16th century, as …
Live At Trinity Club – Bombay 1967
The legendary tabla maestro and teacher, Pandit Taranath leads his two young star students Sadanand Naimpalli and Mohan Balvally in a 45 minutes tabla duet in front of a wildly entusiastic audience at The Trinity Club in Bombay 1967.
Pandit Taranath is not represented on record before.
Tabla: Sadanand Naimpalli Tabla: Mohan Balvally Harmonium/recitation: Pandit Taranath