India Indian music music: 78 rpm discs genius shehnai
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: The Genius of Bismillah Khan
Bismillah Khan dominated the music world of the twentieth century. A prodigious improviser with masterful technique, he stood head and shoulders above other shehnai players, and was beyond any doubt one of the towering figures in all world music. Here are four sides that showcase his mastery. Enjoy:
Raga Jaunpuri:
Raga Hansnarayani:
Raga Basant Bahar
Dhun
India Personal: travel notes
by Warren
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In India…
…sitting in a cramped cybercafe getting slightly caught up.
My Mac’s onboard battery died completely in the middle of the Paris airport. Now every time I start it up it’s reset the onboard clock to December 31, 1969. It’s probably time to get a new computer as this one is more than six years old.
Wife & daughter are well although daughter has a little cold. It’s nice to be with family again; this is the first time I’ve been back in India in three years.
Tomorrow I go to Mumbai to give a house concert. Then a few days in Pune before I travel to Nasik to give a concert on Friday the 19th. Then a Pune concert on the 20th. A bunch of lec-dems .and workshops including one in Mumbai on the 24th, just before we head out. Home on the 25th.
These short, fast trips are brutal, but it’s all the time I’ve got right now.
OK, signing off..
environment Gardening India Personal photoblogging: Gardening
by Warren
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Garden Photos On The Way Out The Door
I am in the airport getting ready for the first leg of my India trip. I’ll be heading out in about two hours to Paris and from there to Mumbai. Concerts in Mumbai, Nasik and Pune, and some lec-dems & workshops. And some family time, of course. I’m told my daughter caught a cold — hope she’s feeling better soon.
Anyway, before I left I took some photos of the garden and thought I’d share them. This year most of the plants are doing very well. The squash vine borers attacked my zucchini and pumpkin plants and totally killed them — but for the first time left my tromboncino squash (waaay better than zucchini IMO) totally alone. I win.
The first pictures are from my front steps, looking out over the slope.
…there are some potatoes in buckets in the foreground.
Some vegetable porn:
…kale.
…tomatoes.
…these will be orange pimiento peppers.
…muskmelon!
Now a new set of garden beds next to my garage, with some very productive tomatoes and peppers.
Coming along nicely…
And an amaranth plant, a volunteer from last year. I have an entire bed planted in amaranth but I forgot to take pictures of it. Too bad; the red plants are spectacular en masse.
And now, here are pictures of the container garden on top of our garage. This year I finished building a deck on this surface, and have moved almost all my other containers to be in the center of the space. The result is impossible to believe; we have a fabulous crop. For the next two weeks various friends will be picking, watering and keeping things going; we get back on the 25th, just in time for the really serious harvesting.
For some reason I can’t get photobucket to rotate these pictures so they embed correctly. Just turn your head 90 degrees, ‘k?
Tomatoes…
Cute little eggplants…
There is a karela vine in my greenhouse as well as several climbing the sides of the garage. They are producing very heavily. Good thing I like karela.
A Japanese karela. The Indian kind are rougher.
Ho Chi Minh hot peppers. Amazing.
Here’s what the garage-top garden looked like last year in early July. We’ve come a long way.
India Indian music music Personal vocalists Warren's music
by Warren
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Timings and Trips
I’m leaving for India in a day and a half. Lots of cleaning to do around the house, and some practicing, too. I have concerts in Pune, Mumbai and Nasik over the next fortnight, along with some lecture-demonstrations, and some family time.
As of today, August 10th, I have written “climate letters” that carry me through August 27th; I am going to have a vacation from writing the damn things. This will be my first such break in a year and eight months. The website knows not from “vacation,” however, and will continue to publish the letters without my intervention.
The ongoing release of my 78 rpm recordings has slowed a little, but I’ve got a few more goodies coming up over the next two weeks. Don’t worry, there’s still a lot more that I haven’t been able to turn into videos yet.
Cheers!
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs genius
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: The Insouciant Virtuosity of Master Vasant
Not a lot is known about Master Vasant of Surat. His full name was Vasant Amrut, and like many of the vocalists from those days, he was affiliated with the film industry:
In 1931, the Indian Art Production, Bombay, produced a film titled Farebi Jaal (Trapped) directed by M. Bhavnani.Though the name of the music director was not given but Master Vasant has been credited for the lyrics. Of the six songs in this film, Durga Khote and Master Vasant sang three each. [Ref: Hindi film geet kosh, vol.1, (1931-40), by Harminder Singh Hamraaz, 1988, page 15]. Around 1930, Master Vasant Amrut (of Surat) had cut two records: HMV P 13474 and P 13542. Gramophone Company released these records on black label in February 1931 and November 1931 respectively. Of these four songs, three are identical in the list of the songs of this film. It appears that these records were directly used in the film. It is not clear on whom the songs sung by Master Vasant Amrut were picturised. Thus, Master Vasant Amrut of Surat, could then be the first playback singer of Hindi film songs.
His singing is straightforward Gwalior gayaki — but done with nonchalance, aplomb and incredible virtuosity. What a delight.
Raga Nat Bihag – “Jhan jhan jhan paayal baaje”
Raga Patdeep – “Dhan dhan baaje”
Raga Purvi – “Bhaj mangal Shyaam”
Raga Durga – “Phul rahi belariyaa”
Ghazal – “Usne kahaa hasti hai teri”
Misra Ghazal – “Ham hai bande ishq ke”
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs bhajan genius Marathi bhavgeet
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Miss Gohar of Bijapur (Gauhar Karnataki)
Miss Gohar of Bijapur sings two Marathi devotional songs. Her voice is terrific, her delivery heartfelt, her intonation spot-on, her melismatic technique top-notch. What’s not to like?
Wikipedia notes that:
There were four singing contemporaries of Gauhar Jaan with first names pronounced the same way as hers and sometimes spelled in English in different ways:
– Gauhar Jan of Patiala;
– Miss Gohar, who was associated with Parsi Theatrical Company in Bombay (Mumbai);
– Gohar Mamajiwala, a singer actress who was associated with and mistress of Sardar Chandulal Shah of Ranjit Films (studio), Bombay; and
– Gohar Bai Karnataki of Bijapur.
I believe we are listening to the last-listed of these luminaries.
She was a fairly prominent name in Hindi Films in the ’30s, acting, composing and singing songs, most/all of which were never released on 78s and are probably lost for ever. Her sister
Amirbai’s name is far more famous and many brilliant songs sung by Amirbai are easily available today. Before her most prolific years in the ’40s, Amirbai sometimes sang under the name ‘Amir Jan’. Gauharbai’s name appears as ‘Gauhar of Bijapur’ in the Hindi Film Geet Kosh pages. Gauhar was devoted to Bal Gandharva; BG left his family to live with her. There were whispers around 1950 that Gauhar, whom BG used to call ‘Baba’, had cast an evil spell on Narayanrao Bal Gandharva, whose surname was ‘Rajhans’. The Gauhar
episode in BG’s life has been treated at some length in Ravindra Pinge’s beautiful article on BG, titled ‘Chandraast’ and included in the book ‘TuShaar aaNi Taare’. Whatever manipulations she may have resorted to, even her detractors concede that her devotion to Bal Gandharva’s style of singing was genuine. It is not surprising that many of her 78s are of Marathi songs sung in BG’s style.
Link
Afaghaachi sansaar
Satata vimal bhaj nama
India music vocalists: 78 rpm discs African music genius
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Swahili Song by Sitti Binti Saad
I was looking through stacks of 78s in Chor Bazaar during a Mumbai visit in the late 1990s when this one showed up under my fingers.
Always on the lookout for anomalies, I was delighted to find this double-sided recording of a Swahili song. Turns out the singer is really terrific; a little bit of searching under her name yields quite a lot of information about someone who was quite an important figure in world music in the first half of the twentieth century.
Sheikh Abdullah Amur Suleiman has more, in a charming biography on the Zanzibar facebook page:
With a characteristic and gifted voice, Siti binti Saad rose to a position of national pride as the songstress of her day. She was the first East African woman to have her voice recorded on discs for the purpose of entertaining and promoting the Swahili language and creating a commercial enterprise out of those records.
Those memorable love songs are still in the hearts of many admirers who pass them on to the next generation. Siti, as she was commonly known, sang in Swahili. She sang at the palace, wedding parties and other public functions.
Siti could also sing in Arabic and Hindustani. When the monsoon dhows from Kuwait, Iraq, Oman and Southern Arabia visited here in those days she used to be fully booked with singing appointments to entertain the captains and crews of the dhows.
Elmughani Shahir Sitti Binti Saad (with Chorus):
“Riala Yashami Haisemi Uwongo”
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs Quawwali
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Ismail Azad Quawal
This disc brings us the third and fourth parts of a lengthier quawwal performance by Ismail Azad Quawal.
I enjoy his fervent delivery and the acrobatic accompaniment.
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs bhajan
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: M.L. Chowdhry and Sunita Devi
This “Shiv Lila Bhajan” in two parts was part of the collection acquired in Udaipur in 2000.
Enjoy.
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Bangri Geets by Sardar Bai
This disc was part of the collection of 78s I acquired in Udaipur in 2000. These songs would appear to be in the Bangri language, which is also known as Haryanvi.
It is possible that this music is specific to the Bangri people, about whom little information is available beyond this:
The 5.7 million Bangri are located mainly in the states of Haryana, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Delhi. Their language, Bangaru, is a member of the Indo-Aryan language family. Little is known about their specific lifestyle and culture.
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Irritatingly for my atheistic self, the site is that of PrayWay, a “global prayer community” that lists the Bangri among the world’s “unreached” peoples:
* People name: Bangri
* Country: India
* Their language: Bangaru
* Population:
(1990) 5,251,200
(1995) 5,776,500
(2000) 6,309,100
* Largest religion:
Hindu 98.4%
* Christians: 1.6%
* Church members: 92,425
* Scriptures in their own language: None
* Jesus Film in their own language: None
* Christian broadcasts in their own language: None
* Mission agencies working among this people: 2
* Persons who have heard the Gospel: 1,421,000 (25%)
Those evangelized by local Christians: 439,000 (8%)
Those evangelized from the outside: 982,000 (17%)
* Persons who have never heard the Gospel: 4,355,500 (75%)
Fortunately for us, there’s no need to convert these folks; let’s just listen to these two songs.
No information is available about Sardar Bai; there have been various well-known singers with that name in India’s recent history. I’m betting this isn’t one of them.
Saath Meri Men Bayaah Karaade
Aise Devar Ko Na Lod