Thursday, February 17, 2011

Music from Iran - 1955 recordings by Deben Bhattacharya


Music from Iran - The Living Tradition
Recorded and Produced by Deben Bhattacharya
Argo - ZFB 51 - P.1971



Side A

A1 Shur on Santour - Hossein Saba 7'39
A2 Shur on Tar - Jabad Aliyani 13'15

Side B

B1 Shahnama - Recitation from book of Kings by Firdowsi 14'01
B2 Mahour on Setar - Eskandare Ebrahimi 8'17


A1, B1, Recorded 1955, Tehran
A2, B2, Recorded 1955, Meshed


Another of Deben Bhattacharya's early recordings from 1955. Magnificent music and certainly pioneering work of this budding fieldrecorder. I often find that the earliest recordings have a most delicate atmosphere and having now listened to many of his recordings in a row, I certainly prefer the recordings he did in the Indian subcontinent and Asia Minor to the ones in Eastern Europe. There are definitely some gems there as well but in my opinion less so. Maybe I am just biased because I like Indian, Persian and Arabic music so much. In some days you will be able to judge for yourself. Just one or two more LP's before we go to Europe.





7 comments:

Love Letters Journal said...

We're living a lush, lavish life thanks to the likes of you bolingo, blessing us with these treasures, purely for the love of the music. Would it be possible for people like you to share this out of love if the musicians didn't create the music out of love in the first place? Never!

O O O these sounds . . . -; )*(

anticredos said...

I have a particular fondness of Persian music, be it classical/folk or pop....Thanks for this, been looking for ages! One day I will share my Persian 45s I own....when I get to my records that is..

Anonymous said...

I'm a Persian music addict so this is an amazing find, many thanks for this and everything at your fantastic site, field recordings have a special aura about them for sure

bolingo69 said...

Well, I aim for your pleasure, so nothing is wrong then! ;-)

bolingo69 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Giri Mandi said...

Ah! One of the first LPs of oriental music I ever purchased (or stolen: fortunately I can't remember, but this kind of crime was rather customary when we were penniless and music-hungry kids).


(Yes, and now I am a penniless and music hungry old)

Unknown said...

merci. loving it