Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Music on the Desert Road - A Sound Travelogue by Deben Bhattacharya




Music on the Desert Road
- A Sound Travelogue by Deben Bhattacharya
Angel Records - 35515 - P.1958


Map of the travelled road...





Side A

A1 Turkey - Automobile on mountain Road - Central Anatolian Dance
A2 Turkey - Mevludin Nebevi (Religious chant)
A3 Syria - Rasd (Dervish song)
A4 Syria - Bedouin Song and Dance
A5 Jordan - Bedouin Coffee Grinding
A6 Iraq - Kesame-Meru (Kurdish ballad)
A7 Iran - Baba Karam (Love song)

Side B

B1 Iran - Rhythm of a Train (Drums)
B2 Iran - Humayun (Traditional melody)
B3 Afghanistan - Atan Dance Music
B4 Pakistan - Neemakai (Wedding folk song)
B5 India - Zila from Varanasi (Benares)
B6 India - Temple Bells and drums of a Bengali Kali Temple - Bhajan (Hindu devotional song, sung in Hindi)



Here is another record with some early recordings by Deben Bhattacharya that bears a close resemblance to the previous one I posted. Except this one takes us back again to India. I don't mind, that is where I want to be anyhow! It comes with an eight page full size leaflet to compensate for the totally uninformative black backside of the sleeve!


Some of the photos in it are great!



Tabl player

Nay player


Rababa player
Seems to be the very same picture as on the LP posted right before!



Santor player


Another picture of the young field recorder himself at work.


Cumbus player

Especially impressive do I find the photo of the Bedouin coffee percussionist...

The track of coffee grinding rhythm on the previous record is however more impressive than this one! The the last track with the bhajan also got me captured!

Hope you enjoy both the coffee and the rest of the music!





4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you bolingo! I've been a silent admirer of your posts so far so I thought its time to thank you. Great blog you have here...and one of the few places on the web I check everyday! Keep it up!

Cheers,
Baluda

bamsalakadi said...

I like Deben's Middle Eastern recordings, sometimes even more than his Indian ones. Some very good music here!

Thanks for everything, Mr.Bolingo!

arvind said...

That bhajan is indeed very beautiful, and so are the pictures! Its impressive that Deben had a good eye as well, in addition to a good ear.

Thanks again, bo!

Anonymous said...

Please re-upload the link. Interesting trivia -- this was one of Frank Zappa's favorite albums. try using an uploading mirror service. it would be a shame to lose access to these obscure albums with such cultural value!