National Anthems of African States - Ocora

Hymnes nationaux - par la Musique de la Garde Républicaine de Paris,

Direction Francois Julien Brun.

(National Anthems of African States)

Orchestra of the Republican Guard in Paris

Conducted by Francois Julien Brun.

Office de coopèration radiophonique
- Disques Ocora - OCR 31 - 1967

Side A

A1 République Fédérale du Cameroun - Chant de raillement 0'55

A2 République Centrafricaine - Rainaissance 0'50

A3 République du Congo - La Congolais (Brazzaville) 0'55

A4 République Démocratique du Congo - Debout Congolais (Leopoldville) 1'37

- replaced 1971 by la Zaïroise

A5 République de Côte-d'Ivoire - L'Abidjanaise 1'00

A6 République du Dahomey - L'Aube nouvelle 1'22

A7 République du Gabon - La Concorde 1'27

A8 République de Guinée - Liberté 0'54

A9 République de Haute-Volta - Fière Volta de mes aïeux 0'57

A10 République Malagasy - Ry Tanindrazanay malala ô 0'52

Side B

B1 République du Mali - À ton appel Mali 1'31

B2 République Islamique de Mauritanie - (sans paroles) 2'14

B3 République du Niger - La Nigerienne 1'46

B4 République Rwandaise - Rwanda Rwacu 1'09

B5 République du Sénégal - Pincez tous vos koras 1'32

B6 Sierra Léone - High We Exalt Thee 1'58

B7 République du Somalie - (sans paroles) 0'30

B8 République du Tchad - La Tchadienne 1'03

B9 République du Togo - Salut à toi pays de nos aïeux 0'54

Hunting for candidates for a possible Anthem for Luobaniya I also consulted this record, suffice it to say that in most cases it made me conscious of what I was not looking for and I am also very much aware that in some instances the memories invoked by a few of these Anthems will not instill the happy feeling of belonging and peaceful tranquility.

I have no intention to upset anyone, nor do I want to offend any ones feelings unnecessarily, so regard this as an historical document for your reference only.

To see the relevant flag for each nation current at the time of recording you can click on the nations name in the track listing and hopefully it will take you to an image of that flag.

Lastly I would also like to caution anyone whose nationalistic spirits soar too high, that it is a good assessment of any mans qualities, that which is said about the heart of the man of power, that rather than to gain glory from invading and conquering cities, it is indeed nobler to quench ones wrath and to still ones temper!

And as always, I hope you enjoy this, but within reason...

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Music from Rumania - Recordings by Deben Bhattacharya

Music from Rumania - The Living Tradition

Recordings by Deben Bhattacharya

Argo Records - ZRG 531 - P.1967

Side A

Brasov:

A1 Răsărit—a Găinusa

A2 Inflorit—a Rugutu

Cimpulung, Muscel:

A3 Doina—Cimbalom

A4 Hora—Dance

Olenita:

A5 Sîrbá Tigănească

A6 Cintec si Horá lăutărească

Radauti, Moldavia:

A7 Foaie verde foica vita

Cimpulung, Moldavia:

A8 Trilişeşti—dance

A9 Improvisation on Bucium

Side B

Lăzăreni:

B1 Wedding dance

B2 Talandar — dance

B3 Doina

Mera:

B4 Marching music

Leşul Ilvej:

B5 De—a Mîná

B6 Învîrtită — dance

B7 Doina

Cojocna:

B8 Slow dance from Pata

Cimpulung, Moldavia:

B9 Bătută—dance

B10 Farmer's wedding

B11 Tărăneasca, farmer's dance

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Music from the Middle East - Recordings by Deben Bhattacharya

Music from the Middle East - Recordings by Deben Bhattacharya

Argo Records - ZRG 532 - P.1967

Side A

A1a Syria - Mawal 2'40

A1b Syria - Andalusi Muwashashah 9'43

A2 Syria - Water-seller in Damascus Market 1'21

A3 Syria - Flute-seller in Damasqus Market 1'36

A4 Syria - Derwish prayer music in maqam Segah 6'15

Side B

B1 Bedouine Camp Syrian Desert - Coffee grinding beats 2'37

B2 Bedouine Camp Syrian Desert - Ballad Bedouine 3'35

B3 Iraq - Ehlelawi 3'29

B4 Iraq - Tabl 2'41

B5 Palestine - Bedouine Love Song 3'08

B6 Palestine - Dabkeh al-a Dala'ona 2'58

B7 Palestine - Arabic Romance in maqam Seeka 4'37

Joudad Halibie,qanun, A1a, A1b

Mohammad Jabban, Ud, A1a, A1b

Hazim, rabab, B2

Al-Haj Hashim Mohammad Al-Rejab, santur, B3

Shu'aib Ibrahim, joza, B3

Abdul-Karim Al-Azawi, tabl, B3, B4

Audi Said Hattas, rebaba, vocal, B5

Shelim Awwad, Mijwiz, B6

Yousif Naif, vocal, B6

Sebag Yehuda, B7

It is time for some more Deben Bhattacharya, My friends have left India on their way back and they will soon be clooser to this music than the Carnatic. The classical indian music will stay a long time in their ears and it am sure it will never leave either them nor this blog. We shall come back to India soon enough but now lets here some Arabic music along the middle eastern countries. Time for some strong coffee with the Bedouins of Jordania and Iraq! This Coffe Grinding beat is even better than the one coming on the next Deben in the Desert ....

As always, I hope you enjoy!

Ud

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Don't you just feel uncomfortable when they chop off the head of the musicians !!!

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Qanun

Dancing Derwishes

Nay

Rababa

Water vendor in the market of Damascus

Smell the coffee Arvind and Costis ;-)

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Madurai Mani Ayyar - Classical Sanskrit Vocal

Madurai Mani Ayyar - Classical Sanskrit Vocal

EMI Columbia - 33 ESX 6010 - P.1967

Side A

A1 Thathvamariya (Reethigowla) 4'11

A2 Nija Marmamulanu (Umaparnam) 3'52

A3 Maa Janaki (Khambodji) 13'43

Side B

B1 Sarasa Sama Dana (Kapi Narayani) 6'53

B2 Saarasamukhi (Gowda Malla) 5'48

B3 Eppo Varuvaaro (Jonpuri) 3'49

B4 Note & Madhyamavathi 4'18

I see no over saturation of Mani Iyers music anywhere on the net, so here is the LP that came after the one I just posted yesterday. The preservation and digital likeness is this time a joint venture of the "south indian vinyl trinity" like we had before with an LP of the Sulamangalm Sisters. The good Arvind spotted it, secured it, and passed it on to good Costis who got down and made a real nice digital likeness that he in turn passed on for me to fiddle with a bit. Photos and rip are his! Twiddle and fiddle are mine. Slight de pop editing and slight photo editing. The music is for everyone who has heart and ears!

I like to point out the last piece on the B-side "Note" that goes into the Madhyamavathi. It is of course the least typical of the Carnatic repertoire and always stands out and seems still to be rather popular. It is a rather amusing and enjoyable relic of the British rule in South India. "Notes" can often be heard in Nagaswaram music and some vocalist like Madurai Mani Iyer did nurture the tradition of "notes" or "English Notes" as they were also called. The wonderful clarionet player A.K.C. Natarajan also has a very nice repertoire of "notes".

The influence from annotated english music, like march or dance tunes is obvious and speak of a time when indian musicians would have to also include western tunes in their repertoire to satisfy the English Raj. Some were played for formal functions and ceremonial reasons some for pure entertainment. Originally they were simply English tunes played on traditional South Indian instruments. In fact, some are simply Western tunes with Indian lyrics, but even though you can still sometimes here tunes like "God save the Queen" and "He's a Jolly Good Fellow", oftentimes it is however futile to look for the "english original" as there is none! Many "Notes" were composed by Indian composers and musicians in the vein of, or to resemble the original Notes. These are compositions often in the raaga shankaraabharaNam and created with swaras (some also have saahitya=lyrics).

Read some more about western influence on Indian Classical Music here...

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Music from the Himalayas - Recordings by Deben Bhattacharya

Music from the Himalayas - The Living Traditions

Recordings and sleevenotes by Deben Bhattacharya

Argo - ZFB 40 - P.1967

Side A

A1 Chholia dance 4'30

A2 Kherey Kà Nách 5'10

A3 Shrikand Natti 2'50

A4 Bhamnu and Dohay 1'40

A5 Shad-ritu Varnan 4'25

A6 Tibetan dance drama (extract 1) 2'30

A7 Tibetan dance drama (extract 2) 1'20

Side B

B1 Lama Chhopa 1'15

B2 Khampti mask dance 2'15

B3 Khampti ballad 1'35

B4 Dimacha Kachari 2'10

B5 Ben 2'25

B6 Kachari ballad 2'30

B7 Tingteila 2'35

B8 Phanguri lament 1'45

B9 Maran Mahon 2'45

B10 Lumlaola 3'20

The lables were the same on both sides of my copy, both were of side 1!

Is there anyone who can supply a photo or scan of the B-side label?

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Evening Ragas from Benares - The Living Tradition - rec. Deben Bhattacharya

Evening Ragas from Benares - The Living Tradition

produced and recorded by Deben Bhattacharya in Benares in 1967

Academy Sound & Vision - ALM 4002 - P.1981

Side 1

A1 Raga Puriya Kalyan

Debendra Krishna Chattopadhyay,sitar

Surendra Mohan Mishra, tabla

Side 2

B1 Raga Pilu

Amiya Bhattacharya, surbahar

Narayan Chakravorty, tambura

B2 Raga Darbari

Narayan Chakravorty, vichitra vina

Here is an album produced by Deben Bhattachariya in the eighties of classical music for the stringed instruments Sitar, Surbahar and Vichitra Vina. The recordings are made much earlier some in private gatherings "mehfils" and in the homes of the musicians and like Deben Bhattachariya says in the liner notes you here and there hear: "the sounds of passing travellers and the cries of the vegetable salesman in the street outside combining to bring the atmosphere of India to the listener. As none of the musicians on this record are well known because they never recorded commercially, I highly recommend reading the liner notes (this time in english) as they not only reveal some valuable information on the performers, like that Debendra Krishna Chattopadhyay had his first musical training from his father, a highly respected Dhrupad singer professionally known as Panubabu for instance, but also gives a little glimpse into the philosophy of Deben's way of recording and what he wanted to preserve and transmit beside the well trodden path of commercialism. Hope you enjoy "being there".

Deben Bhattacharya • 1921 - 2001

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Vilayat Khan & Bismillah Khan - Duets

EMI Music of India Series - ①

Vilayat Khan and Bismillah Khan - Duets

EMI Great Britain - ALP 2295 - P.1967

A1 Duetto - Jugalbandi - Raga Gujaree - Todi

B1 Chaiti - Dhun

B2 Bhairavee - Thumree

In the late fifties and early sixties there were very few possibilities for an adventurous kid like myself to hear any non "western" music. (please excuse the expression it is really as daft as the expression "World"-music, but I hope you interpret it as according to my intention) I remember trying hard on the shortwave to find any such music and remember at least now and then finding some arabic music probably from French stations catering to the north African diaspora.

Mostly, if there were any hints at all at such music it was just to add some exotic flavour in movies and almost never autenthic at that. This was especially true in the northern countries of Europe and even more so if you like me were born and grew up in a small rural community with no dedicated record dealers but where the whole stock of records were sold in the basement of the bookshop where they would not let you in unless it was clear that you really appreciated Western Classical music and would behave. Even Bill Haleys "Rock around the clock" was frowned upon and when my father ordered a copy of that on 78 rpm from them i was already stigmatized. The only other source for records were by the same shop that made a better living selling Milk, Bread and Butter. But there, to my utter disbelief, one day when scrutinizing their sale of left behind LP's with music that none of the locals would wrap their ears around, there in the daily supplies shop, right next to the shelf's of children toys, I was pulling up two Indian classical LP's in the EMI Music of India Series vol. 1 and 3. They were at half prize, a ridicilous sum today but still astronomic for a teenager like myself back then. I could not afford them but I insisted that the shop assistant, even thou he said that no one would buy them anyhow, put them aside in my name, and I made a promize to come up with the sum whitin two days. Those were sleepless nights and my mother who always supported me especially in quest for music still reluctantly and not really seeing what an opportunity this was, finally caved in and gave me the money to buy one of them. Terrible dilemma to choose and I had not heard a single note from either albums. I went with the most "autenthic" looking picture, I think it was the instruments and the concert mat that got me. And I bought vol. 1 but still insisting that they keep the other volume a few more days.

The clerk agreed, but could not believe that I wanted both, as they had been delivered to the store by mistake and that they had actually ordered other records but gotten these as the catalogue numbers had been similar or something like that. He even agreed to knock of a little more on the prize and I went home to listen to the first LP. The feeling was none other than total bliss. Finally I had heard real music that was not just trying to entertain you but regarded the listener as also having a soul and maybe in need of healing. The music was like a flight, a long journey at times floating down the river, a wonderful vehicle for the extreme longing I was specializing in, but at the same time a reliever of pain. I was completely overwhelmed and after repeated listenings also entering a satiated stage like I had finally gotten nourishment for my mind and not only heart and they they were one, and a feeling of coming home at last.

Nowhere was this occidental feeling of a rift between the body and soul, between the heart and mind. And finally, after listening over and over again I was in a constant state of total bliss.

A few days went by and I don't really remember how, but I think I found and sold scrap metal to a scrap dealer and came up with most of the money myself, probably my mother helped out a little again and I got the second record! This time at half the half prize!

So here is the first LP of Indian music that I heard and I am ever so thankful for that wrong delivery, as my life since then, has never been without a serious amount of Indian Music. These were not the orthodox classical repertoire as it had become a fad with "Duets" i.e Jugalbandi, actually still a very vital genre, but not always with as good results as these two samples. The quality is preserved here in spite of the at the time nouveauté, mainly because of the stature of the performing musicians. I remember the first listen to shenai to be overworldly and I have a special soft spot for Bismillah Khan ever since. I had only heard something similar litstening to the soprano of John Coltrane. Something that also happened around the same time as this.

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