Musique Religieuse de l'Inde -recorded by Deben Bhattacharya

Musique Religieuse de l'Inde

Documents sonores recueilles et enregistrés à Bénarès par Deben Bhattacharya

Bôite à Musique - BAM LD 015 - P.1964

Side A

A1 Bhajana (chant de dévotion)

A2 Gajan (danse en l'honneur de Shiva)

A3 Chant de Ramprasadi (en l'honneur de Kali)

A4 Mélodie Baul (Dotârâ)

A5 Chant mystique de Baul

Side B

B1 Closhes de monastère

B2 Mangalacharana et Trisharana (Prière bouddhiste)

B3 Jayamangala Astagatha (Bénédiction de mariage)

B4 Ghambhira nritya (Danse de Kali)

B5 Palavali kirtana (fragment)

B6 Pala kirtana

Yet another rarity of the earlier sixties recordings by Deben Bhattacharya. Liner notes are again in french only. For those who only read english it will get a little better once I start posting the LP's on the Argo label, but music is the universal language so I am sure you will enjoy anyhow. I put a lot of work into supplying as full documentation as possible and I try to refrain from rewriting shorter summaries, as I hope you will find enough information in the liner notes. There is always the aid of automatic translations if we are eager enough to find out.

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Musique traditionelle de l'Inde - Recorded 1954 by Deben Bhattacharya

Musique traditionelle de l'Inde

Ragas de Bénarès recueillis et enregistrés en 1954 par Deben Bhattacharya

Bôite à Musique - BAM LD 014 - P.1964

Side A

A1 Mya Ki malhar (vina et acct)

A2 Bhairavï (flûte de bambou et tampura)

A3 Adana (sarangi et tabla)

A4 Chant de Mirabai (chant et accompagn' instrumental)

Side B

B1 Marubihag (2 sahnai, 2 duggis et svara)

B2 Bageshri (chant, sarangi et tabla)

B3 Puravi (esraj et tabla)

Here are some more recordings by Deben Bhattacharya. These must be some of the first recordings he ever made in India after having practiced in London on the expatriate Indian musicians there. The following are some of his own words about the hardships of financing the recording trip to Benares, culled from a quite interesting interview made with him in 1982 by Kevin Daly.

"I needed £80 for the tape recorder, about £20 for the transformer, and another £25 or so for 20 blank tapes to take with me, plus about £60 for a one way boat ticket to Bombay. Where was I going to get all this money? The Third Programme wouldn’t give me an advance, although I had a guarantee that they would take programmes when I came back. Then I met a lady called Sunday Wilson – extraordinary name – who was a producer for the overseas service. She commissioned me for six five-minute programmes. I got five pounds – no! – five guineas each, so that was £30.6.0 towards it! Some weeks after that, the poet Stephen Spender had started his new magazine ‘Encounter’, and had approached me to write an article on Indian poetry. We met, and when I told him I was going to India, he was very kind, and gave me an advance on two further articles. So that’s how I collected the money for my first recording trip: from Encounter, from Sunday Wilson, and from Harley Usill. Argo didn’t have much money, but they gave me £25, they paid for the Gaumont-British machine, and the tapes against future royalties." Read the full text here...

This record contains more of the classical repertoire. It was recorded in 1954 in Benares but was not issued until ten years after that under the sponsorship of l'Association Française des Amis de l'Orient, so I guess it consists of material that was not selected for publication by the Argo company. Liner notes are again in french...

vina

shahnai & duggi

esraj

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Chants et Danses Populaires du Bengale - recorded by Deben Bhattacharya

Chants et Danses Populaires du Bengale

Documents sonores recueilles et enregistrés par Deben Bhattacharya

Bôite à Musique - BAM LD 076 - P.1964

Side A

A1 Paus Barban (chant de paysans) 4'14

A2 Bhatiali (chant de bateliers) 5'23

A3 Chant et danse Baul 7'10

A4 Jhumur (danse de Printemps) 4'34

A5 Sari Gan (chant de rameurs) 2'19

Side B

B1 Chant du Ramayana (par les Santals) 2'38

B2 Chant de fete de Badhna 4'14

B3 Kali kacha nritya (danse de Kali) 6'57

B4 Vaishnava Giti (chant de dévotion) 4'02

B5 Jari Gan (chœur d'enfents et tambour) 4'20

B6 Dhali nritya (danse de bâtons) 2'28

Here is another post of some very interesting recordings made by Deben Bhattacharya in the early sixties. Several of these are of music traditions he would come back to with regular intervals. The sleeve notes also by him are unfortunately only in french. Still rather more accessible than some of the coming albums where very informative and longer texts by him are mostly in swedish. Well, there is always the aid of automatic translation for the languages we do not have immediate access to, at least as long as we don't make any typos.

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Religious Songs from Bengal recorded by Deben Bhattacharya

Chants religieux du Bengale - Religious Songs from Bengal

enregistrés aux Indes et édités par Deben Bhattacharya

Bôite à Musique - BAM LD 099 - P.1970

Side A

Songs of the Bauls

A1 The new man of love and faith 8'40

A2 On understanding oneself 3'40

A3 Cultivate the human land 7'00

A4 Release your worldly weight 4'45

Purna Chandra A3

Bhaktadas Baul A2

Haripada Debnath A1, A4

Side B

Poèmes de Chandidas (XIV• siècle)

B1 Poèmes de Chandidas 22'20

a) Instrumental opening

b) Extempore song and commentary about Krishna's greatness

c) A version of Chandida's song "O firend, who made me hear the name of Shyam?

d) Improvisation, song and commentary about Krishna's encounter with Brinda duti

e) Chandida's song: "It is a disgrace"

Shri Nabagopal, vocal

This is the first of a series of posts where I will pay homage to the work of Deben Bhattacharya to make so many musical traditions known. A well deserved tribute to a remarkable person who was responsible for preserving so much music mostly of the popular traditions from so many different countries but never neglecting the musique savante. I will start by posting some of his early Indian recordings, mainly because the first real contact with live concerts of Indian classical and folk music that I ever had was through the concerts he had helped to arrange together with Rikskonserter while he was living in Sweden from the 1960's - 1970's. It was not just art music but also folkmusic like the Rajastani music of the Langas. That was the first Indian folk music I had ever heard and to hear that live in repeated concerts several hours long with singers and musicians like Alladin, Noor Mohmad and Shumar Khan. Some of these concerts were recorded and broadcasted by the Swedish Radio. I will post some of those broadcasts a little later on. Here is a little something about those times that Deben Bhattacharya spoke about in a most interesting interview that he gave to Kevin Daly in 1982.

"Between ’61 and ’62 I went to live in Stockholm. Sweden was very fruitful for me; Stockholm Radio began to take fairly regular programmes from me. Soon after that, a new organisation called Rikskonsert started in Stockholm. It was run by a man called Nils Wallend, and its job was to impart musical education in Swedish schools, from playgroup to adult – all paid for by the state. They invited me to produce the extra-European music and also I got involved with music of the socialist countries because I had done a lot of work in those countries, and I had a fairly large collection of music from most of the socialist countries except Russia. I brought musical groups from various countries to Sweden, to appear at concerts and in schools to show them what music of other countries was like." You can read the full interview here...

Also don't forget to take a stroll over to the excellent post on the recordings made by Deben Bhattacharya in Israel in June and July in 1957 at the blog here, The World's Jukebox...

A very young Deben Bhattacharya with a gopijantra-playing Baul.

Anandalahari

Shri Nabogopal Mithra Shakur

The true sleeve backside

Substitute scavenged from the inside flap.

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Cambodge - Musiques Samrê des cardamomes

Cambodge - Musiques Samrê des cardamomes

(Recordings by Jaques Brunet, for the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh)

Boîte à Musique - BAM LD 112 - P.1971

Face A

I - Les Pors de Sre-tang-yor

A1 Solo d'orgue à bouche (khim) 3'20

A2 Ta ngay banboy - Musique pour la culture des cardamómes 5'44

A3 Saung Pong Song Throch - Danse des paons et des bœufs sauvages 5'24

II - Les Pors de Kranhung

A4 Bât An Choan Hal - Chant alterné 3'24

Face B

II - Les Pors de Kranhung (suite)

B1 Moköy - Chant funèbre 3'55

B2 Sneg Ansong - Danse des cornes de bœufs banteng 4'13

III Les Pors de la Riziere

B3 Pör Loeu - Danse des cornes de bœufs sauvages 9'03

B4 Bât Bampé - Bercuese 4'00

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Ram Narayan - Inde du Nord - Ragas du matin et du soir

Inde du Nord - Ragas du matin et du soir (Ram Narayan & Chatur Lal)

Boite à Musique - BAM LD 094 - P. 1965

Side 1

A1 Annonce et expositions

A2 Ragini Shuddh Todi

Side 2

B1 Annonce et expositions

B2 Tala Lila Vihan - Tabla solo

B3 Annonce et expositions

B4 Raga Marva

Have you ever seen such a young Ram Narayan? Or such a young Chatur Lal for that matter? Note well how Pandit Chatur Lal is listed above Ram Narayan who at this early times still is without title on the labels! He is another of my favourite musicians of the Hindustani Classical masters.

I will post many more Ram Narayan later and although I like his more mature style and later recordings that bear evidence of the more profound depths that hopefully comes with the years, but alas not to all... Some musicians turn more and more muddleheaded by each day but I won't point any fingers, those who have ears can easily hear their audience pinching tricks and musical show offs at the cost of something more rewarding and lasting. This record as you may guess is as rare as turtlefurs and it is also in perfect visual condition. But unavoidable with age it has some clicks and pops all the same!

Anyhow it is a lovely little 10' record with lots of information, there is even a little inlay in the sleeve, nothing much that is new today but gives an idea at the earliest attempts to introduce Indian classical music to the west. It is all in french but if it is not your preferred language you can always look at the scales and pictures, I'll write more about the artists later on. There is a little spoken rhytm, spoken introductions to each raga and even a rare vocal by Ram Narayan when he introduces the progression of the raga. Hope you enjoy this one as much as I and as the sarangi is one of my loved instruments there will be much more of that later. I still think it is sad that the Sarangi went out of style and was mostly replaced by the harmonium, but if you have tried to keep one in tune in changeing climate and in the cold north going in to a concert and moving outdoors to the next mehfil you may get an idea why. Anyhow it is sad because it was a much more sensitive accompaniment to vocalist than the harmonium.

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