Nikhil Banerjee - Ragas - Lalit, Sindhu Bhairavi, Puriya Kalyan

EMI Music from India Series - ⑥

Nikhil Banerjee - Raga Lalit, Raga Sindhu Bhairavi, Raga Puriya Kalyan

HMV Great Britain - ASD 2394 - P.1968

A1 Raga Lalith

A2 Raga Sindhu Bhairavi

B1 Raga Puriya Kalyan

This LP by Nikhil Banerjee was the third LP from this series that I came in contact with and I post it here and will go on with the others as they materialize.

The whole series ran as listed in the previous post and I don't know of any higher number than vol. 11. So if you know better, I would be delighted if you please inform me. Also I feel a certain need to declare that this is in no way the best of the best Indian music as I understand it today or as my taste has evolved. But this is what really got me hooked. The change in taste was especially noticable, when I, upon moving to a larger city and finding more knowledgable new friends with similar but more developed tastes came in contact with the vocal music. I almost immediately stopped listening to any instrumental and immersed myself in the beautifully expressional voices of India first north and then south. Still most indian classical buffs where only into "instrumental" but in the vocal muisc I where to find much more satisfaction. Not that I don't appreciate instrumental, I still do, but the voice, and especially the male voice, is more attuned to my ear. Later posts will cover much of that and then, when still a little later I also discovered the magic intensity and glow of the Karnatic Music with The Saint composers of the Trinity and Swathi Thirunal the sky opened much wider and my heaven became bigger...

But now I am running ahead of myself, so more about that later...

Music▼ +

Ustad Bismillah Khan & Prof. V.G. Jog - Duets

EMI Music of India Series - ③

Ustad Bismillah Khan & Prof. V.G. Jog - Duets

EMI Great Britain - ASD 2312 - P.1965

A1 Raga Jai Jaiwanti

B1 Raga Bahar; Dhun in Mishra Khamaj

Here is the second LP that managed to buy and that I talked about in my previous post.

It was also a jugalbandi of the same wonderful Bismillah Khan with the delicate violin of V.G. Jog. I continued to stay in a blissful state and although there had been some strong opposition from some family members about this record being played all hours of the day I was very happy when my mother some time after I had moved away from home asked me if I could make her a cassette copy of these two records she missed them badly and over the years I shared with her many of the later trouves of classical Indian music. She really had very good taste and open ears when given the chance to listen.

Music ▼ +

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.

Music ▼ +

EMI Music from India Series vol. 1-11

EMI Music from India Series vol. 1-11

Music from India Series - ①

Vilayat Khan & Bismillah Khan • P.1967 HMV

ASD 2295 • Duets (Jugalbandi): Chaiti-Dhun; Bhairavi-Thumree

Music from India Series - ②

Ravi Shankar & Ali Akbar Khan • P.1965 HMV

ASD 2304 • Duets: Raga Shree; Raga Sindhu Bhairavi

Music from India Series - ③

Ustad Bismillah Khan & Prof. V. G. Jog • P. 1965 HMV

ASD 2312 • Duets: Raga Jai Jaiwanti; Raga Bahar; Dhun in Mishra Khamaj

Music from India Series - ④

Ravi Shankar 1967 • HMV

ASD 2341 • Raga Khamaj, Raga Lalit

Music from India Series - ⑤

Ali Akbar Khan • HMV

ASD 2367 • Raga Durga; Dhun in Khamaj

Music from India Series - ⑥

Nikhil Banerjee • P.1968 HMV

ASD 2394 • Raga Lalit, Raga Sindhu Bhairavi, Raga Puriya Kalyan

Music from India Series - ⑦

Vilayat Khan • HMV

ASD 2425 • Raga Yaman

Music from India Series - ⑧

Ravi Shankar • HMV

ASD 2418 • Raga Nata Bhairav; Raga Mishra Piloo

Music from India Series - ⑨

Bismillah Khan • P.1969 HMV

ASD 2446 • Raga Sarang; Raga Dadra; Raga Chandra Kauns; Raga Kajaree

Music from India Series - ⑩

Imrat Khan & Manik Rao Popatkar • HMV

ASD 2461 • Raga Marva, Raga Suddha Saranga

Music from India Series - ⑪

Ustad Vilayat Khan • P.1969 EMI

ASD 2460 • Ragas Jaijaiwanti, Rageshree

In some coming posts I will try to reconstruct most (well, hopefully all) of the above catalogue but I will first post the three LP's that I came in contact with when I first started to listen too Indian classical music, and then later I will go on with the others as they materialize.

Music in the following posts...