Khabaram Raseeda: Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad (2012)

 

From Episode 2 of the Pakistani Coke Studio (Season 5, 2012). A ghazal adaptation of Khabaram Raseeda by lyricist Amir Khusrau (1253–1325 CE). Ghazals derive from Arabic poetry and declare spiritual and romantic love and longing. In the case of Khabaram Raseeda (lyrics below) the longing is for realisation of the divine in total absorption and surrender, in dying to oneself in the Sufi/ Yogic death-before-death. And thus our ego is washed away like embers of a beach fire on the shore, or demolished like sands on the wind. It is beautiful, tragic, endlessly creative. I like to think if there is an afterlife, the doors will one day fling open and this will be the devotional music which greets my ears. 

Tonight there came a news that you, oh beloved, would come –
Be my head sacrificed to the road along which you will come riding!
All the gazelles of the desert have put their heads on their hands
In the hope that one day you will come to hunt them….
The attraction of love won’t leave you unmoved;
Should you not come to my funeral,
you’ll definitely come to my grave.
My soul has come on my lips (e.g. I am on the point of expiring);
Come so that I may remain alive –
After I am no longer – for what purpose will you come?

Chakrabarty & Roy: Raga Kedar

Indian classical music concert with Arnab Chakrabarty, sarod master, and Surojato Roy playing tabla, which took place on Sunday October 7, 2012 in Madrid Espacio Ronda.

Arnab Chakrabarty made his solo debut in 1994, and won the National Collegiate Competition for Music and Dance three years in a row between 1995 and 1997. In 1999 he performed before Dr Kofi Annan, then the United Nations Secretary General, a memorial programme for the Pakistani peace activist Eqbal Ahmed. Notable performances at home include recitals at the IMG-Britannia Young Masters’ Festival, Mumbai; the Uttarpara Music Conference, Kolkata; and concerts at the Nehru Centre and the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

Surojato Roy is a percussionist, specializing in tabla, from Calcutta. Surojato has taken his considerable knowledge of tabla and brought it to villages in Arunachal Pradesh and parts of the Sunderbans, where he has taught impoverished children. He also teaches free music classes at the Surtaal Academy of Music, where students are given instruments they couldn’t otherwise afford.

Kedar, also known as Kedara, is a Hindustani classical raga. Named after Lord Shiva, the raga is placed on a high pedestal in the realms of Indian classical music. It is characterised by a lot of complex turns, which are brilliantly melodious but difficult to express in words. The raga emerges from the Kalyan thaat. The raga is to be played in the second prahar of night. Most Ragas with teevra ma(M) are sung at night (as per the time theory of Ragas). The meend from D to M via P is the heart of the raga. The G is used lightly as a grace note in the transition from M to P. The movements in the raga from one swara to another are quite complicated, and the extent of use of the different swaras often depends on the musician. Kedar is an ancient raga, with different genres of classical songs, like khayals, thumris, dhrupads, as well as light classical songs based on it.

North Utsire

Cerridwen's Cauldren: Album Artwork

North Utsire

Classical Persian Tradition: Album Artwork

North Utsire

Rag Ban Sin: Ananta Vishnu- Raga Bhairavi (2009)

~ANANTA VISHNU~ 

Concert finale in  Espacio Ronda 25th October 2009
Raga Bhairavi by Pandit Rag Ban Sin
Sitar: Rafael Holgueras
Bansuri: Raúl Balbuena,
Tabla: Niraj Kumar Singh

Raag Bhairavi (Hindi: भैरवी) (Urdu: بھیرویں‎) (Sindhi راڳ ڀيروي ) is a Hindustani Classical heptatonic (Sampurna) Raag of Bhairavi Thaat. Traditionally it is a morning raga. In modern times, typically in Khyal Gayaki, it is usually performed as the concluding (finale) piece in concerts. It is the defining raga of its own Thaat. However, Carnatic music has a Bhairavi raga which is quite different from the Hindustani raga.

Ananta is a Sanskrit term which means 'endless' or 'limitless', also means 'eternal' or 'infinite', in other words, it also means infinitude or an unending expansion or without limit. It is one of the many names of Lord Vishnu.Ananta is the Shesha-naga, the celestial snake, on which Lord Vishnu reclines.The painting shows Vishnu on the Serpent Ananta with the Goddess Lakshmi and Brahma Ji emerging from his navel

Madhubani Painting on hand made paper treated with cow dung (2.4 ft x 1.8 ft)
Artist: Dhirendra Jha

By North Utsire

Last Hippie Standing

Director/ Producer: Marcus Robbin
Year: 2001
Country: Portugal

Redefining social norms the early Hippies of the 60’s sowed the seed of Goa Trance Dance from which has mushroomed this amazing vibe of Oneness enveloping the entire planet now. This is a beautiful documentary on the Goan Hippie Heaven Era and what has become of it today.

Last Hippie Standing is a video clip style portrait about the hippie generation. Thirty years ago, this was a movement which came to Goa to find something they couldn’t find at home. Many returned, a few stayed. Goa, the hippie paradise of the 60’s is our point where we start to search for “the last hippies”. This former Portuguese colony in the south of India was for many the final destination after adventurous travels through Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dreamlike untouched beaches promised to be a new holy land, which was also the spiritual basis for Alex Garland’s novel “The Beach”.

Info: Documentary Storm

By North Utsire

Ustad Rais Khan: Raag Nand Kalyan

Raga Nand, known variously as Anandi, Anandi Kalyan, Nand Kalyan, has attained considerable popularity in recent times. Although the provenance of the raga is not easy to pin down, it is thought to have been conceived in the early 1900s. This beautiful raga is product of the highest musical imagination, a masterful synthesis of melodic calculation and aesthetic imperatives. The contours of Raga Nand do not obtain from simple, linear arohi or avarohani tonal ribbons. There are tantalising chhayas of 3 or 4 ragas but its has an independent personality all its own. Mastery of this melody requires assimilation of its kernel and its lakshanas. From Rajan Parrikar Music Archive.

By North Utsire

Arlo Dodges the Draft

A youthful (1969) Arlo Guthrie manages to dodge the draft in the Hipsploitation film Alice's Restaurant, and go on to record the outstanding song Meditation.

by North Utsire

Better Than Folk Off

In 2006, Sunday Best Recordings released a 2CD Psych- Folk compilation they called Folk Off. I listened enthusiastically to the album but remained indefatigably underwhelmed at many of the offerings, in agreement with this sage reviewer. Just because its ‘acid’ or ‘psych’ music, doesn’t really mean you can get away with any old dissonant din. Many of the tracks were unrelated to the genre. I was so peeved at this indignacious assault on my delicate fluffy folk sensibilities that I created a compilation album I call Better Than Folk Off. Although  the tracklist uses Folk Off as a springboard, and some ‘outliers’ are still dutifully retained within the new compilation, it is so utterly different that it serves as a monument to recording studios who think they can throw up any garbage they have got the rights to and sell it to the gullible under the mildewed cloak of Psych- Folk music.

By North Utsire

Street Sitar Player

Great sitar player in Santiago: 

By North Utsire

Ravi Shankar: Raga Jog (1956)

From the album Three Ragas.
By North Utsire

Pandit Jasraj: Raga Darbari (2011)

Raga Darbari ( 21.30 )
Pandit Jasraj - Vocals
Zakir Hussain - Tablas
From " The Meditative Music of Pandit Jasraj "

Pandit Jasraj (Hindi: पण्डित जसराज) is an Indian classical vocalist, still going strong at 84. He released Raga Darbari in 2011. As a means of livelihood, his brother Maniram took the young Jasraj as an accompanying tabla player. However, at the time, like sarangi players (a short necked string instrument), tabla players were considered minor artists. At the age of 14, unhappy with his treatment as an accompanying artist, Jasraj left and vowed not to cut his hair until he learned to sing. He finally cut his hair after garnering his first AIR Radio performance, where he sang Raga Kaunsi Kanada.

By South Utsire

Nikhil Banerjee: Raga Hemant (1969)

Album: Ragas For Meditation
Label: Capitol Records -- ST 10518
Format: Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM, Stereo, LP
Released: 1969

In an interview (printed in the booklet for The Hundred-Minute Raga) Nikhil said he had been influenced by Allauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Amir Khan, and to a lesser extent by Omkarnath Thakur, Faiyaz Khan, Kesarbai Kerkar, and Roshanara Begum. For Banerjee, music-making was a spiritual rather than a worldly path:

"Indian music is based on spiritualism; that is the first word, you must keep it in your mind. Many people misunderstand and think it's got something to do with religion—no, absolutely no! Nothing to do with religion, but spiritualism—Indian music was practiced and learned to know the Supreme Truth. Mirabai, Thyagaraja from the South, Haridas Swami, Baiju—all these great composers and musicians were wandering saints; they never came into society, nor performed in society."

By South Utsire

Ali Akbar Khan: Raga Kanara Prakaar (1969)

"If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist—then you may please even God."

 Ali Akbar Khan

The 80 Minute Raga (Raga Kanara Prakaar)

Raga Kanara Prakaar ( 80.00 )
Alap - Part 1 & 2 ( 40.00 )
Gat - Part 1 & 2 ( 40.00 )

Ali Akbar Khan - Sarod
Mahapurush Misra - Tablas

Originally recorded live and released on a double LP by The Connoisseur Society in 1969.

Late evening Raga. The Alap, part 1 and 2, is a complete Alap in 15 parts. The Gat is played with changing rhythms. The first part is in slow teentaal followed by a medium tempo teentaal wich then goes into a second section in a fast ektaal returning for the final climax to a teentaal in fast tempo. This Raga is also referred in some other sources as being Raga Darbari Kanada. 

By South Utsire

Vilayat Khan: Raga Yaman (1968)

Raga Yaman (50.42 )

Part 1 - Gat Vilambit laya ( slow tempo teentaal ) - ( 23.46 )
Part 2 - Madhya laya ( medium tempo teentaal ) - ( 15.03 )
Part 3 - Drut laya ( fast tempo ) - ( 11.85 )  

Vilayat Khan - Sitar

Manik Rao Popatkar - Tablas

Fans and media alike liked to play up Vilayat Khan's rivalry with and animosity towards Ravi Shankar. However, in calmer moments Vilayat would admit there was not much to it. His animosity for the politics and institutions of India's cultural life was another matter. In 1964 and 1968, respectively, he was awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards – India's fourth and third highest civilian honours for service to the nation – but refused to accept them, declaring the committee musically incompetent to judge him.

by South Utsire