Rash Behari Datta Performs Raga Malkouns with 20 Sitars

It's Boxing Day (observed?) in many countries and a happy one for those that have it. Many people have the day off regardless. Much good has it done us, and much good it will do us, as a reformed Scrooge said. Snow is piled up high here in the New York Metro area. But the music must go on!

Today something very special. Indian Hindustani classical musician and composer Rash Behari Datta has a CD out of Raga Malkouns performed on 20 Sitars (ARC Music 2312). Something of this scope, as far as I know, has never been attempted, and the results are rather excellent. As in a conventional Jugalbandi duet, there are composed passages. Then there are sections where a principal sitar will elaborate on the rag and the other sitars will comment, embellish and accompany. Sometimes there are simultaneous improvisations as well.
It's all quite exhilarating to hear.

Maestro Datta accomplishes all this by means of overdubbing numerous parts. Sarvar Sabri accompanies on tabla. The effect is sometimes one of harmonization, sometimes multi-melodic-scalular, sometimes there is a compositional punch gained. In all cases the music emerges from the raga tradition and does not transgress the bounds of good taste. Most importantly it has a ravishing sonority and beauty.

As an added bonus the CD concludes with a short but pithy exposition of Raag Shobhavari by sitarist Baluji Shrivastav. He plays only one sitar on this improvisation (!), but it is a nice performance and makes one want to hear more of him as well.

A one-of-a-kind event, this disk is. I would love to hear a raga performed with many stringed instruments and also many tablas, perhaps tuned to different pitches as Zakir Hussein managed so successfully in the Diga Rhythm Band. That's another time. perhaps. What matters is that 20 Sitars affords a rather marvelous sonic experience. Anyone who likes Hindustani classical music will no doubt find it rewarding.

Tarun Bhattacharya and "The Best of Indian Santur"

Ravi Shankar's Gharana (school) of North Indian classical music included the late Ali Akbar Khan, his father Allauddin Khan and, of course, Shankar himself, who studied with Pandit Allauddin Khan. Ravi Shankar in turn has introduced the practices of his Gharana (and his own innovations) to another generation of Indian music masters, one of which is Tarun Bhattacharya, who plays the santur. The latter is a many stringed instrument that is struck with plectrums, similar to the Hungarian cymbalom or the hammered dulcimer of North American folk tradition. Think of it as like half of a string frame of a grand piano and you get some idea (but see the cover image reproduced here).

There is a new CD of Tarum Battacharya out called The Best of Indian Santur (ARC Music 05111), and it is an excellent listen. There are performances of three ragas plus a light-classical piece.

Bhattacharya is a master of the santur. He has a dramatic sense of dynamics and a strongly lyrical but percussive style. He can get dampened staccato notes by pressing the plectrums onto the strings without immediately bouncing them off, he can do slide notes with his plectrums, a buzzing sort of "press roll" sound, and otherwise is quite masterful. His alaaps are well conceived, his middle-tempo playing maintains forward momentum and inventive brilliance, and he creates exciting, rapidly moving jhaptals in tandem with the tabla player (Shiv Shankar Ray).

If Shivkumur Sharma is the best known of the Indian santur players in the States, Tarun Bhattacharya is quite in his league and his own stylist.

This is a wonderful recital, worth every minute you spend listening to it. Those who don't know the magic of the santur are in for an experience!

Nirmala Rajasekar on The South Indian Veena: "Into the Raga"

I have been a great admirer of Indian music since the days when Ravi Shankar nearly became a rock star after Beatle George began studying with him. It was a little later that I started becoming familiar with the Carnatic (South Indian) classical tradition. That way of making music is the older of the two traditions (the north generally embracing the Hindustani style, in which Ravi Shankar is an important exponent).

Generally speaking the Carnatic tradition relies a bit more on compositional elements that form around a traditional raga. Where the sitar is the more popular plucked stringed instrument in the north, the south has the veena.

At this point we introduce today's CD, a Carnatic performance by veena exponent Nirmala Rajesekar, accompanied by violinist Raghavendra Rao and a two-man drum team of Tanjore K. Murugaboopathi on the mridangam (a two-headed drum played in similar ways to the North Indian tabla), and V. Suresh on Ghatam, a clay jar struck on its side with metal finger attachments and also sometimes manipulated at the opening with the hand, creating the bass sound.

Ms. Rajasekar performs a mini-concert on the disk at hand, Into the Raga (Innova 230). There are a number of compositions performed based on various ragas. And there is the section where the two drummers engage in a solo dialog, always an exciting part of the Carnatic presentation.

Ms. Rajasekar plays the veena with sensitivity and finesse, and with the violinist goes through the compositional passages with great command of the style. It is not so much the speed of the phrases, though some are finger twistingly difficult, as it is the proper idiomatic phrasing, especially in terms of attention to micro-bends and shading. She most certainly has much in the way of mastery.

The twin drum team is impeccable. South Indian drummers are some of the most advanced rhythmic virtuosi known in the world, and these two are excellent examples. The drum solo that occurs towards the end of the CD is breathtaking in its spiritedly flawless execution of extraordinarily complicated rhythmic phrases.

Whether you already are a connoisseur of the Carnatic tradition or you are a novice, this is a beautifully performed and beautifully recorded program that will give you much to appreciate and enjoy. Click on the Innova link on this site to find out more.