What's interesting is the tabla player for Ali Akbar Khan listed on the back cover as 'Sashi Bellari'. I have never heard of him? If anyone knows anything feel free to comment.
Label: Odeon – PMAE 502
Tracks:
A1 - Raga Jhinjhoti
A2 - Raga Bahar
B - Raga Yamankalyan (Teental)
Digitised with: Project Essential II Turntable, Ortofon Red Stylus, recorded as WAV in Audacity and saved unaltered as WAV 16bit 44k, and then as 320kbps MP3 with: slight reduction on surface noise + click removal.
Hi Kirrin,
ReplyDeleteWhat fantastic shares - You are absolutely killing it !
Great going my friend !
Hope you do have some Pt. Nikhil Banerjee treasures in your collection? Please do post, if available, at your own time & convenience.
Thanks again for all the great music.
cheers,
PS.
Hi thanks for the comment. As it happens I have Nikhil Banerjee's first two albums from 1966 & 1967 and was planning to post them in the next transfers. His first LP seems to be fairly rare as it was only released in India and Australia.. I'm unsure whether it was digitised ever and the ragas seem to be unique.
DeleteWow - would be an absolute delight listening to Pt. Nikhil Banerjee's first 2 LPs !
DeleteLooking forward to them !
cheers,
PS.
Fantastic, thanks. Am just starting to explore this music and your blog is a great way of doing it.
ReplyDeleteDear Kirrin
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for releasing this as unaltered WAV file. I'm in India at the moment, but when I get back I'll definitely download it for my collection. The Ravi Shankar side I'm certain was re-released by RPG/Saregama on CD, but I'm not sure about the Ali Akbar Khan side. With regards to the Nikhil Banerjee LP's mentioned above by other people, virtually all of NB's LP output has been re-released on CD, including the material on his first two EMI-India LP's (not meant as a disincentive for you to do so!!!). Some of it is really very good quality (the earlier CD's from EMI-India/RPG which were manufactured and probably remastered in the UK). However some of the later CD releases of LP material by Saregama were of really dreadful quality, including one which was obviously taken from a LP, as you can hear all the pops & scratches. A disgrace to the memory of such an outstanding and modest musician.
Best wishes LJF
@Louis : Many thanks for the info on Nikhil Banerjee's CD releases.
DeleteI think there was a German Label Raga Records which released quite a few of his concerts/ albums & were of good quality. But, the record label is no longer existing.
Some random FLACs are available on the WWW, but the quality & the accuracy in converting CDs to FLACs/ mp3s is questionable.
@Kirrin: Your transfers would probably be the best source for listening to this outstanding musician !
cheers,
PS.
It's interesting that the CDs now are probably more obscure than the vinyls! The annoying thing is with these CDs is that they are compilations and some of the tracks from the original album are not on there. I haven't been able to find all these tracks on CD or the web but I agree that in a lot of cases a clean vinyl sounds a million times better than most of the Saregama releases.
DeleteThe German label Chhanda Dhara released CD's (and some LP's) of his concert recordings, which most NB fans consider to be superior to his studio work. The label, like most specialist Indian classical music labels, is now defunct, but copies are still being sold here and there. The American Label Raga Records did much the same and as far as I am aware is still in business.
ReplyDeleteThere is an absolutely colossal amount of private recordings of NB concerts, collated by Alan Tootill. Most are of rather poorish quality, but quite a few comparable to the releases by Chhanda Dhara & Raga Records
About Sashi Bellari (Shashi Bellare): http://countryandeastern.se/artists/shashi-ravi-bellare-2/
ReplyDeleteOh thanks so much for the response! how one letter can change everything. I'm listening to these albums now on Apple Music ;-)
DeleteHello Kirrin, Firstly thank you for the wonderful collection you have and for taking the time to do so much work in putting these great recordings up. As for your question about Shashi Bellare, well I actually studied from Shashi Bellare for a number of years. Shashi ji accompanied Khan sahib on many occasions and they would practice together also. Shashi Ji was younger to Khan Sahib but they got along together well. There are several recordings where they play together. In fact Shashi ji has accompanied Pandit Ravi Shankar on so many occasions also and before Allah Rekha Khan Sahib became is accompanist. I have formed a foundation called 'Ravi & Shashi Bellare Arts Foundation' a non-profit here in Southern California. Ravi was his twin brother and both were amazing artists. They were the first to introduce Tabla Duets back in the 40's with guidance from their Guru Pandit Taranath Rao.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the interesting response. I have listened to the few recordings listed on the site above by Abhay.. and they were quite enjoyable. I will certainly keep an eye out for their names in the future.
DeleteDear Kirrin , I actually have this LP with me , just got it , and so wonderful to see it here ... I am a senior student of Pt. Shashikant Bellare since early 1987, he loved me as a father and so all his family .
ReplyDeleteI have several records of him playing.
You may find him under different names ... hilarious
Original is Shashikant Bellare
aliases :
Shashi Bellari and Sashi Bellari,
Sashi Bellare and Bellari
If you happen to have any records of him I would greatly appreciate , am working on writing a book and making a website on him and his lineage .
Likewise if any musical requests , I shall do my best .
Plasure meeting you , thanks for existing and supporting this art , Jay Guru
Matwala
www.youtube.com/user/kradhan/videos