"University educated Prabha Atre has opted for a career in vocal music. And rightly so, because, amongst the younger set of the present day veterans, she ranks very high. Gifted with a very sweet and melodious voice, she had the good fortune of being groomed at the hands of Hirabai Barodekar and her talented brother, the late Suresh Babu Mane. Added to the awareness of innate musicality of the Kirana School she displays a rare melange of originality, virtuosity, ingenuity and craftsmanship which mark her recitals and put her in a class by herself. Her khayal singing is particularly striking for its creative revelations and is punctuated with richly decorated alaps, gliding 'sargams' and the vibrant yet intricate and picturesque taans that present to listeners a very pleasing and euphonious picture of the raga. In thumri, she conceives tender, lyrical ideas with such lavity and richness that one feels her creative resources are inexhaustible".
Label: His Master's Voice – ECSD 2490
Tracks:
A1 - Kal Nahin Aaye - Raga Marubihag,Vilambit - Ek Taal
B1 - Tan Man Dhan Tope Varun - Raga Kalavati - Ek Taal
B2 - Kaun Gali Gayo Shyam - Thumri Mishra Khamaj - Taal Deepchandi
Digitised with: Project Essential II Turntable, Ortofon Red Stylus, recorded as WAV 16/48 in Audacity and saved unaltered (apart from track separation/info tags) as FLAC 16 Highest Level 8, and then separately edited with: Clickrepair (low settings) then slight reduction on surface noise + normalised to -1.5db in Audacity and exported as FLAC Highest Level 8 and MP3 320kbps.
hello kirrin,
ReplyDeleteyour blog is a real treasure, so many fantastic records to discover...many many thanks for your work and enthusiasm
Hi Kirrin
ReplyDeleteJust back to UK, so I had a chance to compare this latest blog of Prabha Atre with the official Saregama CD re-release (Night Melodies CDNF 150216). Your version sounds miles better. There was a crackle which I originally thought was some kind of vinyl noise, but in fact it was the fingers working on the harmonium! This was almost inaudible on the CD version. The overall sound is much more alive. Many thanks!
Hi Louis. Thanks for your knowledge around the CD re-releases. My main point of reference for Saregama releases is their website and digital music shop. I too have been often disappointed by the inconsistency and quality of albums available. If an album has three songs, two might sound (fairly) good and the third is either missing or terrible. In my experience the vinyls with all their flaws sound 9 times out of 10 heaps better than any CD or digital re-release - to my great surprise even for the CD releases I thought were superior like Ravi Shankar's many re-releases in the early 2000s on the Angel label. (to be fair I was listening very carefully on Studio monitors - but still...)
DeleteI think when a lot of these older recordings get edited for re-release a lot of highs are lost (cut out) making the result sound muted. Another thing I've noticed is a lot of re-releases are in Mono despite the original release being in Stereo? Anyway! There are a small handful of well done re-masters though. :-) I think the results are dependent on being able to access the original tapes and quality of editing and reparation equipment.
Great post again Kirrin, great rip. Thank you for all this wonderful music. Prabha Atre really soars on this record.
ReplyDeleteFantastic share Kirrin ! What a classic find !
ReplyDeletecheers,
PS.
Teşekkürler...
ReplyDelete