Wednesday 16 May 2018

Rare Arvind Parikh 1969 'Music of India - Sitar Recital'

Here is a 1969 LP of Arvind Parikh, I think this is his first LP. The LP is in great condition, however I think the quality of the recording is not great. I have copied some of the liner notes below. I have listened to Arvind Parikh in the past, there are a few CDs and digital recordings, however I'm not fully knowledgeable, apart from that he was an early student of Ustad Vilayat Khan.

Label: Regal ‎– S/ELRZ 9

Tracks:
A1 - Raga Kaunsi Kanada
B1 - Raga Jaijaiwanti
B2 - Raga Bhairvi


LINER NOTES:

Arvind Parikh comes from Ahmedabad, capital of Gujarat State, India. He does not have a musical lineage. The environment at home, however, was happily congenial to his interest in music. His grandfather, a local education officer, was a sitarist by inclination. But it was Arvind's mother, herself a noted painter of her time, who wholly influenced the development of his musical personality:
Endowed with a sensitive ear and an even more sensitive power of observation, Arvind showed his weakness for music even as a child of 7. He first toyed with the dilruba, a bow instrument, and soon showed astounding precision in handling it. Equally keen was his curiosity for other instruments as well, so that by the time he was 14, he acquired a winsome command over the violin, the flute, the mandolin, the jalatarang and, finally, the sitar.

Meeting the Master Then came his first meeting with the world-famous sitar-wizard, Vilayat Khan. This was in Bombay, in 1943, and it marked the beginning of an eventful career for the youngster. Vilayat Khan found in Arvind a pupil of talent and imagination prepared to pursue his art with diligence and determination. The receptive pupil soon caught from his master the rich strains of traditional music and wove them into a style of his own. It was also characteristic of the budding sitarist that his absorption in music did not come in the way of his brilliant academic career. In fact, the most intensive phase of his training under Vilayat Khan synchronised with an equally arduous period of his scholastic education. And he graduated in Economics with high honours!


Arvind Parikh made his debut as a sitarist of great promise at the All-India Music Conference in 1955. To his great guru, Vilayat Khan, this performance brought a sense of fulfilment. For, what the youngster played at the conference bore something much more than the impress of the master's genius. And it was not long before his recitals came to be in demand at major musical events all over the country. One shining feature of Vilayat Khan's teaching is the complete freedom he gives his disciples to develop their own style which is why Arvind's play strikes a distinctive note of individualism. His recitals reveal a neat balance between technical ability and practical skill. Pretence and showmanship are unknown to him and, unlike many contemporary impressionists, he does not embroil himself into a maze of technicalities! He prefers graceful curves to broad sweeps and he carries his music in a quiet stride in the slower pace and in a racy canter in the faster passages.

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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, and then separately edited with: Clickrepair (low settings) then slight reduction on surface noise + normalised to -1.5db in Audacity and exported as FLAC and MP3 320kbps.

7 comments:

  1. Fantastic share Kirrin ! Not many Pt. Arvind Parikh recordings are available, so many thanks for this one !

    cheers,
    PS.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Many thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kirrin (et al),

    In appreciation I did a little digital restoration work on the cover. I hope you like it.

    Bill

    (Link needs to be copy and pasted)

    https://imgur.com/3E0IOsl

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awesome thanks. I'm hoping to get a scanner at some point in the future, right now am just using my phone which has a lot of draw backs - but even so a scanner won't remove any physical flaws on the covers.. but the results should be overall better.

      Delete
    2. Kirrin, you are doing a phenomenal job bringing us all this music!

      I have a little talent with image editing, so I'm happy to contribute in a small way to the effort.

      Image editing while listening to Hindustani Classical music is a nice combo. Thanks for all the work.

      Bill

      Delete
  4. Hii
    Nice Blog
    Visit here for New Song
    New Hindi song

    ReplyDelete