Beautiful traditional songs from Serbia in my latest Youtube-video


I’ve just published another video on my Youtube Channel, titled ‘3 beautiful songs from Serbia by three great female singers’. This tradional music from mid-twentieth century Serbia features enchantingly beautiful singing, that will immediately reach evry true music lover’s heart and soul. Also added some info over there.

some highlighted video’s on my youtube channel

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Radio 6 blog-messages on my raga-programme ‘Gharana’ moved to new folder

My radio 6-blog-messages -in dutch- on my Concertzender-programme ‘Gharana’ are moved to a new folder. They are no longer accessible via the ‘Magazine’-folder but from now on you’ll find them in the Oriënt Express-folder

Right now you’ll find articles on the first two episodes of Gharana, episode 1, dedicated to Kaushiki Chakrabarty and episode 2, dedicated to Kala Ramnath. You can still listen to these programmes via this ‘on demand’-page of via the programme guide pages of radiostation De Concertzender.

The next Gharana-special is scheduled for broadcast on Friday, the 30th of May, 2008, and will be dedicated to sitarist Purbayan Chatterjee.


Purbayan Chatterjee
(sitarist Purbayan Chatterjee)


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My addition to ’50 Great Moments in World Music History’, published in Songlines no.51 (April/May 2008)

In March 2008 the renowned world music magazine ‘Songlines’ celebrated its 50th issue. Alongside the regular articles and reviews there were some special features, one of them a list of ’50 Great Moments in World Music’, covering some remarkable musical happenings from evry corner of our planet over the past 7000 years.

Songlines 50th issue - March 2008 

cover of Songlines, 50th edition (March 2008)

At the bottom of the list the editors humbly added that the Songlines-list just appears to be ‘a snapshot’ of all the numerous great moments in the history of world music. Therefore Songlines invited readers to write about other great musical moments, ‘missing links’, that also deserve to be mentioned. Since I like to see things listed and could easily sum up some other ‘Great Moments’ I wrote to Songlines and suggested 5 more ‘key moments’ in recent world music history, from the world premiere of Colin McPhee’s ‘Tabuh-Tabuhan’ in 1936, to the remarkable success of the overtone record ‘Hearing solar winds’. In Songlines no. 51 -the April/May 2008-issue- my letter -see and click on the picture below- was published. Big fun!
5 more great moments in world music history


my letter in Songlines no.51 (April/May 2008)



Songlines no.51 - April/May 2008

the cover of Songlines no.51 (April/May 2008)


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Listen to the Radio Netherlands Historical Audio Archive on the web!


In my work as an archivist at Radio Netherlands I deal with all kinds of audio-material. Apart from a huge record and cd collection, other treasures of the archives are the many thousands of music recordings done by Radio Netherlands (mostly western classical music, but also other genres like jazz and world music) and many thousands of music programmes and all kinds of spoken word programmes. Some of the oldest material is on 78rpm-records, but the vast majority is on tape. All this material is being digitized, and now selections of it are published and can be listened to on the web.
 

 one of the Radio Netherlands Worldwide logo’s

Besides regular news the spoken word programmes are concerned with big national events, dutch society, literature, art, royalty, economy, religion etc., all produced and broadcasted since the birth of Radio Netherlands in 1947. Altogether the Audio Archives of Radio Netherlands provide a unique perspective on the world at large and on the social, cultural and economic dimensions of dutch society since 1947. Since we’re talking about World Radio here, not only in dutch, but also in english, spanish, portuguese, french, surinamese, bahasa indonesia, afrikaans and arabic. 

  

For Holland the Radio Netherlands Archives have always been a sort of ‘hidden treasure’, but recently things have changed. All material is being digitized now and selections are now retrievable/available via internet, thanks to my colleague Martien Sleutjes who’s keeping a weblog and adding material on a daily basis. Though it may concern only selections, among them are real treasures. So, if you’d like to find out how Radio Netherlands reported about the world and dutch society in the past 60 years in different languages, take a dive in the Radio Netherlands Archives and start listening. You’ll be surprised by what you’ll find there, and there’s coming up more all the time!


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Indian classical music vibrant and alive at Leicester’s Darbar Festival 2008!

Darbar Festival 2008 programme guide
It’s been more than a week now that I’ve had a great time in Leicester, England, as a visitor of the Darbar Festival 2008. This year it was the third edition of the Festival. I’d heard already a lot of things about ‘Darbar’. Not only several people told me about it, but of course I had also listened to the music itself on many great ‘Darbar-albums’ released by Sense World Music in 2006 and 2007. But being there at the festival is the real thing of course, so I simply had to go to Leicester. What I got there was a unique musical experience and much more than I ever could’ve dreamed of.


participating artists Darbar 2008 together on stage
participating artists of Darbar 2008 together on stage, at the closing of the festival (photo: Pieter de Rooij)


A knowledgeable, involved and dedicated audience
The Darbar Festival has some very special features and differs from any other festival of Indian classical music, except for, maybe, the Saptak Festival in India, that shares the same philosophy and views. During three days Darbar offers 15 concerts. I’ve attended 12 of them, and one Darbar-unplugged concert before the festival. Top artists from India and from the UK enter the stage. They perform not only for a very knowledgeable, involved and dedicated audience, but also for the other Darbar artists, so the artists visit each other’s concerts. This creates a very special, stimulating atmosphere for the artists on stage.


ragasinger Kaushiki Chakrabarty performing at the Darbar Festival 2008
ragasinger Kaushiki Chakrabarty performing at Darbar Festival 2008 (photo: Arnhel de Serra)


In Amsterdam, here in Holland, I’ve been visiting ragaconcerts for more than 25 years, and it’s always been a really good and dedicated audience, but you’ll never find an atmosphere in Amsterdam comparable to the Darbar-audience, whose response to the artists -with gestures and vocal reactions- is -like in India- much more direct and spontaneous.


participating artists of Darbar Festival 2008 - poster 1
participating artists at the Darbar Festival 2008, poster 1 


Bringing on stage a new generation of excellent young musicians
The programme schedule of Darbar is really exciting, with a very good selection of the very best young stars, combined with excellent young top performers who may well be on the verge of an international breakthrough. This doesn’t mean that the older artists with the ‘big reputation’ are not coming to Darbar. Some of them do perform at Darbar as well, but apparantly, for the organizers it’s not an issue, a must or a necessity to have them by all means at Darbar to make the festival a success. The great thing is that Darbar doesn’t focus obsessively on the older generation -like so many other venues and festivals do out of mere ‘safety’ or marketing reasons or, otherwise, wrong views- but is breaking away from this old fashioned idea that only old artists can offer the best in Indian classical music, which is simply untrue. As are other persistent ideas, that the spiritual element of the music is vanishing among younger performers and that their musical skills are not as good as the older generation. These persisting ideas -kept alive especially in the media and interconnected ‘markets’ around them- are not only wrong, but do also harm the viability of Indian classical music and could even endanger the continuation of this vulnerable, but nonetheless strong musical tradition. Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan… when did their stardom and their great reputation start? Exactly, almost fifty-five years ago! The media -and the majority of their users- tend to forget this and in so-doing create and perceive a wrong picture of Indian classical music, namely, as a musical domain exclusively dominated by old stars. This widespread misconception is courageously counteracted by Darbar -and for instance by the Sense World Music label- by bringing on stage a new generation of excellent young musicians.


sarod player Taruna Jasani
sarod player Tarun Jasani, one of the great young players at Darbar 2008 (photo: from Tarun Jasani’s website http://tarunjasani.com/ )


And that a younger generation can sometimes sound slightly different or seeks new ways of expressing themselves shouldn’t be a reason for immediate criticism -as so often unjustly occurs- but rather be seen as a consequence of music’s natural flow and evolution through time and history. Just think for example in this regard of Indian classical music’s development outside of the domain of royal courts, after 1947. The musicians had to face up new challenges to survive and keep the music alive. And what happened from there was marvellous, the performance-format that evolved -the modern ragaconcert- conquered a worldwide audience!


participating artists of Darbar 2008 - poster 2
participating artists at the Darbar Festival 2008, poster 2 


Unplugged concert
Now, who were playing at Darbar? Too many to name them all here, but there’s a programme schedule on the web and on the two posters above you can have a look at most of them (with all names listed on poster 1). I’d like to mention here a few of my personal highlights. On Wednesday 2nd of April, two days before the festival started, I was already in Leicester and visited a so-called ‘Darbar unplugged’-concert, in the Leicester Guildhall, a beautiful old medieval building, with an excellent performance venue. Playing there were two celebrities, Irshad Khan on sitar and surbahar, accompanied on tabla by Yogesh Samsi. Their great, inspired playing was very rewarding and pleasing to the ears, helped also by the excellent acoustics of the venue and the unplugged/unamplified sound of the instruments. The instruments sounded as natural as they should, evry colour and little detail could be heard.


   Yogesh Samsi en Ajay Joglekar
(tabla player Yogesh Samsi [left] and harmonium player Ajay Joglekar [right], meet on thursday April 3rd, 2008, in Leicester
(photo: Pieter de Rooij)

Exceptional performance by Kaushiki Chakrabarty
The Darbar Festival itself was from Friday 4th of April to Sunday 6th of April. The concerts I visited were all great, and four of them I consider my ‘personal favourites’: on friday morning Rakesh Chaurasia’s bansuri-concert with Yogesh Samsi on tabla, on saturday evening the tabla-soloconcert by Bhupinder Sing Chaggar (he’s from Leeds, UK), accompanied on harmonium by Ajay Joglekar and on sunday evening Purbayan Chatterjee’s sitarconcert with -once more- Yogesh Samsi, on tabla. And then there was in my opinion an exceptional festival highlight: the performance on saturday evening of 28-year old singer Kaushiki Chakrabarty from Calcutta, accompanied by Sanju Sahai on tabla and by Ajay Joglekar on harmonium. Soon after hitting the first notes of raag Abhogi right up until the very last note of a light classical song that ended Kaushiki’s concert, the whole audience was spellbound and completely immersed in her singing. I should mention in particular Kaushiki’s deeply moving rendition of a charmingly beautiful melody in raag Pahadi, strongly associated with nature and expressing a painful separation of lovers. There was maximum response -lively gestures, enthusiastic vocal reactions, numerous applauses- from the audience during the performance and a tumultuous applause afterwards.


Kaushiki Chakrabarty after her performance at Darbar Festival 2008
loud applause and cheers raining down on 
Kaushiki Chakrabarty after her breathtaking performance at Darbar 2008 (photo: Arnhel de Serra)


I’ve heard Kaushiki live before in a dazzling performance in Amsterdam and evrything else I’ve heard of her on cd has been no less than mindblowing. Now in Leicester it was even much, much more than that. Kaushiki’s Darbar-concert was truly the most profound and deeply touching musical experience I’ve ever had. Veeery exceptional! 


 Kaushiki Chakrabarty at Darbar Festival 2008, after her performance
(Kaushiki Chakrabarty after her performance at Darbar 2008, next to her tanpura-players Debipriya Das [left] and Ranjana Ghatak [right] (photo: Pieter de Rooij)


Interviews at Darbar for my upcoming programmes
So, Darbar was a great experience. I didn’t only visit concerts, but I also had the privilege to interview three great musicians during my stay in Leicester: Irshad Khan, Yogesh Samsi and Purbayan Chatterjee. I’ll portray them in three specials of my radioprogramme ‘Gharana’, later on this year. You’ll soon find more details on these programmes here on my weblog and on the website of De Concertzender.

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