Oceanic – Part 1, a beautiful, atmospheric track of Anoushka playing a sitar-duet with her father. Really touching. When I publish this message, it’s 7 April 2011, Ravi Shankar’s 91st birthday. Happy Birthday, Pandit ! 🙂
Tag Archives: raga
Shashank’s bansuri : music for a listener’s delight from his album ‘Flute Fantasia’
This album of Shashank – Flute Fantasia – has been a longtime favourite of mine. For instance the alap of raag Kafi is such a delight to listen to, especially around midnight. Follow this Spotify-link to play this track for free. The rest of this album is delightful as well and can of course be listened on Spotify as well. Highly recommended.
Film ‘Raga Unveiled’ sheds light on history and essence of the Hindustani classical musical system
The ambitious film Raga Unveiled, taking a look at the history and essence of the Hindustani classical musical system, has received a lot of praise. Will be screened on Sunday evening, 10 April 2011 at King’s Place in London, as a prelude to the Darbar Festival 2011, on 21 – 24 April 2011, at the same location. Here’s from YouTube a video to promote the film:
Kaushiki sings in Brussels, June 24th 2011
Kaushiki / Photo by Daniel Zafir (click on photo to enlarge)
Best news I’ve heard this week: Kaushiki Chakrabarty will sing on June 24th in Brussels :)) in the Palais des Beaux-Arts/Paleis voor de Schone Kunsten. Ahum… anyone in Holland picking this up?
Interview with brilliant and versatile veena player Jayanthi Kumaresh
I think this is great, an interview in three parts with brilliant and versatile veena-player Jayanthi Kumaresh, a carnatic artist whose work I’ve been following for years. I hugely admire her playing and I really hope to meet and interview her one day.
Interview – Part One
Interview – Part Two
Interview – Part Three
Raga playing on a piano? I don’t think so.
Watch the video below and ask yourself: is this raga-playing? I don’t think so. No ‘wavy notes’ here, a ‘first requirement’ in raga music. How to really expose a raag’s melodic material in detail if you can’t bend the notes in order to reveal the raag’s mood and character in all its nuances? And running parallel to this problem of execution is the tuning and scale-problem. Only a limited number of ragas is candidate for being ‘adapted’ to the piano. Otherwise: Utsav Lal is definitely very talented and I admire his playing and musical efforts.
Beautiful playing by young carnatic violinist Charumathi Raghuram
Groomed so far mainly by famous violinist T.N. Krishnan, this is Charumathi Raghuram, a young carnatic violinist with an excellent technique and in her playing a delightful, refined expression. With great imagination she plays a wonderful rendition of Akhilandeswari and – according to my taste – she achieves the kind of carnatic violin sound that I personally like best and that I always seek for in this music. Also the overall sound, the recording and amplification are ok here I think. I mention this, because many recordings in this area of music sound pretty bad, if not – if I may say so – horrible, that is, in my ears. For instance, I don’t like the use of big reverb and excessive microphone amplification in raga music, as – regrettably – soo often happens on stage or in studios. An interesting topic for debate and for further musicological investigation.
Kala Ramnath: excerpts from ‘All in one bow’ (2006)
Excerpts from my short film ‘All in one bow – de streken van Kala Ramnath’ (17min.), about Mewati-gharana violinist Kala Ramnath, filmed in september 2005 at my place in Amsterdam. I hope to rework this material (playing and interview) and combine it with other material of Kala’s playing that I shot in 2006, a full concert in Utrecht and a workshop in Rotterdam.
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Awesome footage in documentary about fabulous sitarist Nikhil Banerjee
The exceptional/fabulous & one and only Nikhil Banerjee lived up to his own words: “My approach to music is very deep. I do not believe in compromise. My music is based on spiritualism and was practiced to know the Supreme Truth. A musician must lift up the soul of the listeners.” The footage of Nikhil Banerjee’s playing in the video above – taken from a wonderful documentary by Steven Baigel – wonderfully illustrates his statement. It’s priceless stuff that lifts up my soul ! 🙂
Marvellous mridangam solo by legendary master K. Sivaraman
Some phenomenal playing by K. Sivaraman, the legendary master of mridangam… wow!