The Swedish label Amigo re-released on CD these three ragas from the 1960s and 1970s. All are interesting recordings for fans of raga. The CDs come with very little in the way of liner notes or information.
The Banerjee disc is the type of raga Western listeners may be most familiar with, played on sitar with accompaniment by the droning tamboura and the two-toned drum the tabla. It’s a lengthy piece at 53 minutes in four movements, recorded before an audience in Stockholm in 1975. Raga Desh is a moving performance, covering the whole range of tempos and emotions, from slow and meditative to rapid and percussive. The three musicians are remarkably in sync with each other, fluidly playing off of each other’s performances. Here is a different performance of the same raga, of the many available online:
The two Dagar discs are field recordings, taped in private homes in India in 1967 and 1968. On Raga Mishra Bhairavi Dagar plays sitar accompanied by tamboura. This is a two-movement raga about 43 minutes long, with a lot of background noise, including traffic and what sounds like slamming doors. The tamboura playing is for the most part quite subtle, with none of the expressive, percussive plucking of the accompaniment of Desh. During one lengthy segment of the final rapid “Jhala” section, it sounds like at least four stringed instruments being played: a high and low drone on the tamboura, and high rhythmic part and low melody on the sitar. Very impressive despite the distractions.
Raga Gangeyabushan is a unique performance with Dagar on the rudra veena, a complicated-looking sitar-like stringed intrument designed by the musician and custom built for him. The instrument has a much lower, richer sound than a sitar, with quite a broad range, and makes for a fascinating performance. When the introductory “alap” section is finally over after 20 minutes or so, the “jor, jhala” section contains numerous snippets of melody that seem to draw on blues and other Western forms. This disc also contains some background noises, but they’re less distracting. Gangeyabushan is really a remarkable recording.
(Editor’s note: Amigo has since been absorbed by bigger companies, but you may be able to get what remains of these discs and others in the series from Sweden’s Country & Eastern Records and other sources. These are worth seeking out for lovers of ragas.)
(Amigo, 2001)raga
