Shivkumar Sharma was born in Jammu, Kashmir on January 13, 1938. He apparently was the first santoor virtuoso to perform Hindustani classical music. He gave his first public performance in 1955
Zakir Hussain needs no introduction here. In a later posting I will have some pertinent thoughts about reasons underlying why he has become such a celebrity on his instrument. The standard reasons ("His father was Alla Rakha and he was able to go on tours with him," and so forth and, "He played with Jerry Garcia and Mickey Hart") seem a bit strained and unconvincing to me.
This LP was recorded at a house concert in Chicago in April, 1982.
The vinyl is in near mint condition and little was needed in post production in terms of click removal or equalization. The delightfully full and warm recorded sound on this release was a surprise to me and I hope someday the rest of the concert will be unearthed and released. For now this remains a relatively obscure gem.
(after decoding will be a lossless copy of the recording,
suitable for burning to CD)
(highest possible quality compressed file
suitable for playing on portable devices)
Thank You Richard! I've been enjoying your superb transfer of this beautifully recorded LP since your original posting! --dandor
ReplyDeleteI did the album cover design and layout, along with writing the liner notes (erratum: the word "burst" in the final paragraph should be "bursts"). It will be of interest that the Ameer Khusro Society of America stiffed me on the payment; it took me almost a year to get a check from them. Some of their other productions were terribly designed, looking like clumsy circus posters.
ReplyDeleteWarren -- It is great to hear from you. Thanks for the background story and best of luck to you!
ReplyDeleteThe AKSA also hired me to make a brochure for Shivji. I generated a nice piece which he used for many years. In fact, about twenty years later I was in California and picked up a copy of a regional print magazine for the Indian community, and found an article on Shivji....which I recognized as my own work about two sentences in.
ReplyDeleteOne of many reasons I'm no longer in the music promotion business...
Thank You Richard! Warren, it might be of interest to you to know that I was on the point of a business venture with a man well known on the technical, staging side of the major music festivals of the 1960s in America. It was only in the nick of time that he showed me to be someone I would've had to dress down on the first night of the exhibition of the posters I had created. And this is someone who behaved fearlessly in the face of impossible odds to get a production onstage. Some people shouldn't touch alcohol; he's one of them!
ReplyDelete