Nayan Ghosh and Yogesh Samsi: live in Austin and Houston (Texas) on their 2001 tour

Nayan Ghosh: sitar
Yogesh Samsi: tabla

Excerpts from concerts in:
Houston, Texas, USA on June 30, 2001
Austin, Texas, USA on July 01, 2001
soundboard (straight from the mixing board) recordings

Total time: 79:14 minutes

tracklist:
01 Raga Poorvi 2001-07-01 (56:56)
Alaap 
Composition in Vilambit (slow tempo) 
Composition in Drut (fast tempo)
02 Raga Sohini 2001-06-30 (13:01)
03 Baul Song 2001-06-30 (9:14)


Nayan Ghosh happens to be the nephew of legendary flautist Pannalal Ghosh. Of somewhat more interest is that he has a dual career as both a sitarist and a tabla player. 

The original seeder's notes (presented as a courtesy to the taper -- his opinions are his own):
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"Terms of use: These files are intended for non-commercial use for music lovers  and may be freely traded or given away provided that (a) all the files including this one are included and (b) they are not converted to any lossy format such as mp3. Any commercial use is prohibited and will result in the copyright holder pursuing legal action against the violator(s).

"Nayan Ghosh is one of the best amongst is his generation of sitar players that include Shahid Parvez Khan and Buddhaditya Mukherjee. Of the three, his playing is the most soulful and conveys a high-level of emotion.  Indian music is based on playing vocal compositions. Pandit Ghosh learnt vocal and tabla from his father, Padmabhushan Pandit Nikhil Ghosh.

"I am seeding a CD's worth of material that I listen to all the time consisting of material from Houston, TX (June 30, 2001) and Austin, TX (July 1, 2001). I had been after Pandit Ghosh for a long time to get me a quality recording of the last two pieces of this collection and in Houston he not only played them but gave an inspired performance. The first piece, presented in 3 movements, was a raga I had not heard him play before and has quickly become one of my favorites.

Accompanying on tabla is Yogesh Samsi, a disciple of Taranath Rao (who taught at Cal Arts) and Alla Rakha who is Zakir Hussain's father).

Please support the artist as he does tour the USA regularly and has several CDs out. Check out his CD on Raga Records (www.raga.com) which is available on Amazon or from Raga.

SBD->DAT->Soundforge->CD-R->EAC->FLAC 8 w/align on sector boundaries

Editing Notes: Because Indian music involves a lot of tuning and the pieces are each very long, I edit so that only the music remains to allow the most music to fit on each CD."
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16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC files (374 MB)

Nayan Ghosh and Parviz Ayan: Live in Furth, Germany, on 2010-05-06

Please note: the download link is now working correctly. Please see my note in the comments section for details.

Here is the fifth live recording I am sharing this week -- I originally downloaded this from the Dimeadozen live music torrent site.

Maybe one or two more live concerts before I return to the serious business of digital transfers. This is a long holiday weekend in the United States and I hope that there will be some time for me to devote to a few transfers. Probably after I clean out the garage!

Nayan Ghosh: sitar
Parviz Ayan: tabla
at the Kulturforum, Furth, Germany
2010-05-06

Excellent audience recording by Thomas Wulf using Soundman OKMII binaural microphones -- listen on headphones for a "you are there" experience. Mr Wulf also designed some lovely CD art if you like to make CDRs from these uploads.

Total time: 119:50 minutes

disc 1 (66:48 minutes)
Tuning and intro (7:50)
Rag Puriya Kalyan
- Alap, Jod and Jhala (25:40)
- Compositions in teentaal (26:33)
Rag Kamod (6:35)

disc 2 (53:04 minutes)
Tuning and intro (2:47)
Rag Charukeshi (19:55)
Rag Khamaj (Thumri alap, Thumri, Dhun) (20:11)
Rag Bhairavi (10:08)

original taper's notes:
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"One of the most renowned musicians of Indian classical music came to play a wonderful concert this week. The region had been starving for this for years now..

"It was an amazing evening. His tone and lyrical moods touched our hearts and his virtuosity made quite an impression. He played one long rag with all the explorations and variations. In the second set he played two medium length ragas which were very lyrical and romatic imo. Both sets were concluded by two short ragas.

"In his introduction the artist not only explained the structure of ragas in general and the special properties of the ones he played; he also mentioned how coming back to Germany after 25 years has a nostalgic feeling; it was here that he played his first concerts outside of India..

"He was accompanied by the Munich-based Afghan tabla virtuoso Parviz Ayan; the two had meet earlier that day for the first time and only played a little during the afternoon! Absolutely astonishing!! They were cautious, not to be in each other's way but their perfomance was flawless and very sweet.

"The recording came out very good, I feel, but judge for yourselves!

"As usual: share freely but never for money!

"Covers and labels are included and the tracks are tagged. In time you will also find infos etc on my covers site at www.wulfware.de\covers "
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16bit, 44.1 kHz FLAC files (662 MB)

Aashish Khan and Prabir Mitra: live in Stuttgart, Germany on 2015-07-19

Here we have another selection from the virtual pile of live recordings I have acquired slowly over the years. This one was certainly a concert at which I would have liked to have been present. First of all, there were two morning ragas performed in the morning and secondly there was no amplification.

Hindustani musicians often explain that their tradition goes back centuries. Not so often mentioned is how this could possibly be, when there were no microphones, amplifiers, or speakers turned up past the point of distortion. It just doesn't seem possible that there were concerts in the 15th or 16th century!

Aashish Khan has not lived his life without some controversy. I will give him a lot of credit, however, for the courage to perform a morning concert and to not use amplification and processing effects such as compression and artificial reverb. 

The taper seemed to have some problems with the batteries on his Edirol R-09HR (a well-known complaint about this recorder -- I use an AC power cord when I am recording LP transfers) so that we only have the first half of the concert. 

Half is better than nothing, however, and I am grateful to have it and also to be able to share it with you.

The original info file which accompanied the recordings is below (unedited, as received):

-----------------------------
USTAD AASHISH KHAN & PRABIR MITRA

2015-07-19

Theater Am Faden, Stuttgart, Germany

RAAG BILASHKANI TODI

Lineage: Audience regording with Roland R-09HR > AUDACITY > YOU

Musicians:

Ustad Aashish Khan: sarod

Prabir Mitra: tabla

An almost private concert featuring this morning raga in front of a rather small audience of about 30 people in a very intimate atmosphere in a very (very!) old and dark building - and without any sound system.

The concert started at 11 am and featured two mornig ragas. The second one (I forgot the name of) was even a bit longer and very free - with a very long duell between sarod and tabla! 

Well, I was only able to record the first one due to battery problems (as always with the Roland).

The night before they also played there (this time it was sold-out) but I couldn't come.

Complete content of my recording:

0: tuning and announcement 3:28

1: Raag Bilahkani Todi 35:23

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16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC file (191 MB)

Aashish Khan and Pranesh Khan: live in Eugene, Oregon on 2012-04-15

This is a concert (the third of four that I am going to upload this week) featuring Aashish Khan on Sarod with his brother Pranesh Khan on tabla. There is a little bit more explaining than usual for such concerts and I found the commentary interesting.

April 15, 2012

Beall Concert Hall

University of Oregon

Eugene, Oregon 

Aashish Khan: sarod

Pranesh Khan: tabla

Doug Scheuerell: tanpura

Josh Feinberg: tanpura

Track listing:

101 Introductory remarks

102 Raga Bhimpalasi Alap

103 Remarks from stage

104 Compositions in teentaal

(intermission)

201 Remarks from stage

202 Tabla solo 

203 Remarks from stage

204 Raga Bhairavi 

Total time: 104 minutes

recorded from the audience using a pair of DPA 4061 microphones. 

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC files (456 MB)

Ali Akbar Khan and Zakir Hussain: live in Stockholm, Sweden on 1980-11-15

This second live recording of Ali Akbar Khan's fall 1980 tour is from an FM broadcast of the concert which took place on 1980-11-15. The venue was not specified in the digital transfer I received.

Ali Akbar Khan: sarod

Zakir Hussain: tabla

Mary Johnson: tanpura

Total Time: 46 minutes, 9 seconds

This was certainly not the entire concert and may or may not have been the entire broadcast. It is not clear whether the date I have is of the concert or the broadcast, or both. Once again an audio cassette was transferred and shared by Jack Warner. Thank you, Jack!

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC file (204 MB)

Ali Akbar Khan and Zakir Hussain: live in San Diego, California on 1980-10-17

This is one of two live recordings of Ali Akbar Khan and Zakir Hussain recorded in the fall of 1980 which I will be uploading in the next few days. 

This one is from venue at SDSU in San Diego, California. The next upload will be from a concert in Stockholm, Sweden on 1980-11-15. 

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Ali Akbar Khan and Zakir Hussain
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA
October 17, 1980

Ali Akbar Khan: sarod
Zakir Hussain: tabla
Mary Johnson: tanpura

Total time: 76 minutes, 32 seconds

This tape was transferred (from an analog cassette recorded at the mixing desk) by legendary audio collector Jack Warner, who graciously shared his transfer. Thank you, Jack!

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC file (234 MB)

Bhajan Saupuri: Santoor Recital [CBS BS001] a cassette recorded and released in India in 1984

Bhajan Saupuri (or Sopori, or Sopuri -- depending on your source) is a santoor performer born in 1948. Not a lot of his recordings are currently available. This one is from a series produced by Swarashree Records and released (reissued?) in India by CBS. The Swarashree recordings document many lesser known but musically interesting performers. Some labels are only interested in recording musicians they consider to be the absolute highest tier artist for each instrument and that is how we wind up with many dozens of LPs, cassettes and CDs by a small and dwindling group of artists. Swarashree recorded both very well-known musicians and other, equally interesting musicians. Despite uneven quality control in recording and manufacturing, it's often worth searching out their releases.

side one: 

Raga Jog: Alap, Jod, Jhalla followed by a composition in teentaal

side two:

Compositions in Ragas Jhinjhoti and Misra Kafi

Kashmiri Dhun

Bhajan Sopori: Santoor

Mahadeo Indorekar: Tabla

Equipment used in this transfer:
Cassette Deck: Teac W890R (azimuth was carefully adjusted for each side)
Preamp: Parasound PHP 850
Recorder: Sony PCM-M10 at 24/96 resolution

Software: Audacity and xAct

24bit, 96kHz FLAC files (1.3 GB)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC files (373 MB)

320 kbps mp3 files (138 MB)