! Tks to the ARChive for Contemporary Music for organizing the INDIA MUSIC WEEK !
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Compilation with musicians and singers (Ghazal, Qawalli) from Pakistan…
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13 tracks from 13 albums by Peter Gabriel’s label Realworld Records in UK
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Amarrass Records and ‘Raichand’ by Barmer Boys ( Rajasthani quartet)
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streaming at Gaana.com…
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streaming…
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streaming… (@Facebook)
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What is the ARChive?
The Archives of the ARChive for Contemporary Music
The ARChive of Contemporary Music is a not-for-profit archive, music library and research center located in New York City. The ARChive collects, preserves and provides information on the popular music of all cultures and races throughout the world from 1950 to the present. Since the ARChive’s founding in 1985 our holdings have grown to over 2 million sound recordings, making the ARChive the largest popular music collection in the United States. And we are growing daily as hundreds of record companies, publishers, distributors and artists from around the world donate new materials to the ARChive. In addition to sound recordings and publications, the ARChive actively collects all books, magazines, videos, films, photographs, press kits, newspapers clippings, memorabilia and ephemera relating to the history of popular music–over three million items. We also maintain an electronic database of 35,000 people working in the music industry and 500,000 sound recordings catalogued at the ARChive.
In early 2009 ARC forged a partnership with Columbia University in New York City to create innovative academic initiatives and online content to help with the study, understanding and enjoyment of popular music from all over the world.
For the past four years, the ARChive has concentrated on collecting, cataloging and documenting the history of popular music from the non-Western world, available as an encyclopedia of world music to be published by Pantheon/Random House. The permanent, non-circulating collection is currently available through telephone searches, to research members comprised of the press and music industry, and to individuals for special projects. The goal of the ARChive is to one day allow students, educators, historians, musicians, authors, journalists, and the general public access to the rich musical heritage of the past 40 years.
The ARChive was established because for decades the record industry has done little to preserve its own heritage, and over the years many irreplaceable recordings and artifacts have been misplaced or destroyed. Even as the new medium of CDs has placed many out of print recordings back in circulation, many re-issues have different or truncated material, and many CDs themselves are already out of print. The record industry has yet to act to preserve its own heritage, as the film industry recently did after realising that nearly half of all films produced before 1950 have been lost.
American libraries and sound archives, including the Library of Congress, have also been slow or resistant to preserving emerging popular music. Most consider popular music “commercial” and therefore less worthy of saving–or more able to survive on its own. The ARChive is America’s only non-affiliated (University or Federal) broad based music archive. We believe that all forms of popular music–jazz, be-bop, bluegrass, country, rock, rap, blues, enka, reggae, calypso, zydeco, zouk and countless othersÑare important culturally. Not only do they entertain, they reveal to the world a great deal about a people and their values.
The ARChive of Contemporary Music was founded by B. George, the Director, and David Wheeler (1957-1997).
Why the ARChive?
There is a wonderful short story by Emanuel Boundzeki Dongala called “Jazz and Palm Wine.” In it, the Earth is invaded from outer space and the advance ships land in Zaire. Aliens conquer the world. Spacemen explore the various cultures and societies on this planet and decide, quite rightly, that the only things of value are palm wine, a West African intoxicant, and Jazz. The tipsy, hip and benign rulers make Sun Ra the president of the United States and John Coltrane the Pope. “A Love Supreme” replaces the “Gloria” in the liturgy.
We view the past through the artifacts that survive, and future societies (or spacemen) will reshape the past, creating their own version of our cultures. So the ARChive collects and preserves everything that’s issued, hoping to define “what happened” in terms broader than those usually described by selectiveness or availability. Taste, quality, marketing, halls of fame, sales, stars and value are as alien to us as they are, well, to aliens. The ARChive’s job is to make sure “A Love Supreme” will be there when it’s needed.
Join the ARChive
The list below indicates the various levels of annual charitable donations you can make to become a Friend of the ARChive. Friends receive our newsletter (2-3 times a year), an invitation to attend two free cocktail parties that precede our semi-annual record sales (getting first dibs and drinks in a relaxed setting) and get advance notice of our star-studded annual benefit party.
You can make a donation or join the ARC online via our NYcharities.org page (best for matching funds) or through paypal. Paper people can always post a check.
(Source: ARC – Official Website)
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Real World Records celebrates India Music Week with this playlist of 13 tracks taken from classic titles in its CD catalogue, each one transporting you to the ancient culture of India. Find out more about each of the albums and listen to a song from each title below.
Until October 31, Real World Records is offering a free download of the track ‘Dil Ki Doya‘ taken from Paban Das Baul & Sam Mills collaborative album Real Sugar.
1) Raga Darbari Kanhra-Drutgat by Gopal Shankar Misra
The expressive, liquid sound of the vichitra veena wonderfully fulfills Indian classical music’s aim of musical instruments emulating the human voice.
Dr. Gopal Shankar Misra (1957-1999), recognized as a music master by the age of twenty-two, was a virtuoso of this ancient, rare instrument. Born in Kanpur, he learned from his father, an acclaimed academic and musician who played
tabla,
sitar, and revived the venerable
vichitra veena by creating playing-technique for it. Gopal carried on his father’s work, taking the rare old instrument to new levels of artistry during his life.This 1999 recording, completed shortly before his untimely passing, stands as a beautiful testament to an extraordinary man’s all-too-short lifetime of devoted work.
Discover more about the album “Out Of Stillness”
2) State of Bengal vs Paban Das Baul – Al Keuto Sap
Tana Tani plunges traditional Indian Baul singer
Paban Das Baul into the dub-heavy melee of England’s Asian breakbeat scene, where his ecstatic, smoky vocals soar over juddering beats and squelchy basslines, and his urgent, hypnotic rhythms morph into frenetic drum ‘n’ bass breaks.The collaboration began in Sam “State of Bengal” Zaman’s East London studio in 2002 and subsequently continued at Paban’s Paris home. Paban’s music is the soul of itinerant India, melded here with the nocturnal soul of London in a vibrant sonic confluence of the Thames and the Ganges.
Discover more about the album “Tana Tani”
3) Raga Bhairavi by K. Sridhar and K. Shivakumar
Initiated into the South Indian Carnatic musical tradition from early childhood,
sarod player Sridhar and his brother, the acclaimed violinist Shivakumar, are descendants of twelve generations of virtuosic musicians. As children, both studied with the famed Usted Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, a specialist in the classical devotional
Dhrupad Dhamar style of Northern India.Two music traditions co-exist in India – the North (Hindustani) and the South (Carnatic); both share the same basic systems but differ greatly in the instruments used, the ragas played, and the concepts of musical expression. It is quite rare for musicians to master both traditions; the brothers Sridhar and Shivakumar have done so, creating what Sridhar calls “a yoga of sound.”
Discover more about the album “Shringar”
4) Paban Das Baul & Sam Mills – Dil Ki Doya
Paban Das Baul hails from the Murshidabad district of West Bengal, where the spirit of syncretism among Tantric, Vaishnava, Muslim and Buddhist traditions is manifested through music, dance and song. Legendary for his inspired lyrical beauty and his improvisational genius on the tambourine-like
dubki – which he learned from Sufi fakirs in his childhood – he is the new generation of India’s mystic “madman” Baul tradition.This fresh collaboration with English guitarist
Sam Mills (ex-23 Skidoo) – who immersed himself in Bengali songs, learned the language, and envisioned how the music of the Bauls could stretch to incorporate sounds from western pop and beats from Africa, funk and beyond – remains a gem of cross-cultural musical fusion.
Download this trackDiscover more about the album “Real Sugar”
5) Maryaadakadaya by U. Srinivas
From childhood, U Srinivas was heralded as a prodigy of South Indian Carnatic music, who almost single-handedly took the mandolin — an instrument previously nearly unknown in India — to unique new heights of performance and a solid place in the pantheon of Indian classical repertoire. Uppalapu Srinivas was born in Palakol, Andhra Pradesh, in 1969; he picked up his father’s mandolin at just six years of age. In his distinguished professional career, he has collaborated with such luminaries as Zakir Hussain, John McLaughlin, Michael Nyman and Michael Brook.This track is from an exquisite, candle-lit, live performance recorded in 1994 at Real World Studios by this charismatic genius of South India’s Carnatic classical music tradition.
Discover more about the album “Rama Sreerama”
6) Sweet Pain (Joi Remix) by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brook
In 1997, Real World commissioned the leading lights of England’s “Asian Underground” movement to remix the music of Pakistan’s great qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Asian Dub Foundation, Nitin Sawhney, State Of Bengal, The Dhol Foundation and Fun^Da^Mental chose tracks from Nusrat’s classic
Mustt Mustt, while Talvin Singh, Joi, Aki Nawaz and Earthtribe reconstructed cuts from
Night Song, Nusrat’s collaboration with the evocative Canadian guitarist Michael Brook. As the recording was being completed, Nusrat suddenly died, leaving
Star Rise as a striking tribute to the master by the next generation of Indo-Pakistani talent.Joi was the brothers Farook and Haroon Shamsher, who matched their love of Bengali, Bollywood and qawwali music with a passion for hip hop, soul, funk, reggae and other urban stylings. Haroon tragically died at the age of 33 in 1999. They released three albums on Real World, and contributed this great remix.
Discover more about the album “Star Rise”
7) Calcutta City by Amjad Ali Khan
Amjad Ali Khan was born in 1945 in Gwalior, in Madhya Pradesh, famous as the home of Miyan Tansen (c1500-1590), one of Indian music’s seminal figures and court musician to Akbar, the greatest of the Moghul emperors. A sixth-generation sarod player, Khan descends from ancestors who developed and shaped the instrument over more than two hundred years. He learned from his father Haafiz Ali Khan, who was a court musician up until India’s Independence in 1947.The
sarod is a refined version of the Afghan
rubab, a folk instrument which still dominates Afghan music today. It was Amjad Ali Khan’s great great great grandfather, Mohammad Hashmi Khan Bangash, who brought the rubab to India two centuries ago. The name sarod is from the Persian ‘sarood’ – which means ‘melody,’ alluding to the instrument’s sweetly melodic tone.
Discover more about the album “Moksha”
8) Run by U. Srinivas and Michael Brook
A collaborative experiment by India’s premier mandolin player and the renowned Canadian guitarist/producer,
Dream was constructed in 1995 from performances at Real World Studios, with guests Nigel Kennedy, Nana Vasconcelos, Sikkil R Bhaskarnan, Caroline Lavelle, Tchad Blake, and Richard Evans, among others. It evolved into a work in four pieces – Dance, Think, Run and Dream – which capture Indian music’s meditative spirit in combination with Western atmospherics.Grooves, melodies, drones and discords creep up and mesmerise; samples of Indian bicycle bells and even melodies from the studio’s metal stair railings were seamlessly woven into this modern work of distinctive, cross-cultural fusion.
Discover more about the album “Dream”
9) I) Rupak Taal II) Adha Taal by Pandit Shivkumar Sharma
This serenely beautiful evening raga is an original composition by India’s foremost virtuoso of the
santoor – a trapezoidal instrument of the hammered dulcimer family that is rare in the classical tradition. A household name in India, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma is among the few classical musicians whose name and influence have transcended traditional audiences, contributing to a much broader popularisation of classical music throughout India.Single-handedly lifting his Kashmiri folk instrument to full acceptance within the classical solo field, he has established a lineage of disciples – including his son, Rahul, who is featured on this recording. Father and son play the
jugalbandi (duet), with Shafaat Ahmed Khan on
tabla and Manorama Sharma on
tanpura. Produced by John Leckie, it was recorded at Real World Studios in 1998.
Discover more about the album “Sampradaya”
10) Svetasvatara Upanisad by Various Artists
The Mahabharata is one of the world’s greatest books and the longest poem ever written. More than 100,000 stanzas long – fifteen times the length of the Bible – it tells the tale of a long and bloody family conflict, but its Sanskrit title more broadly translates as “the great history of mankind.” There is an old adage in India: “Everything in The Mahabharata is elsewhere. What is not there, is nowhere.”For director Peter Brook’s 1989 film version of the ancient epic, based on the history of India, an international selection of actors was intentionally cast, to show that the true nature of the verses is the story of all humanity. For the soundtrack, a monumental collaboration of international talent was also enlisted, featuring musicians from India, Iran, Turkey, Japan, Denmark, and France; this 1990 recording is the timeless result.
Discover more about the album “The Mahabharata”
11) Melody of Kashmir by Rahul Sharma
Rahul Sharma is an ascending master of the
santoor, the dulcimer-like folk instrument from his family’s native Kashmir valley region that his legendary father and mentor Shivkumar Sharma elevated into the classical idiom.His album, including this lovely Kashmiri folk melody, was recorded live in concert in 2002 when Rahul Sharma performed at the Festival Settembre Musica in Turin, Italy. This beautiful live recording of intricate and soul-stirring instrumental music evokes the atmosphere of the breathtaking Himalayas, delicately blending both the traditional folk and classical influences of Indian music.
Discover more about the album “Music of the Himalayas”
12) Tanusree by The Ananda Shankar Experience
Ananda Shankar was born in Almora, Utta Pradesh in 1942. The son of dancers Uday and Amala Shankar and the nephew of Pandit Ravi Shankar, he grew up in a creatively charged atmosphere and went on to study
sitar at the Hindu University in Banares with the esteemed Dr. Lalmani Mishra. Moving to southern California in the late 1960s — when the pop world was fascinated by all things Indian — he produced some of the most influential sitar tracks of the swinging era, jamming with the likes of Jimi Hendrix. Returning to India, he achieved great prominence in film, TV and theatrical composition, but steadfastly also remained a cult figure in the secret history of western pop music.This final studio recording before his untimely death in 1999 saw Ananda pushing boundaries yet again, teaming up with eclectic London producer Sam “State of Bengal” Zaman to mesh elements of Indian classical music with breakbeat, hip-hop, and tabla-driven beats in an exhilarating, at times zany, fusion of 60s pop and 90s grooves.
Discover more about the album “Walking On”
13) Sri Jagadamba by Shruti Sadolikar
Shruti Sadolikar was born in Kolhapur in 1951 to a renowned musical family. Trained in Indian classical music from childhood – initially by her father, who himself was taught by Alladiya Khan, founder of the Jaipur-Atrauli
gharana – she went on to study for 12 years with the acclaimed raga composer Gulubhai Jasdanwala. She earned a master’s degree from SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai, where she wrote her thesis on
Haveli Sangeet, a type of temple music. Recipient of many awards for Hindustani vocal music, she is a highly respected teacher and performer in the
khyal style.This song is based on the Sanskrit verses of Sri Shankaracharya (788-820 AD), in praise of the Hindu goddess Jagadamba (aka Durga). The album
Gifted presents elegant performances by nine great female vocalists from around the globe; it was originally released in 2003 and was newly reissued this year.
Discover more about the album “Gifted”
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There is a wonderful short story by Emanuel Boundzeki Dongala called “Jazz and Palm Wine.” In it, the Earth is invaded from outer space and the advance ships land in Zaire. Aliens conquer the world. Spacemen explore the various cultures and societies on this planet and decide, quite rightly, that the only things of value are palm wine, a West African intoxicant, and Jazz. The tipsy, hip and benign rulers make Sun Ra the president of the United States and John Coltrane the Pope. “A Love Supreme” replaces the “Gloria” in the liturgy.
IMC - India meets Classic presents ... 