Friday, 30 January 2015

Lalith Rao - Raga Bihag, Raga Kedar, Thumri - LP published in India in 1985


We will publish here three LPs by great female voices of the Agra Gharana. We start with the only LP by Lalith Rao (born in 1942). More recent recordings are available on several CDs.





About the Agra Gharana, a particularly masculine style, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agra_gharana
http://sahapedia.org/the-agra-gharana-of-hindustani-music/
http://www.nadsadhna.com/Pages/IndianMusic/Gharanas.asp?About=Agra
https://agragharana.wordpress.com/

About Lalith Rao see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalith_J._Rao

Recently this wonderful box was published in India
(can be ordered from info@raga-maqam-dastgah.com):

Khadim Hussain Khan, Lalith J. Rao a.o. - Agra Gharana – Ek Vatavriksh – The Legacy Continues – An Agra Gharana Heritage Collection, Set of 4 CDs in box, CD 1: Khadim Hussain Khan (Vocal) – Rare Live Concert Recordings: Raga Bhim: Alap & Rupak Tal (1979) (26:58), Raga Bihag: Alap & Dhamar, Vilambit Ektal & Drut Teental (1978) (39:24), Raga Bhairavi: Keherwa (1976) (8:16), CD 2: Lalith J. Rao (Vocal), Purushottam Walawalkar (Harmonium) & Deppak Nerurkar (Tabla) – Volume 1: Raga Shree: Vilambit Teental, Madhyalaya Jhaptal & Drut Teental (1987) (65:32), CD 3: Lalith J. Rao (Vocal), Purushottam Walawalkar (Harmonium) & Deppak Nerurkar (Tabla) – Volume 2: Raga Dhanashri: Vilambit Ektal & Drut Teental (1987) (28:25), Raga Barwa: Alap & Drut Teental (1987) (38:30), CD 4 (MP3): Khadim Hussain Khan (Vocal) – Raga Maluha Kedar (30:33), Raga Darbari Kanhada (10:11), Raga Sajan Sohini (6:13), Lalith J. Rao (Vocal) – Raga Gorakh Kalyan (53:04), Raga Basant – Tarana (19:22), Torch Bearers of the Agra Gharana – Bharathi Prathap (Vocal) – Raga Bageshree Bahar (35:50), Pilu Thumri (11:17), Deepa Karnad (Vocal) – Raga Shuddh Sarang (37:31), Kailash Kulkarni (Vocal) – Raga Malkauns (45:28), Meera Sahasrabudhe (Vocal) – Raga Jog (30:52), Nishant Panicker (Vocal) - Raga Kedar (31:25), Pratima Ganesh (Vocal) - Raga Jaunpuri (35:07), Susheela Mehta (Vocal) - Raga Miyan ki Todi (27:47), Raga Khem Kalyan (11:08), Tara Kini (Vocal) - Raga Bahaduri Todi (36:46), PRAGNYA
Excellent product with wonderful recordings. The prodigiously learned Ustad Khadim Hussain Khan Saheb (1907-1993) was considered to be one of the foremost Agra gayaki singers of his time. Born in Atrauli (in Uttar Pradesh) in 1907, he studied music from his father Altaf Hussain Khan and then went on to receive the rich and varied repertoire of the Agra Gharana from his grand uncle Kallan Khan, both celebrities of their time and court musicians of Jaipur. Young Khadim`s studentship with the latter who was the younger son of Ghagge Khuda Baksh, the gharana`s pioneer was long and arduous: it lasted for 12 hours everyday for over 12 years. 
He was far more widely known as an ideal teacher than as a concert performer. Moreover, his proficiency in Layakari was beyond the comprehension of the uninitiated listener. The number of Khadim Hussain’s pupils is legion and includes well-known artistes of the past and present. Ustad Latafat Hussain (his younger brother) and Lalith Rao were among his disciples who made a name in the field. 
Lalith Rao (born 1942) is an outstanding singer of the Agra Gharna, one of the very rare singers today who still keep alive the magnificient style of the Agra Gharana in all it’s facets. 
Excellent recordings with good sound quality. The MP3-CD (7 hours long) contains next to recordings by the two masters a number of beautiful new studio recordings by students of Lalith Rao, all accompanied on Tabla by Shashibhushan Gurjar or Gurunandan Kallianpur and on Harmonium by Vyasmurti Katti.
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14 comments:

  1. Anonymous30 January 2015 at 16:11

    I have this album published under Pragnya .It's fabulous!
    The Agra Gharana bandishes ,vocal by Ustad Khadim Hussain Khan saheb and Lalith Rao are true gems.
    Thanks,for your blog which is really a great place for some body like me,who keeps looking for indian classical music!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous31 January 2015 at 13:27

    Thank you for this. I would be indeed grateful to you if you would share the Shree and Dhanashree by Vidushi Lalith Rao.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tawfiq31 January 2015 at 13:50

    This is an available CD. So please buy it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Souhaïl31 January 2015 at 22:36

    Salam Mister Tawfiq,

    First off all great thanks four your time and thank you for all the audio quality you put at our disposal in this blog
    I am asking you if it's possible for you to set new records of Holy Quran by Al-Haj Abd er-Rahman ben Moussa.

    In advance thank you.
    Souhaïl

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tawfiq1 February 2015 at 09:49

    As Salamu alaikum Souhail,
    one can find by now many recitations by Al-Haj Abd er-Rahman ben Moussa on YouTube, for example the complete Qur'an in 5 parts here: https://www.youtube.com/user/tanga1958/videos
    If you put his name (abderrahman ben moussa) into the search bar of YouTube you will find many many more files. There are now also 40 downloads to be found on platforms like Amazon, Deezer etc.
    All over the world people now seem to discover the beauty of his recitations, for me personally the most beautiful I ever heard.
    Are you from Morocco? If so you might know Cheikh Abdelaziz El Kassar (Qassar)(عبدالعزيز القصار). I only found 5 files by him on YouTube. If you have access to more I would be very grateful if you could let me know where to find them, insha'Allah.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Souhaïl1 February 2015 at 11:19

    As salamou Alaïkoum Si Tarik,

    Thanks for your reply.
    Ye's I'm a Moroccan from Casablanca living abroad right now. And you ?
    Definitly, Incha'ALLAH, I'll search for Cheikh عبدالعزيز القصار, and I will keep you informed of the result of my research.

    For the recitations by Al-Haj Abd er-Rahman ben Moussa, Apart those from Amazon (I did not know about them before), I've downloaded all the others from youtube and other sites.
    But, those from your site are different : they are slower, maybe older than the others on youtube.
    In one word, I found them more beautifull !

    And, yes I think this is the best recitation of Quran ;-)

    When I was in Morocco , it was on the radio before the call of alfajr's prayer during Ramadan.

    I have a project , once in Morocco incha'ALLAH, to procure all of this ancient recitation (from Tichka phone) and filter it, then encode it as MP3 or Wave to not that this wonderful heritage gets lost.

    Again thank you very much for your time and for your efforts.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Tawfiq3 February 2015 at 10:06

    As Salamu alaikum Si Souhail,
    I'm German. I think most of the recitations one finds on YouTube are from the complete Qur'an on 60 cassettes. Most of the ones I posted are from a series of 8 cassettes recorded at another time. I don't know if this series has more volumes. The ones I have are TCK678 - TCK683. The last two ones I have not yet posted, but will somewhere in the future, insha'Allah.
    I also have two cassettes which a Moroccan friend copied for me in the late 1980s. These are definitely different from the ones published on TCK.
    I'm also interested in older Moroccan Munshids. Recently on YouTube 15 albums by Muhammad al Barraq have been posted:
    https://www.youtube.com/user/farghabsa/playlists?shelf_id=0&sort=dd&view=1
    Another munshid I have only one slightly defective cassette of is Said Mouslim - El Borda on a label called Menebhi. 25 years ago I saw quite a number of cassettes by him, but afterwards couldn't find anything by him anymore. Do you know him?
    Another thing I'm searching for a long time without any success are these two boxes:
    BOURDA , coffret de 7 CDs
    Sous la supervision du maître Abdellatif Benmansour, les 7 CDs de cet enregistrement rassemblent des voix appartenant à plusieurs villes du Maroc, interprétant dans une version complète les deux célèbres poèmes d’Al Bouçairi avec les nombreux intermèdes d’usage.
    Prix du coffret : 600,00 DH
    and:
    FAYYACHIA, GHAWTIYYAT et SAMAE, coffret de 3 CDs
    Répertoire soufi populaire : Ana Mali Fiyyach de sidi Yahya Chorfi, ad do’âe annaçiri, al mounfarija, ainsi que d’autres de chants mystiques enregistrés sous la supervision du maître Adbellatif Benmansour.
    Prix du coffret : 400,00 DH
    Both are published by the Minstère de la Culture du Rouyaume du Maroc.
    If you ever come to Morocco and could buy them for me I would be very grateful. Perhaps we can continue to communicate privately. Could you send me your email address, please.
    Barakallahufik
    tawfiq

    ReplyDelete
  8. MarviniusMartinius9 June 2015 at 00:49

    beautiful music. Thank you for your blog, I'm not an expert on Indian music so its nice to have some description of what the music is about.
    Listening to the vocals on this lp, really beautiful and powerful.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Unknown26 July 2015 at 07:35

    Thanks, but I download 2 times the flac zip file and where unable to unzip it: File is corrupted !!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Tawfiq26 July 2015 at 10:45

    Just downloaded it myself and it worked perfectly. The problem must be on your side. Perhaps the download is not complete. Compare the size of your download with the size the download should have. If your internet connection is not the best this can happen. The only thing then is to try till you have a complete download or to download the much smaller mp3-file.
    It's amazing that so many users complain to the other side instead to look at faults that might be on their side and need some tutoring lesson to solve the problem. I downloaded from the internet thousands of files and till two years ago had a very weak internet connection. But it never came to my mind that the problem is somebody else's fault and searched always myself for a solution till I found it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Unknown26 July 2015 at 11:49

    Sorry, but I download it twice and it's always the same song that I was unable to extract : side 1,,,

    ReplyDelete
  12. Tawfiq26 July 2015 at 12:40

    My download this morning worked perfectly and I played the complete LP. Nothing wrong!
    So the problem must be on your side. You have to find a solution yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Unknown31 July 2015 at 22:47

    Already downloading correctly.
    Thanks again for this beautiful discover, one of the best hindustani female voice I've heard,,,

    ReplyDelete
  14. Unknown4 November 2017 at 21:26

    Não Sei quem cuida desses Albuns mas, faz uma coisa muito importante para cultura do planeta.Eu sou Ocidental mas isso não me impede de ouvir Musica Oriental.

    ReplyDelete