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Paging Dev and anyone else who knows Indian classical

sideshowbob

sideshowbob

Champagne fascia aficionado
Heard a piece by sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan on Late Junction last week, recorded by the BBC in the 50s IIRC. It rocked. Picked up a CD of his today, recorded live in 1997, and it rocks too.

Apparently he was regarded as a bit of a rebel, but I don't know a lot about him apart from what a bit of googling threw my way. He died a couple of weeks ago, sadly.

Any idea what his best records are? Or should I just buy everything I find?

-- Ian
 
Originally posted by sideshowbob

Any idea what his best records are? Or should I just buy everything I find?
Click to expand...
That's not a question worthy of you Ian :) I know what you're going to do...
Seriously, how easy is it to get Indian classical music (on vinyl preferably, but CD is OK) in London?
I've picked up a couple of nice albums on Ocora recently:
Periya Melam - Temple of Chidambaram (C560178)
E.S. Shastry - Art of the Vina (580062)
Both albums of Southern (carnatic) music, and well worth having a listen to.
 
DEV ARE YOU LISTENING!!!

I'm sure there are great places to pick up this stuff in London, and I'm sure Dev knows where...

Failing that, the main HMV in Oxford St has a whole floor of "world music", blues, folk, and jazz in the basement. Mostly CD.

I've now picked up a couple of Vilayat Khan albums and they're consistently excellent, so buying anything at all seems like a good policy. He seems to have made far too many to consider buying all of them, however...

-- Ian
 
Should mention another one, which is "Music of the Bauls" on vinyl - an original Nonesuch Explorer release. Brilliant album and really atmospheric, too (although certainly not "classical" music).
I don't suppose there are any sh vinyl ethnographic specialists in London, I'd like to avoid Oxford st if possible...
 
Dev,
That's a loooong lunch :D
Did I mention the rather wonderful Lakshmi Shankar album on Ocora (C581615) "Les heures et les saisons". She has an amazing voice and a 3-octave range. But it's her apparent precision that really grabs me ( apparent because I don't understand the words at all or the form well enough to make a meaningful judgement). Anyway, a beautiful album.
 
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