Narendra Bataju • Sitar and Surbahar 1980

Les Sitar et Surbahar de Narandra Bataju
Disques Espérance - ESP 165532 - P.1980



Side A

A1 Raga Bhairagi Bhairau Alâp 18'50
A2 Composition - Chautâla 5'40


Side B

B1 Râga Madhuvanti - Alâp Suivi De 2 Gat Tintâlâ 26'43








Narendra Bataju, born in Katmandu, Nepal 1944

Narendra Bataju is a Surbahar and Sitar player from Nepal now living in Paris. Ravi Shankar was so impressed by his "natural talent, his sense of musical emotion and virtuosity as a sitar player" that he took him as a disciple.

Born in Kathmandu in 1944, and blind from birth, Narendra Bataju early interest in music strated from when he was about eight years. He began learning the sitar with a Master in Kathmandu where he was born. At ten, he sought to improve his knowledge at the Conservatory of Music Lucnow (India), where he studied with the masters Narayan Prassad Shrestra, Yussef Ali Khan and Khan Illias. Ten years later he leaves with a degree in Master and with his first Grand Prix and in 1964 the city of Delhi awarded him a second one.

He then taught his art at a college in Kathmandu, and gave regular concerts for the Nepalese royal family, as well as public concerts and radio broadcast. It was then that he also began teaching classes for many European and American students. In 1972, he decided to come to Europe to teach and moved to Paris where he has been since then, continuing to teach sitar and singing and giving performances throughout Europe. He has also made several records and CDs with his ensemble.

Edited from his website here

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Budhaditya Mukherjee • Ahir Bhairav, Puria 1979

Budhaditya Mukherjee • Sitar 
 - Ahir Bhairav, Puria  
HMV EMI-India ECSD 2601 - P.1979



Side A

A1 Raga Ahir Bhairav - Alap, Jod

Side B

B1 Raga Puria - Gat - Trital


Anand Gopal Bandopadhyay, tabla

Here is another little treat from the extensive collection of His Excellency. I am looking forward to our next meeting, and maybe if he is the right mood he will pick up the surbahar or maybe even the been and strike a few notes to safely envelope us from the hardships of the dusty world. Anyhow here is one of the earliest recording I know of with Budhaditya Mukherjee. Of his total of eight LP's cut, this is his third one and the first on EMI-India, I can post three more records by him later if there is an interest. Hope you enjoy!

You can check his discography here

Budhaditya Mukherjee (1955–) is a Hindustani classical sitar and surbahar player of the Imdadkhani Gharana (school).

read more in the Wikipedia entry about him here

It was in the year 1976. A memorable event indeed. Hailing from the industrial town of Bhilai in Madhya Pradesh, a teenager was found toying with his Sitar with all the efficacies of a Maestro-in-making before a conglomeration of connoisseurs, critics and music-lovers in a major concert at Calcutta. And that was Budhaditya Mukherjee, a student of Engineering — shy, unassuming, looking more like an ascetic than a performing artiste with the glamour of the present day. His second appearance in Calcutta was more astounding, fantastic and sparkling with incredible artistry. He surprised everyone as much with his precocious talent as with his technical fitness and skill. He was immediately greeted as a Sitar-prodigy and acclaimed in no uncertain words that he was a discovery of the age in the domain of Indian Classical Music. Unanimously he was reckoned to be the torch-bearer of the rich cultural heritage of our National Art.

Budhaditya started playing Sitar at the tender age of five under the guidance of his illustrious father Mr. Bimalendu Mukherjee who is an eminent string musician having had his grooming in the style of late Ustad Enayat Khan. He imbibed ‘Gayaki’ style of Kirana School probably from his subsequent association with Pandit Jai Chand Bhatt. But it is Ustad Vilayet Khan, the sitar wizard, who has perhaps influenced him more in the later stages of this young artiste in shaping himself.

Budhaditya has been playing before a cross section of music-lovers stretching from Assam in the East to Gujrat in the West and from Punjab in the North to Karnataka in the South. He has been abroad also. Only a couple of months back he returned from a successful tour in Yugoslavia, Poland, Bulgaria and USSR as a delegate of the Government of India. Everywhere Budhaditya's virtuosity have made his full-house audience responsive. He is now twenty four and forsaking a brilliant career after obtaining first-class- first in Metallurgical Engineering, Budhaditya has opted for music which is his first love.

Budhaditya Mukherjee is now an exclusive artiste of The Gramophone Company of India Limited and for his first album from HMV, he has chosen to play ‘Alaap’ and ‘Jod’ in Raga Ahir-Bhairav on the first side. On the second side he has delineated Raga Puriya with a judicious treatment of ‘Vistar‘, ‘Taans’ and ‘Jhala’. The composition is set to Trital.

Tabla accompaniment of young Ananda Gopal Banerjee is an additional attraction for this album.

unceremoniously snipped from the sleeve notes

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Jamaluddin Bhartiya • Two Ragas

Jamaluddin Bhartiya 
• Two Ragas 
Opus 3 - 8004 - P.1980

Side A 

A1 Nat Bhairav 24'04

Side B

B1 Sindhu Bhairavi 24'51

Rashid Jamal, tabla

Razia Ragini, tanpura

Recorded March 24-25 1980 in the hall Universel, Sufi Movement

Katwijk, Holland.

Here is a record that I had hoped would satisfy some of the urges of a senior editor at Panchamkauns who had an unquenchable thirst for the Ustads vocal meandering. He wanted almost desperately to hear him sing along with his sitar (which he supposedly does much better than Vilayat Khan) but unfortunately I cannot hear as much as a hum from the maestro. I'll post it anyhow and if someone else has a recording where we can hear him bursting into vocals, please share it with us here. There is one on Space Records SP 4, recorded in Amsterdam 1972 that I have not heard that may be a possible candidate. 

The Artist

As it is very often the case in India, Jamaluddin Bhartiya comes from a family which has been devoted to music for centuries. It is his father Ustad Abdul Qadar Khan, a court musician in Sailana State, who introduced him to music. Then he recieved guidance in vocal music from the famous Ustad Amir Khan. But his main interest was the sitar; therefore he required Pandit Ravi Shankar to teach him, and had the honour of becoming his first disciple.

After having built a flourishing career as a concert and radio artist, Jamaluddin Bhartiya embarked on a new chalange; that of bringing the richness of the Indian musical tradition to the west. With the blessing of his guru Ravi Shankar, he established the Tritantri Vidya Peeth, a school for the teaching of Indian music and culture. Branches have been opened in Holland and Switzerland, and they attract each year numerous students from many countries.

As a performer, Jamaluddin Bhartiya is extremely appreciated, both in India and abroad, for the beauty aud profoundness of his style, in the pure tradition of the gayaki ang, as well as for the striking dexterity of his technique.

On this recording, he is accompanied by Rashid Jamal on the tabla, and by

Razia Ragini on the tanpura.

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Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan - Miyan Ki Malhar - recorded 1964

Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan • Miyan Ki Malhar
Sitar Recital 1964 from All India Radio Archives
HMV - PMLP 3046 - P.1989


Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan was one of the few authentic exponents of the "Seniya baaj" on sitar. Son of late Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan, Ustad Mushtaq Ali was born in the holy city of Varanasi and started playing sitar from the tender age of seven. Under the guidance of his father, who was himself an accomplished exponent of both sitar and surbahar, the gifted son mastered the two instruments. He came into limelight at the age of 15. He shifted to Calcutta in 1924 and permanently settled down there till his last days. His "Raga" explorations were marked by highest degree of professional and artistic attainment. His approach revealed his uncompromising adherence to the ancient tradition. Each "swara" was full and pure, each phrase clear and well-defined and each combination, a vivid pledge. Authenticity was the keynote of his art and he never resorted to gymnastics or pyrotechnics, yet won the hearts of his listeners.

Official recognition came to the Ustad in the form of the Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1969. This album of his comes as a cherishable acquisiton for the present generation and an equally precious bequest to posterity.

The Titan of the hallowed "Seniya gharana" (which traces its origin to the legendary Miyan Tansen) passed into history with the death of Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan, at the age of 78, in July 1989. He was the seventh in line to Ustad Masit Sen. who was a direct descendent of Miyan Tansen.

Side A

Raga Miyan Ki Malhar, Alap,jod, Jhala


This celebrated melody, associated with the rainy season, is attributed to Miyan Tansen, the court-musician of the Mogul Emperor Akbar. According to convention, the "Raga" can be rendered during any part of day or night in the rainy season, but in the remaining part of the year, it is sung or played around mid-night The "Raga" conveys a profound mood and it shines in all its dignity and grandeur mainly in the "Mandra saptak".

Ustad Muhtaq Ali Khan unfolds his "Raga" in "Alap", "jod" and "Jhala" movements on this side.

Side B:

Raga Miyan Ki Malhar - Masitkhani, Razakhani

This side presents the continuation of the melody into a rhythmic 'Gat" movement first in the "Masitkhani" style and then in the "Razakhani" style.


The descriptions above are a wholesale snip from the back of the sleeve. I have very few comments of my own except I myself also subscribe to having a strong aversion to gymnastics and pyrotechnics. I find much more comfort in the paced development of the raga. This record that I discovered a while back on the shelves of another good friend in music and possibly also a natural Luobaniyan who has a huge collection of wonderful recordings and to enter his abodes is like entering the caves of Allauddin. I knew that his collection, that is covering several walls, floor to ceiling, to contain some of the most precious recordings of Occidental savant music, but entering upon the topic of Extra-European art music he totally surprised me by leading me to a part of his collection containing several very rarely found Indian classical music records and a few I was not even aware that they existed at all. My deep thanks goes to my friend Tattar Jojje for lending me this, and some of the coming Indian classical records.

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Ustad Mahmud Mirza - Concert in London 1975

Ustad Mahmud Mirza 
• Rag Darbari
• Rag Kafi 


Tangent - TGS 123 - P.1976

Side A

A1 Rag Darbari, alap, jor 24'31

Side B

B1 Rag Darbari, jahla 8'13
B2 Rag Kafi, gat 17'10



Here is a record that I don't think has gotten the attention it deserves, I don't think it was ever re-issued. The recordings were made in London in 1975 and was one of two LP's with indian music on the label Tangent, that in my opinion had a small but very good catalogue. I will come back to some of the other releases later among them two Mongolian LP's and the 6 LP from Music in the World of Islam Box.



Mahmud Mirza

In London 1975

Ustad Mahmud Mirza was born in Delhi in 1935. At an early age he was taught the sitar by his maternal uncle Ustad Hyder Hussein Khan who initiated him into the Seniya gharana an instrumental tradition founded by the descendants of Miyan Tansen the court musician to Akbar the Moghul emperor.

He was later initiated into the Kirana gharana by his second teacher the vocalist Pandit Jiwan Lal Mattoo; a student of the renowned vocalist Abdul Wahid Khan, with whom he studied the ragas in depth over many years. Mirza first performed in public when he was 11 and at the age of 13 he was the youngest musician ever to be accepted on the staff of All India Radio.
In the late sixties Mirza made his first appearance in London where he now resides. He has performed in many of the famous concert halls of Europe and the US and is known as an outspoken defender of the pure tradition in an age when this art form has suffered due to the trend of commercialisation.

In Granada 2009

On his webpages here, where the above biographical note is snipped from, there are several videos and 6 more CD's of his music to listen to.




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Evening Ragas from Benares - The Living Tradition - rec. Deben Bhattacharya

Evening Ragas from Benares - The Living Tradition

produced and recorded by Deben Bhattacharya in Benares in 1967

Academy Sound & Vision - ALM 4002 - P.1981

Side 1

A1 Raga Puriya Kalyan

Debendra Krishna Chattopadhyay,sitar

Surendra Mohan Mishra, tabla

Side 2

B1 Raga Pilu

Amiya Bhattacharya, surbahar

Narayan Chakravorty, tambura

B2 Raga Darbari

Narayan Chakravorty, vichitra vina

Here is an album produced by Deben Bhattachariya in the eighties of classical music for the stringed instruments Sitar, Surbahar and Vichitra Vina. The recordings are made much earlier some in private gatherings "mehfils" and in the homes of the musicians and like Deben Bhattachariya says in the liner notes you here and there hear: "the sounds of passing travellers and the cries of the vegetable salesman in the street outside combining to bring the atmosphere of India to the listener. As none of the musicians on this record are well known because they never recorded commercially, I highly recommend reading the liner notes (this time in english) as they not only reveal some valuable information on the performers, like that Debendra Krishna Chattopadhyay had his first musical training from his father, a highly respected Dhrupad singer professionally known as Panubabu for instance, but also gives a little glimpse into the philosophy of Deben's way of recording and what he wanted to preserve and transmit beside the well trodden path of commercialism. Hope you enjoy "being there".

Deben Bhattacharya • 1921 - 2001

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Bhimsen Joshi - Memorial posts - Recorded in his home on his 65th birthday!

Indisk Konstmusik - Gammal tradition i en ny värld

(Indian art-music - Old Tradition in a New World)

Caprice - CAP 2022 - P.1987

Prof. Debu Chaudhuri, sitar

Side A

A1 Raga Bagesri 21'30

A2 Raga Maund 7'55

A1, A2 recorded in the home of Debu Chaudhuri, New Delhi, 87.01.28

recorded 23 years ago on the day!

Dr. S. Balachander, veena

Side B

B1 Raga Varali - Ne pogoda kunte - Thyagaraja 28'45

B1 recorded in Bani Center, Madras 87.01.03

Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, vocal

Side C

C1 Raga Todi - Aaj more mana logo langarawa - Khayal 14'59

C2 Raga Bhairavi - Thumri 12'32

C1, C2 recorded in the home of Bhimsen Joshi, Poona 87.02.06

recorded on his 65'th Birthday!

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, flute

Side D

D1 Hariprasad Chaurasia - Raga Mishra Khamaj - 12'46

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, santur

D2 Pandit Shivkumar Sharma - Raga Chandrakauns 12'50

D1 recorded in the home of Hariprasad Chaurasia, Bombay 87.02.03

D2 recorded in the home of Shivkumar Sharma, Bombay 87.02.03

This is the final memorial post of Bhimsen Joshi for at least a week or so. Not because I ran out of records to post but we really should not have so much of the best at the same time.

The good friend Arvind reported in at the last moment with these reading fruits from studying obituaries to Bhimsen Joshi the whole day.

He writes:

This one by Deepa Ganesh in The Hindu I found most interesting. Though its short, there is a considerable amount of insight, into the man and his music, and many good anecdotes. I think she tells the story (which will now enter legend) of how the young Bhimsen ran away from home and ultimately found his way to Sawai Gandharva and the Kirana gharana, in a very interesting way:

A wanderer both in life and in music, Bhimsen would often go missing from home, to his parents' great worry. From the age of three, he was wont to wander off — following the muezzin's prayer of Allahu Akbar as he tried to grasp its notes, or listening to the musicians in a nearby temple. As if in a trance, the little child would follow bhajan mandalis and wedding processions, completely tuned to musical notes and switched off to all else. His father would often lodge complaints with the police, only to find that a Good Samaritan had brought the boy back home. However, at 11, the boy left home for good after quarrelling with his mother, because she could not afford to serve him ghee with rice. He stomped out, leaving his food untouched. This turned out to be the turning point in his musical journey too. Listening to the gramophone recording of Raga Jhinjoti sung by the maestro of the Kirana Gharana, Ustad Abdul Karim Khan, in a nearby teashop, he set his heart on learning from him. He stood at the Gadag station and took a train heading north. The penniless lad gave ticket collectors the slip by moving between compartments, singing songs for fellow passengers and begging for food. He stopped at Pune, Bombay and finally, after three months, reached Gwalior. He met and learnt from various maestros, but was not satisfied. He then went from Kharagpur to Calcutta, and on to Delhi, finally reached Jalandhar, where the Gwalior maestro, Vinayak Rao Patwardhan, advised him to learn from Sawai Gandharv in Kundagol, Karnataka. - It continues here

These recordings were made in connection with the India Festival '87, a comprehensive presentation of Indian Culture in Sweden in 1987. Bhimsen Joshi held several concerts in Stockholm and I was fortunateley able to attended all of them. Unfortunately I have not been able to locate any recording from these concerts but maybe if we are lucky, someone sees this post and points me to some location where I can search. Better yet, someone has a recording and shares it with us! There are indeed other very well known artists on this record , and I may come back later with individual post of the these artists but the reason I don't dwell upon them is because my main reason to post this double LP is because of the C-side with Bhimsen Joshi recordings. Again we can thank my good friend his Excellency who kept this record away from the dents of time. The recording with Debu Chaudhuri is made in his home in Bombay 23 years ago on the day! The recording of Bhimsen Joshi is made on the 6th of February in 1987, in his home in Poona, and on his 65th birthday! In little more than a week, that is 23 years ago!

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Nikhil Banerjee - Ragas - Lalit, Sindhu Bhairavi, Puriya Kalyan

EMI Music from India Series - ⑥

Nikhil Banerjee - Raga Lalit, Raga Sindhu Bhairavi, Raga Puriya Kalyan

HMV Great Britain - ASD 2394 - P.1968

A1 Raga Lalith

A2 Raga Sindhu Bhairavi

B1 Raga Puriya Kalyan

This LP by Nikhil Banerjee was the third LP from this series that I came in contact with and I post it here and will go on with the others as they materialize.

The whole series ran as listed in the previous post and I don't know of any higher number than vol. 11. So if you know better, I would be delighted if you please inform me. Also I feel a certain need to declare that this is in no way the best of the best Indian music as I understand it today or as my taste has evolved. But this is what really got me hooked. The change in taste was especially noticable, when I, upon moving to a larger city and finding more knowledgable new friends with similar but more developed tastes came in contact with the vocal music. I almost immediately stopped listening to any instrumental and immersed myself in the beautifully expressional voices of India first north and then south. Still most indian classical buffs where only into "instrumental" but in the vocal muisc I where to find much more satisfaction. Not that I don't appreciate instrumental, I still do, but the voice, and especially the male voice, is more attuned to my ear. Later posts will cover much of that and then, when still a little later I also discovered the magic intensity and glow of the Karnatic Music with The Saint composers of the Trinity and Swathi Thirunal the sky opened much wider and my heaven became bigger...

But now I am running ahead of myself, so more about that later...

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Vilayat Khan & Bismillah Khan - Duets

EMI Music of India Series - ①

Vilayat Khan and Bismillah Khan - Duets

EMI Great Britain - ALP 2295 - P.1967

A1 Duetto - Jugalbandi - Raga Gujaree - Todi

B1 Chaiti - Dhun

B2 Bhairavee - Thumree

In the late fifties and early sixties there were very few possibilities for an adventurous kid like myself to hear any non "western" music. (please excuse the expression it is really as daft as the expression "World"-music, but I hope you interpret it as according to my intention) I remember trying hard on the shortwave to find any such music and remember at least now and then finding some arabic music probably from French stations catering to the north African diaspora.

Mostly, if there were any hints at all at such music it was just to add some exotic flavour in movies and almost never autenthic at that. This was especially true in the northern countries of Europe and even more so if you like me were born and grew up in a small rural community with no dedicated record dealers but where the whole stock of records were sold in the basement of the bookshop where they would not let you in unless it was clear that you really appreciated Western Classical music and would behave. Even Bill Haleys "Rock around the clock" was frowned upon and when my father ordered a copy of that on 78 rpm from them i was already stigmatized. The only other source for records were by the same shop that made a better living selling Milk, Bread and Butter. But there, to my utter disbelief, one day when scrutinizing their sale of left behind LP's with music that none of the locals would wrap their ears around, there in the daily supplies shop, right next to the shelf's of children toys, I was pulling up two Indian classical LP's in the EMI Music of India Series vol. 1 and 3. They were at half prize, a ridicilous sum today but still astronomic for a teenager like myself back then. I could not afford them but I insisted that the shop assistant, even thou he said that no one would buy them anyhow, put them aside in my name, and I made a promize to come up with the sum whitin two days. Those were sleepless nights and my mother who always supported me especially in quest for music still reluctantly and not really seeing what an opportunity this was, finally caved in and gave me the money to buy one of them. Terrible dilemma to choose and I had not heard a single note from either albums. I went with the most "autenthic" looking picture, I think it was the instruments and the concert mat that got me. And I bought vol. 1 but still insisting that they keep the other volume a few more days.

The clerk agreed, but could not believe that I wanted both, as they had been delivered to the store by mistake and that they had actually ordered other records but gotten these as the catalogue numbers had been similar or something like that. He even agreed to knock of a little more on the prize and I went home to listen to the first LP. The feeling was none other than total bliss. Finally I had heard real music that was not just trying to entertain you but regarded the listener as also having a soul and maybe in need of healing. The music was like a flight, a long journey at times floating down the river, a wonderful vehicle for the extreme longing I was specializing in, but at the same time a reliever of pain. I was completely overwhelmed and after repeated listenings also entering a satiated stage like I had finally gotten nourishment for my mind and not only heart and they they were one, and a feeling of coming home at last.

Nowhere was this occidental feeling of a rift between the body and soul, between the heart and mind. And finally, after listening over and over again I was in a constant state of total bliss.

A few days went by and I don't really remember how, but I think I found and sold scrap metal to a scrap dealer and came up with most of the money myself, probably my mother helped out a little again and I got the second record! This time at half the half prize!

So here is the first LP of Indian music that I heard and I am ever so thankful for that wrong delivery, as my life since then, has never been without a serious amount of Indian Music. These were not the orthodox classical repertoire as it had become a fad with "Duets" i.e Jugalbandi, actually still a very vital genre, but not always with as good results as these two samples. The quality is preserved here in spite of the at the time nouveauté, mainly because of the stature of the performing musicians. I remember the first listen to shenai to be overworldly and I have a special soft spot for Bismillah Khan ever since. I had only heard something similar litstening to the soprano of John Coltrane. Something that also happened around the same time as this.

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