This guy is amazing!

[Andy Volk]

Paul, Debashish sells the instruments directly. You can contact his wife, Tripti:

tripti@debashishbhattacharya.com

We've hung out a few times and Debashish is a really nice guy. The first time we met was pretty quick as he had to catch the discount bus from Boston to NY. Mediocre rock musicians get the limo. World class virtuoso steel guitarists take the bus.

Kyle, Debashsish changes his tuning based on the specific raga being played .... usually a D, Dmin, or A tuning. My Slide Rules book has Brozman & Manx's tunings and they're pretty close, if not exact, to what DB uses.

[David Mason]

He and Miles Davis are undoubtedly my biggest steel influences... strangely enough, Miles for the microtones! I have a bunch of Debashish's albums, his oldest ones are straightforward Indian raga format. My favorite of all his CD's is "Calcutta Slide Guitar 3", it's a bit more accessible than most ragas but still powerfully weird, both melodically and rhythmically. "Maha Shakti" features Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti licks on a three-string lap steel. The YouTube clip is a tune from that album called "Nata Raaj."

I fear that he may be going in the direction that Ravi Shankar did - as he becomes more popular, he's dumbing down his music and playing short pieces without the development of ragas. Indian music can be really dangerous and dark, and his last CD "Calcutta Chronicles" was depressingly happy. I'm pretty sure he's playing with McLaughlin to keep himself learning Western harmony - he sure has the right friends!

P.S. (You need a lighter bar to cop those licks - ah, to have that technique, Miles' melodic sense & Beethoven's backup "chords".... )

[Andy Volk]

David, have you seen John McLaughlin's "The Making of Floating Point" DVD with Debashish in a jazz fusion context? The DVD is well worth having. I'm not much of a fan of McLaughlin's approach to the guitar (as much as I respect his musicianship) but all the Indian players on this record are just amazing. DB is great but the standout player for me was Naveen Kumar on bamboo flute - an amazing improvisor. There's a brief DB moment in this clip:

http://www.abstractlogix.com/xcart/prod ... t=0&page=1

[Teddy Ray Bullard II]

I enjoy this sort of music very much. Sort of takes the ear a bit of "settling in" after hearing western modes/tonality but after a while...it all sounds beautiful.

A good friend of mine, Kavichandran Alexander, the owner and engineer for Waterlily Acoustics

has recorded a number of excellent cds with some legendary Indian musicians.

the most famous being

A meeting by the river

which features Ry Cooder and VM Bhatt. Bhatt has his own instrument, which he calls the mohan vina, based on slide guitar.. it has sympathetic strings. amazing sound..

other amazing ones are

"Bourbon and Rosewater"

"Kambara Music in Native Toungues"

and "From the Ashes" , all on the waterlily catalogue.

Waterlily is unique as a label because it focuses on recording acoustic instruments in natural spaces using minimal mic techniques instead of utlizing studio trickery and heavy processing.

very refreshing. highly reccomended!

[Teddy Ray Bullard II]

I must also point out some other music in this vein since we are on this topic.

When it comes to recordings of the non Western classical traditions, I think David. B. Jones has to ranked at the very top. He is the one who did the Connoisseur Society (their technical "guru" was Bela Bartok's son Peter!) recordings of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the greatest living Indian musician. Jones also did some of the Nonesuch recordings as well (thereally good ones) employing the same Sony tube mikes he used to
record Dr. Khan. Check out the Ramnad Krishnan title on Nonesuch.
There are also many, many Indian EMI recordings that are truly superlative. Mostly it was the vinyl that was dismal (even this,they
got it right at times!), but the recordings themselves, mostly
were good and sometimes outstanding. Simple mike techniques and tube electronics did the trick.Malika Arjun Mansoor, Subbulakshmi boxed set of LPs recorded "live" at a UN gala for UThant. In spite of the most embarrassing and hideouly ugly song in English (!) by Indial politician Rajaji, these LPs capture the queen in all her glory. Then, there are the many Yugal Bandi
recordings. The first one is of course the original Bismillah Khan/
Vilayat Khan pairing. This great recording was produced by Suviraj
Grubb,the only Indian to ever produce Western classical recordings. He
replacedWalter Legge at EMI as the principal producer and worked with all thegreats, from Barenboim, Zukerman, Perlman and Du Pre to Barbirolli,
Richter, Fischer-Dieskau and Klemperer. I must also mention the V.G.
Jog and Bismillah pairing which is also great. The recording of Lalgudi
Jayaraman and N. Ramani titled "Violin, Venu, Veena" also tops the
list. Some good recordings were also released on the Swedish label
Amigo (two of Nikil Banerjee and one each of Amjad Ali Khan and Ram
Narayan) while Sonet put out the most beatiful yugal bandi recording with
Shivkumar and Hariprasad.


The German label Loft, amoung other titles, released an excellent double lp of the junior Dagar Brothers, and the French label Still, which along with a surbahar recording of Imrat Khan,
has released the only recordings (two LP boxed sets) worth having,
of the Karnatic legend T.R. Mahalingam. The other two recordings of Mali, on Indian EMI, are truly horrid. Taking of French labels, two outstanding recordings of Zia Mohinudinn Dager (Rudra vina) on Alvares and Auvidis
respectively. The later also released a good recording of the junior Dagar Brothers. Another label called ESP put out ten or so recordings, of which there is a Hari Prasad that is wonderfull, as is the one of Fariduddin Dagar (vocalist brother of Zia). Their recording of the Bauls, though of a lesser crew than the Purnadas (the very same man on the cover of Dylan's "John Wesly Harding" album) outfit on Nonesuch, Electra and Buddah, sonicaly is
the best. Barclay (a jazz label started by the beautiful Nicole Barclay) too, released two recordings of Nagaswara Rao (vina), the same artist on Nonesuch, as did French CBS, a recording of Emani Shankar Shastry. Another French woman started Shandar that released a
great recording of Pandit Pran Nath, as well as Terry Reily's "Persian SurgeryDervishes". Arion released a very good recording of D.K. Pattamal, while Vogue has an outstanding recording of Parapancham Sita Ram (Karnatic flute) with Guruvayur Dorai on mirdangam.




Chante du Monde has a very fine
collection of Flamenco with great masters such as Pepe de la Metrona, with equally great sound. Andre Charlin made not just great speakers (electrostatic/dynamic hybrids) and amps (tube and solid state) but also truly great recordings, though most of them were of Western
Classical music. He did however do a Koto (like Cook) recording for Kenwood (yes, the ones who made one of the greatest turntables, the LO7D). I have a feeling that Charlin was responsible (or at least
partly) for the ORTF technique. Having mentioned France, Icertainly
must mention the great Indologist Alain Danielou, who edited the
wonderful UNESCO collection of recordings. Though the sound on many of
these is rather poor, having been done by some "ethnomusicologist"
with a cassette recorder and mikes with wind screens, two recordings do stand out. They are the LP of the Dagar Brothers (Sr) and a Karnatic
compilation with vocal tracks by Semanguddi Srinivasa Iyar. Though these recordings are in mono, the sound and performance, are out of this world!
Danielou introduced the Dager Brothers to the West in the early 60s. I have heard that Nadia Boulanger, the great Parisian music teacher, after hearing the Dagar Brothers remarked "This is real music! We have been wasting our time!".


Last but not least, there is the French Ocora catalog, a treasure
to ransom a king, with many, many outstanding recordings of the most
exotic music. Check out the Munir Bashir (Oud) recording or the
Emani Shankar Shastry (vina) recording with Madras Kannan on mirdangam! I also have a Portuguese EMI recording of Amilia Rodriguez
that is outstanding.
From the UK, Tangent had a steady out put including a collection of music from Ethiopia, as well the "Music from the World of Islam" boxed set. But, Tangent never had truly great sound. Speaking
of UK, I must mention the Hannibal recording of Nazakat and Salamat Ali,Emory Cook is another great who has also been forgotten. Way back in the 50s, he was releasing recordings of the Tarahumara Indian (the very ones Antonin Artaud "visited") peyote chants, as well
as Hindu temple music from the Caribbean!!! Richard Bock of World Pacific
also released great recordings, one in particular is the "live" recording of
vina vidwan S. Balachander with N. Ramani. So is the recording
of Brij Bhushan Kabra.

[Herb Steiner]

Amazing stuff.

When I read the postings of a somewhat contentious and accusatory Forumite talking about how so many of us are stuck in a traditional country box and don't accept anything that isn't "old country," I think of threads like this, in which the outstanding musicianship cannot be denied, leaving us slack-jawed at the technique and melodicism involved.

Thanks so much for the link. There's more Debashish on Youtube to be discovered.

[Geoff Cline]

I must also point out some other music in this vein since we are on this topic.

When it comes to recordings of the non Western classical traditions, I think David. B. Jones has to ranked at the very top. He is the one who did the Connoisseur Society (their technical "guru" was Bela Bartok's son Peter!) recordings of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the greatest living Indian musician. Jones also did some of the Nonesuch recordings as well (thereally good ones) employing the same Sony tube mikes he used to
record Dr. Khan. Check out the Ramnad Krishnan title on Nonesuch.
There are also many, many Indian EMI recordings that are truly superlative. Mostly it was the vinyl that was dismal (even this,they
got it right at times!), but the recordings themselves, mostly
were good and sometimes outstanding. Simple mike techniques and tube electronics did the trick.Malika Arjun Mansoor, Subbulakshmi boxed set of LPs recorded "live" at a UN gala for UThant. In spite of the most embarrassing and hideouly ugly song in English (!) by Indial politician Rajaji, these LPs capture the queen in all her glory. Then, there are the many Yugal Bandi
recordings. The first one is of course the original Bismillah Khan/
Vilayat Khan pairing. This great recording was produced by Suviraj
Grubb,the only Indian to ever produce Western classical recordings. He
replacedWalter Legge at EMI as the principal producer and worked with all thegreats, from Barenboim, Zukerman, Perlman and Du Pre to Barbirolli,
Richter, Fischer-Dieskau and Klemperer. I must also mention the V.G.
Jog and Bismillah pairing which is also great. The recording of Lalgudi
Jayaraman and N. Ramani titled "Violin, Venu, Veena" also tops the
list. Some good recordings were also released on the Swedish label
Amigo (two of Nikil Banerjee and one each of Amjad Ali Khan and Ram
Narayan) while Sonet put out the most beatiful yugal bandi recording with
Shivkumar and Hariprasad.


The German label Loft, amoung other titles, released an excellent double lp of the junior Dagar Brothers, and the French label Still, which along with a surbahar recording of Imrat Khan,
has released the only recordings (two LP boxed sets) worth having,
of the Karnatic legend T.R. Mahalingam. The other two recordings of Mali, on Indian EMI, are truly horrid. Taking of French labels, two outstanding recordings of Zia Mohinudinn Dager (Rudra vina) on Alvares and Auvidis
respectively. The later also released a good recording of the junior Dagar Brothers. Another label called ESP put out ten or so recordings, of which there is a Hari Prasad that is wonderfull, as is the one of Fariduddin Dagar (vocalist brother of Zia). Their recording of the Bauls, though of a lesser crew than the Purnadas (the very same man on the cover of Dylan's "John Wesly Harding" album) outfit on Nonesuch, Electra and Buddah, sonicaly is
the best. Barclay (a jazz label started by the beautiful Nicole Barclay) too, released two recordings of Nagaswara Rao (vina), the same artist on Nonesuch, as did French CBS, a recording of Emani Shankar Shastry. Another French woman started Shandar that released a
great recording of Pandit Pran Nath, as well as Terry Reily's "Persian SurgeryDervishes". Arion released a very good recording of D.K. Pattamal, while Vogue has an outstanding recording of Parapancham Sita Ram (Karnatic flute) with Guruvayur Dorai on mirdangam.




Chante du Monde has a very fine
collection of Flamenco with great masters such as Pepe de la Metrona, with equally great sound. Andre Charlin made not just great speakers (electrostatic/dynamic hybrids) and amps (tube and solid state) but also truly great recordings, though most of them were of Western
Classical music. He did however do a Koto (like Cook) recording for Kenwood (yes, the ones who made one of the greatest turntables, the LO7D). I have a feeling that Charlin was responsible (or at least
partly) for the ORTF technique. Having mentioned France, Icertainly
must mention the great Indologist Alain Danielou, who edited the
wonderful UNESCO collection of recordings. Though the sound on many of
these is rather poor, having been done by some "ethnomusicologist"
with a cassette recorder and mikes with wind screens, two recordings do stand out. They are the LP of the Dagar Brothers (Sr) and a Karnatic
compilation with vocal tracks by Semanguddi Srinivasa Iyar. Though these recordings are in mono, the sound and performance, are out of this world!
Danielou introduced the Dager Brothers to the West in the early 60s. I have heard that Nadia Boulanger, the great Parisian music teacher, after hearing the Dagar Brothers remarked "This is real music! We have been wasting our time!".


Last but not least, there is the French Ocora catalog, a treasure
to ransom a king, with many, many outstanding recordings of the most
exotic music. Check out the Munir Bashir (Oud) recording or the
Emani Shankar Shastry (vina) recording with Madras Kannan on mirdangam! I also have a Portuguese EMI recording of Amilia Rodriguez
that is outstanding.
From the UK, Tangent had a steady out put including a collection of music from Ethiopia, as well the "Music from the World of Islam" boxed set. But, Tangent never had truly great sound. Speaking
of UK, I must mention the Hannibal recording of Nazakat and Salamat Ali,Emory Cook is another great who has also been forgotten. Way back in the 50s, he was releasing recordings of the Tarahumara Indian (the very ones Antonin Artaud "visited") peyote chants, as well
as Hindu temple music from the Caribbean!!! Richard Bock of World Pacific
also released great recordings, one in particular is the "live" recording of
vina vidwan S. Balachander with N. Ramani. So is the recording
of Brij Bhushan Kabra.

Teddy Ray:

Thanks for this!! Hard to imagine a more concise, information packed description. Something I will refer to often.

"Back in day" I remember meeting Kavi Alexander in Topanga Canyon at Rick Turner's house/shop. Kavi's authenticity and integrity as a person are directly reflected in his approach to recording AND the music that Water Lily has released. "Meeting By the River" was a watershed moment for so-called world music...a vibrant example that there are really only two kinds of music--"good" and "other." Thanks to Kavi and the many people you point out in your post, we have a better chance of discovering how much good music there is to be heard.

[Teddy Ray Bullard II]

Thank you, Mr. Cline.

Kavi is a dear friend of mine, and is my mentor. Just amazing , kind , beautiful person.

[Andy Volk]

Thanks so much for the depth of info in that post, Teddy. A much higher "signal to noise ratio" than we usually see!

[David Mason]

That is a helpful post, Mr Bullard. I tried finding CD's by instrument, and by various versions of the same raga, but it's pretty overwhelming to go to a site like Khazana.com and just start... buying. Can't afford that! They brag "Our listing contains over 4,700 CD's" but there's no... ranking, per se (YES I KNOW ALL MUSIC IS EQUALLY GREAT blah blah etc & so forth) and I end up with the same old CD's everybody's got. The Indian violinists like N. Rajam & Kala Ramnath are amazing, and I like the jugalbandis (duets) - two twangs for the price of one! I wish there was a "Indian Music Forum" run for us roundeyes.

P.S. (I have a cat named "Pandit", which means wise man or teacher. Naturally, due to the irony inherent in life, he's dumb as a post.)

[Stephen Gregory]

Great stuff!!

[Johan Jansen]

How about this instrument?
starts after about 30 sec.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ejAb5d ... r_embedded#
regards, Johan

[Stephen Gregory]

How about this instrument?
starts after about 30 sec.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ejAb5d ... r_embedded#
regards, Johan

"Monochord" not to be confused with "Multichord" very Steel Guitaresque. Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monochord

[Joe Goldmark]

It's interesting that the drone strings keep him in one key. I was wondering how he dealt with that, until an earlier post mentioned that he has a different guitar for many keys and tunings. In the original clip we hear the drone quite often, but never really see him playing those strings, except when he just drones, usually before taking off on an amazing run. I assume the drone strings are some of the ones on the bottom, where our bass strings would be.?? I didn't see a separate "neck" of drone or sympathetic strings anywhere.

Joe

[Scott Shewbridge]

The video and this thread of posts are great. Thank you all so much for sharing this.

[Clete Ritta]

Jon,
Youre right, that was absolutely amazing! Thank you so much for the link.
Indian music is so transcendental and hypnotic, it really does induce a meditative, almost "out of body" experience to the listener.

This looks like a ten string instrument. Four lowest strings doubled in octaves like a typical 12 string guitar, but the two highest strings are single. Is that correct?

...stressed the importance of really understanding your instrument's most basic tool, the single string.

Rick,
I couldnt agree more. He does more on one string than most! I couldnt help but notice a parallel here with the gospel sacred steel techniques often using just one string for melody.

Clete

[James Mayer]

Some of the coolest music ever. We had a mother/daughter veena duo play in my home about four years ago. I wish I could remember their names.

The "if you can't say it, you can't play it" system seems (to me) to be the most intuitive and liberating way to play music. I wish I could do it.

When I made a controversial thread about the severe limitations of western classical notation, many came up with examples of things you simply can't do without learning to read music. I'd bet a lot of money that the Pandit doesn't feel limited or any less of a musician for not mastering our stuffy ways. It certainly hasn't made him lazy or less disciplined. His music culture existed long before our relatively modern system of quantification and calculated restrictions.

Can anyone point me towards the notation for this piece?

[Jim Robbins]

Can anyone point me towards the notation for this piece?

Here's a start: http://www.raganet.com/RagaNet/Issues/1/nisargam.html.

I think the raag is Bilawal, couldn't tell you the taal. Plenty of quantification and restriction in Hindustani classical music traditions and plenty of stuffiness in the Gharana system, but great musicians as well.

[James Mayer]

The way I had it explained to be, by a master mridangam/ghatam player is that the notation is/was primarily used to record music, not to teach it. It's essentially for historians and outsiders. If you take lessons from a guru, get ready to start using your tongue and ears, not your eyes. And I agree, they are not immune to restrictions and deep-seated snobbery.

No method is perfect. However, it seems to me that they've figured out the best method to prepare a musician for flexibility. They are at the absolute top of the rhythmic and melodic improvisation hierarchy. The restrictions are imposed by the culture, not the training where our classical system imposes from both directions. I think that is the big difference.

[David Mullis]

Pretty cool stuff although I'm afraid Jeff Newman would never approve of those dunlop picks LOL