"Although guitar is a foreign instrument, he has a tremendous command over it. He has given a new dimension to it by merging the sound and style of guitar, sitar and sarod. The effect of his playing is unique." -- Ravi Shankar

Raga Records is proud to be the first label outside India to release Vishwa to the West:

Raga Cassette 105:

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt guitar * Sukhvindar Singh tabla

Side A:
Raga MARU BIHAG alap (guitar solo)...18:30, tintal gats...26:07
Side B:
Ragas JOG rupak tal (7 beat cycle)...15:54
DESH sitarkhani (16 beat syncopated cycle)...15:14
KIRWANI dhun (folk) in keharwa tal (8 beats)...11:20 Total: 87:05

Digital Recording * Dolby B NR * BASF Chrome tape
Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt was born in 1952, of a musician family of Jaipur in Rajasthan. He received his initial training from his older brother Shashi Mohan, and is now a disciple of Ravi Shankar. His nephew, the sitar player Krishna Bhatt, is well known in the West. He has modified his guitar by adding several chikari (drone strings tuned to the tonic), and eight sympathetic strings tuned to the scale of the raga being played, which ring out in the background when their note is struck on the main strings. This hybrid instrument, which Vishwa calls the Mohan Veena, is played like a Hawaiian slide guitar, and is ideally suited for the sustained, sliding notes of vocal style Indian classical music.
Sukhvindar Singh from Ludhiana in the Punjab is one of today's leading young tabla players. Learning first to play the pakhawaj (the large double headed drum used to accompany Dhrupad vocal music) under Nihal Singh, he received a thorough training from his guru Kishan Maharaj in Benares.
Maru Bihag is an evening raga, with a mood of longing, like that of separated lovers. Basically following a major scale, its flight path omits the second, third and sixth while ascending, and goes through both a natural and augmented fourth: S m G M P N S; S N D P M G m G R S.
Credits: Recorded before a small audience in New York on Easter Sunday 1989 by Margaret Crimmins. Sony D-10 DAT recorder and mid-side stereo microphone. Tamboura: Daisy Paradis. Special thanks to Dr. Balwant Dixit, National Video Industries, and to David and Daisy Paradis. Cover photo, Associate Producer: Ira Landgarten. Produced by John Wilton.

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