Collection Louise ScrippsKanai Dutta, Nikhil Banerjee
Padmabhushan Nikhil Banerjee (1931-1986) was undoubtedly one of the finest sitarists of his time. His music earned deep respect among India's classical music connoisseurs as well as gaining him a devoted international following. He was the disciple of the two greatest forces in 20th Century Indian classical instrumental music, Padmavibhushan Allauddin Khan and his son Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Though he recorded a number of LP's, few were of live concerts, in which his leisurely, majestic raga development was unsurpassed. Mr. Banerjee disliked being recorded, feeling that the process distracted and somewhat compromised the inner meditative quality of his music, so high-fidelity live recordings are rare. Raga Records is releasing a series of concert recordings to help preserve Mr. Banerjee's legacy.
Legendary tabla player Kanai Dutta began to study as a child under Satish Das. Later he was a student of the noted Calcutta teacher Jnan Ghosh for over ten years. He first travelled to the West with Ravi Shankar in 1955. He recorded a number of LPs with Mr. Banerjee for EMI India.
Bhimpalasri: Late afternoon; mood of devotion, pathos, joy. "You can make the animals cry with this rag..." Multani: Late afternoon. "Take out pathos effect of morning and put in devotion and heroic..." "...as sun is going down and down, komal ri and tivra ma start coming out..." (Quotes from Ali Akbar Khan classes.)
Credits: Released by arrangement with Mrs. Roma Banerjee. Recorded at Aula Museum voor Volkenkunde, Rotterdam, by Felix Van Lamsweerde on 17 May 1970. Stellavox recorder; 2 Sennheiser MKH 104 microphones. AudioFile engineer: Andy Green. Equalization by Mark Levinson with Cello Ltd.'s Audio Palette. Cover photo: Ira Landgarten. Special thanks to Henk Braaksma, Subrata Chowdhury. Produced by Ira Landgarten and John Wilton.