Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan - Carnatic Violin [HTC 8112] a cassette released in India in 1990

Here is one of seven cassettes I have of South Indian violinist Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan (born in 1935) -- which were released in the 1980s and early 1990s. A few of the cassettes appear to be reshuffling and reissuing of previously released content. Maybe all of them are. HMV/EMI has had and continues to have the practice of endlessly reissuing material in different configurations. At times it almost seems to be an overwhelming task keeping track of it all.

That doesn't affect the enjoyment of this cassette, of course. We have a lot of fast tempos and energetic performing on this cassette release. There are moments that recall Appalachian fiddling, of all things. See this short video to see what I mean. There is also a quite interesting percussion solo section starting side B. All of the credits and list of pieces, ragas, composers, etc are on the images below.

I see the price sticker on the label spine and wonder if anybody actually paid 37 rupees in India in 1990 for this cassette. At the average exchange rate for the dollar in 1990 and factoring in (US) inflation, that would be the equivalent of around $2.50 in 2018 (probably about what I paid for it a few years ago when I ordered it from Shrimati's).

Equipment used in this transfer:
Cassette Deck: Teac W890R (azimuth was carefully adjusted for each side)
Preamp: Parasound PHP 850
Recorder: Roland R-05 at 24/96

Software: Audacity and xAct

24bit, 96kHz FLAC file (901MB)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC file (269 MB)

320 kbps mp3 file (93 MB)

Repost and remaster -- Ram Narayan: Plays Sarangi [Tower ST-5156] an LP recorded in India and released in the US in 1968

My second-ever post on this blog has been unavailable for quite awhile, thanks to the files hosting service I used at the time. 

Here is an updated, remastered, and improved version of this LP. Thanks for your patience!

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Ram Narayan was born near Udaipur on the 25th of December 1927. He popularized the sarangi as a solo concert instrument and became the first internationally successful sarangi player.

He moved to Delhi following the partition of India in 1947 and then moved to Mumbai in 1949 to work in Indian cinema. He became a concert solo artist in 1956, and later gave up accompaniment. He was awarded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2005.

This is a delightful out of print LP on loan from my friend N.O.

Tabla by Manik Rao Popatkar.

Equipment used in transfer: 
Turntable: Audio-technica AT-LP-1240
Cartridge: Shure M97x
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.

Recorder: Edirol R-09HR at 24/96 resolution

Software: Audacity to normalize and convert to 16/44.1 as well as xAct to convert to flac and mp3

24bit, 96kHz FLAC file

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC file

320 kbps mp3 file

Asad Ali Khan: Maestro's Choice [Music Today A91012] a cassette released in India in 1991

While on the subject of veenas, we move toward the North and the Dhrupad tradition. 

The Rudra Veena is an enormous veena with two very large resonating bowls. There is a fretted board between them and the performer sits between both resonators. By moving his body he can bend the note slightly.

Asad Ali Khan has several delightful recordings including one on Nimbus Records. There are 5 or 6 videos of full concerts posted to YouTube by one of his former students currently living in Calcutta, Carsten Wicke. When the Ustad died in 2011 it was an especially sad moment because he seemed to be genuinely interested in teaching.

Equipment used in this transfer:
Cassette Deck: Teac W890R (azimuth was carefully adjusted for each side)
Preamp: Parasound PHP 850
Recorder: Roland R-05 at 24/48

Software: Audacity and xAct

24 bit, 48kHz FLAC (702 MB)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC (350 MB)

320 kbps mp3 (138 MB)

Nageswara Rao: Reflets de l'Inde [Barclay 920 320] an LP recorded and released in France in 1972

While we are on the subject of South Indian veena performers releasing LPs on French labels, here is another enjoyable example.

Of particular note is that in this recording, Nageswara Rao is performing completely solo -- no percussion, no veena "support," and no drone. I remember there was a very interesting example of an old 78rpm disk on the Excavated Shellac blog a few years ago which had the same configuration and at that time I found it rather remarkable.

Also of great interest is a Carnatic piece played in a tala other than Adi (see below). My personal estimate is about 95% of South Indian classical music is in Adi tala.

Side one:

Kriti (song): "Ramabhakti" (by Tyagaraja) 

Raga: Sudhabangala

Tala: Adi

Kriti (song): "Raghuvamsa" (by Patnam - Subramanyan - Iyer)

Raga: Kadanakutuhalam

Tala: Adi

Kriti: "Parakunikelara" (by Tyagaraja)

Raga: Kiranavali

Tala: Adi

Side two:

Kriti (song): "Niducharanamule" (by Tyagaraja)

Raga: Simhendramadyamam

Tala: Misra Chapu

24bit, 96kHz FLAC file (580 MB)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC file (158 MB)

320 kbps mp3 file (83 MB)

Emani Sankara Shastry: INDE DU SUD - Concert de Vina [Ocora 558503] an LP recorded in France in 1975 and released there in 1980 (reissued 1984)

Here we have a recording by the great Carnatic veena performer, ES Shastry, recorded for the legendary Ocora label in France in 1975.

Ocora is one of those labels where almost every LP or CD released is a gem. They sometimes have a tendency to combine releases when reissued, but trying to fill up the minutes of a CD is a sin I can readily forgive when the production values are as high as Ocora's.

This LP was exceptionally difficult to scan, because of the cover's high-gloss deep black surfaces. I finally gave up and took a photo with my iPhone and then tarted it up a bit in Photoshop (mostly evening out the blacks near the edges). Don't bother doing a Google Images search for this LP -- there are some painful attempts out there.

My copy looks like it has never been played. There was almost no surface noise, something I have come to expect from French vinyl pressings.

Side one:

Raga Shree in Adi taal (22:48)

Side two:

Raga Vachaspati in Adi taal (21:25)

Emani Sankara Shastry: Veena (they choose to spell it 'vina')

Madras A Kannan: mridangam

unidentified: tanpura

Equipment used in transfer: 

Preparation: Ultrasonic cleaning for 20 minutes in pure clean water

Turntable:  Audio-technica AT-LP-1240

Cartridge: Audio-technica AT440MLb
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.

Recorder: Sony PCM-M10 at 24bit/96kHz resolution
Software: Audacity, ClickRepair, and xAct. 

24 bit, 96kHz FLAC file (862 MB)

(the highest resolution I am capable of recording)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC file (203 MB

(after converting to wav, will provide "CD quality" audio resolution)

320 kbps mp3 file (103 MB)

(the highest resolution file that the mp3 format supports)