April 11, 2015

Ali Akbar Khan + John Handy + Zakir Hussain live at the 1972 Berlin Jazz Festival (1972-11-03)

Here is an over-the-air FM recording of a performance by Ali Akbar Khan and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain together with alto sax player John Handy. These three, together with a few guest musicians such as guitarist Bola Sete released two LPs in the 1970s on the MPS label.

Some people will enjoy this sort of material and some won't. Likely you know which camp you are in. For what it is worth, the FM capture is pretty good for being 43 years ago.



This was downloaded from a fairly well known torrent site devoted to live music of all sorts. If one were to Google the word "Dimeadozen," I am sure that one would run into their site pretty quickly.

The original text file (with some editing by me) is as follows:

John Handy & Ali Akbar Khan
November 3, 1972
West Berlin, Germany

Track List (1:02:22):
1. Unknown - 23:34
2. Unknown - 11:58
3. Unknown - 16:11
4. Unknown - 10:37

Musicians:
John Handy - alto saxophone
Ali Akbar Khan - sarod
Zakir Hussain - tabla

Source:
pre-FM

Lineage:
pre-FM reel >? >DAT >HDD via coax to Midiman Audiophile 2496 @48 kHz >CoolEdit Pro 2.0 >CD Wave >Trader's Little Helper >FLAC (level 6, ASB)

I feel that I should point out that the text file claims this to be a "pre-FM" -- that is, a direct dub of the tape that was recorded at the concert and then played on the air. It sounds more like a regular FM capture to me, although it may simply be that there are a number of analog generations (cassette copies of cassettes being traded among collectors) as represented by the "?" in the lineage. There was some static which was carefully removed in Audacity and overall I am fairly happy with the resulting sound.



Karuna is usually translated as "compassion" and I think that is close enough to what it means that I don't feel like splitting hairs about it.






8 comments:

  1. Hi,
    would it possible for you to upload this concert again as I have been searching for it for quite a while?
    Many thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi,

    would you possibly be able to upload this concert again as i have been searching for it for quite a while?

    many thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. Matt, I am uploading the files to Adrive as I type this. I also have a live recording of this group plus L Subramanian and Bola Sete in San Francisco in 1979.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The links are now in the post.

    Hope you enjoy it, Matt.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Outstanding stuff! Thank you so much Richard! This entire site has me in a reverie the past few days. And I should work on getting a transfer process up for my collection as well.

    ReplyDelete
  6. thanks links are totally working
    roberth

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have this info:
    John Handy & Ali Akbar Khan
    November 3, 1972
    West Berlin, Germany
    source: pre-FM [62:20]

    1. Mishra Karmai - 23:34
    2. The Soul and the Atma Pt. 1 - 11:58
    3. The Soul and the Atma Pt. 2 - 16:11
    4. Karuna Supreme - 10:37

    John Handy - alto saxophone
    Ali Akbar Khan - sarod
    Zakir Hussain - tabla
    ? - tambura

    ReplyDelete