Brij Narayan: Raga Lalit [Stil 2711 S 78] an LP recorded and released in 1979 in France

Here is another delightful album from the French label Stil, who released a very high quality run of eastern and western classical LPs in the 1970s and 80s.

Brij Narayan (born April 25, 1952) is the oldest son of sarangi player Ram Narayan. He was about age 27 when this recording was made. Brij has made an appearance in this blog in the past. Unfortunately, his career seemed to stall out a little in the late 1980s and especially the 1990s -- at least in terms of internationally available CDs. I will ask some of my inside sources about why they think this might be. So we shall see.

Tabla maestro Suresh Talwalkar was born in 1948. He was awarded the Padma Shree and has been part of several very memorable recording sessions.

This LP captures a lively performance of Raga Lalit and was in superb physical condition. Very little in the way of sound restoration was needed -- just a nice 20 minute dip in the ultrasonic cleaner and a few clicks removed using Audacity's "repair" function from the beginning of each side. I did not reproduce the entire back cover because it was completely white except for the hard-to-read section which is pictured below. On anything but a very large screen the back cover would look too much like a white square, if I had not performed the cropping. No information was lost in this cropping.

Equipment used in transfer: 

Preparation: Ultrasonic cleaning for 20 minutes in pure clean water, followed by a quick vacuum drying with a VPI 16.5 cleaning machine

Turntable:  Audio-technica AT-LP-1240

Cartridge: Shure M97x
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.

Recorder: Sony PCM-M10 at 24bit/44.1kHz resolution
Software: Audacity, ClickRepair, and xAct. 

24bit, 44.1 kHz FLAC

(high resolution file ideal for listening on computer or certain portable players)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC

(standard resolution file ideal for burning a CDR)

320 kbps mp3 file

(highest possible quality compressed file ideal for listening on a portable player)

T Viswanathan: South Indian Flute [WPS-21451] an LP released on the World Pacific Label in the US in 1969

Tanjore Viswanathan (born in Madras, India, August 13, 1927; died in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, September 10, 2002) was a Carnatic musician specializing in the Carnatic flute and voice. His brother was the mridangam player T. Ranganathan (1925–1987).

This is one of a series of LPs released on the World Pacific label. This label grew out of Pacific Records, which was a jazz label. Although there sometimes was a rare dud in their catalog, in general you can be pretty certain of a high level of musical and production qualities with any World Pacific release.

Side 1:
"Virabhoni" varnam in Raga Bhairavi in Kanda Ata Taal (oddly enough, not the concluding piece) (5:19)
"Garudaghamana" kriti in Raga Nagaswarali in Rupak Taal (14:09)
"Saramaira" song in Raga Behag in Rupak Taal (3:20)

Side2:
"Etijanmamiti" song by Thyragaraja in Raga Varali in Misra Chapu Taal (16:31)
"Paniyinvintuli" hymn in Raga Senjuruti in Kanda Duruvam Taal


T Viswanathan: flute
V Tyagarajan: violin
T Ranganathan: mridangam
V Nagarajan: kanjira
P Srinivasan: Tarboura
H Hiler: Sruti box

Equipment used in transfer: 

Preparation: Ultrasonic cleaning for 20 minutes in pure clean water, followed by a quick vacuum drying with a VPI 16.5 cleaning machine

Turntable:  Audio-technica AT-LP-1240

Cartridge: Shure M97x
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.

Recorder: Sony PCM-M10 at 24bit/44.1kHz resolution

24 bit 44.1 kHz FLAC file

(a higher resolution file than a CD - cannot be burned as a CDR)

16 bit 44 kHz FLAC

(a standard "CD quality audio file - suitable for burning a CDR)

320 kbps mp3 file

(an mp3 file with highest quality settings possible)

Manik Varma: [EMI ECLP 2313] an LP released in India in 1965

Up next is a solid album from Manik Varma (1926-96) a vocalist from the Kirana gharana which was founded by the great Abdul Karim Khan.

Accompaniment is by violinist VG Jog. The tabla player, as so often was the case in the past, was known only to those in the studio that day.

Side 1:
Raga Jog-Kauns with compositions in slow Ektaal and fast Teentaal

Side 2:
Raga Bhatiyar with compositions in slow Ektaal and fast Teentaal
Thumri in Raga Bhairavi

While transferring this album I noticed that it is in monaural sound -- so the files are half the regular size.

24 bit, 44.1 kHz FLAC file

(high resolution audio file)

16 bit, 44.1 kHz FLAC file

(standard resolution "CD quality" audio file)

320 kbps mp3 file

(highest possible resolution mp3 audio file)

Ravi Shankar: Sitar [EMI EASD 1502] an LP released in India in 1972

Here is a very nice collection of compositions by the great Ravi Shankar. Some people in the world of Indian Classical Music resent the continued popularity of Raviji. Even almost fours years after his death, his name can summon up tremendous amounts of energy and power. Oh, I could tell tales of how the merest mention of Raviji's name or the name of his Foundation has opened dozens of doors to concert promotors for particular musicians on tour in the U.S. Those tales will have to wait, especially because I am trying to stay incognito with this blog.

Needless to say, those not blessed with monikers such as "senior disciple of Ravi Shankar" or just "student of Raviji" can sometimes hold some inexplicable envy in their minds. I have sadly heard this envy in personal conversations. Also, brilliantly gifted musicians such as the great sitarist Vilayat Khan never (to my knowledge) publicly admitted to being impressed by Raviji's technical skills. However, there is more than just technical skills which can melt a heart or make a friend. There is a depth of emotion and richness of compositions in Raviji's playing which is evident to both newcomers and professionals alike. It is is this depth and richness which will allow him to continue to hold a spell on the world of Indian Classical Music for the remainder of my lifetime.

Here we have a release from EMI dating from 1972 featuring three new Ragas created by Ravi Shankar (admittedly by slightly altering existing Ragas). To me, it is interesting to note the difference in production values between this release and the jugalbandi double LP with Ali Akbar Khan which was released the same year on Apple Records. My inside source say a reissue of that famous double LP [with bonus additional music] is in the works. Otherwise I would definitely transfer that fine production!

Tabla is by the great and much-missed Alla Rakha.

side 1: 
Raga Kameshwari: Alaap - Jod - Gats in Japhtaal.

side 2: 
Raga Gangeshwari: Gat in Rupak Taal
Raga Rangeshwari: Gat in vilambit and drut Teentaal

I would like to note that you can hear a 60 second mp3 sample of what this LP sounded like as a raw transfer here and also an mp3 sample of the finished audio file here. This was certainly the worst sounding raw transfer I have worked with -- ironically with a perfect-looking LP which I believe was purchased as a "new" LP on a well known online LP site. I broke many of my rules of "pure-hearted audiophile transferring" but otherwise I would not have been able to present the transfer. Originally I simply gave up and handed the LP back to my good friend and fellow ICM student Nels. A few weeks later I changed my mind and gave it a try.

My discovery of the rather amazing program entitled ClickRepair, which allows one to listen live to what sound is being eliminated from the recording, has greatly changed my opinion of such programs. It is, as far as I know, the only program which allows one to perform this neat trick of auditing the material being removed and adjusting accordingly. It is available as a free, fully-functioning trial version with a 30-day trial period. I hope I don't sound like a commercial advertisement for the program, but I believe it has the chance to improve the way vinyl is transferred, with more music kept and more noise eliminated in the audio file.

24bit, 44.1kHz FLAC file  (444 MB)

(this is a high resolution audio file suitable for listening on computer or certain portable devices)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC file  (238 MB)

(this is a standard-resolution file suitable for burning a CDR)

320kbps mp3 file (110 MB)

(this is the highest-quality setting available when compressing audio to this popular portable format)

Ali Akbar Khan: Live in Eugene, Oregon. October 1983. [AMMP CS86-8] a cassette released in the United States in 1987

Here we have another in the series of cassettes which AMMP Music Productions (i.e., the AACM) released in the mid 1980s documenting the Ustad's collection of concert recordings. The story I have heard, not independently verified by any of the principals, is that Mary Johnson Khan began discovering boxes of reels of recordings of live concerts by her husband placed in odd locations in their home. Places like under a couch or in closets. She apparently decided to start to archive these recordings with the goal of eventually making them available to the public.

The first step of this was the two similarly-titled series of cassettes released in the 1980s under both the AACM and the AMMP banner.

On the first side of the cassette we have a jovial Ali Akbar Khan explaining what he'll play that evening. I will leave it up to you to hear his charming talk. Then an alap followed by gats in a closely related raga. The sound quality of the original tape seems quite good. Commercially produced cassettes can have the quality of their higher frequencies suffer a bit from the high-speed dubbing which predominiantes their manufacture. I have given the higher frequencies in these two sides a very slight boost (about 2 decibels between 9kHz and 13kHz or so). Nothing too noticeable.

My cassette set up will be detailed in a future post. I just wanted to remind listeners who are archiving their cassettes to read up on "azimuth adjustment" before they transfer the tape. This can make a huge audible difference that you can hear immediately as you change the azimuth.

Tabla is by the great Swapan Chaudhuri

side 1: Raga Hem Behag: alap and jod
side 2: Raga Bihag: gats in teentaal

24bit, 44.1 kHz FLAC

(high resolution file ideal for listening on computer or certain portable players)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC

(standard resolution file ideal for burning a CDR)

320 kbps mp3 file

(highest possible quality compressed file ideal for listening on a portable player)