Vijay Raghav Rao: Flute Music of India [ST 5155] an LP recorded in India in 1968 and released in the US at an unknown date

This LP is somewhat of a curiosity. Tower Records (no relation to the venerated chain of record stores which went bankrupt a few years ago) was a subsidiary of Capital Records (itself a division of EMI) which released a few Indian Classical LPs in the late 1960s. Generally they were reissues of previously released music from EMI India. I can find no exact version of this LP on HMV/EMI so it probably consists of recordings scattered across several albums.

Vijay Raghav Rao (November 3, 1925 - November 30, 2011) was born in Chennai but eventually began working with Ravi Shankar first on films and then other projects. His pupils included Ronu Majumdar and GS Sachdev. One source stated he permanently moved to the United States at one point. Possibly he lived in the same area of northern California where Ravi Shankar stayed. 

This is a delightful and very tuneful album featuring three Ragas. The cover is a reminder of the days when records by dark skinned musicians featured lovely pale white girls on the cover. This model looks a bit more exotic than usual, at least.

Side one:
Raga Hansdhwani
Dhun in Raga Shivranjani

Side two:
Raga Malkauns

Bansuri: Vijay Ragahv Rao
Support bansuri: DK Thakar
Tabla: Manikrao Popatkar

Equipment used in transfer: 

Preparation: Ultrasonic cleaning for 20 minutes in pure clean water

Turntable:  Audio-technica AT-LP-1240

Cartridge: Audio-technica AT-440MLb
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.

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

Software: Audacity, ClickRepair, and xAct. 

24bit, 96kHz FLAC (814 MB)

(the highest resolution I am capable of producing; only playable on a computer or other player capable of playing HD files)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC (226 MB)

(after decoding to WAV, suitable for burning to CD)

320 kbps mp3 (116 MB)

(highest possible quality mp3 file; 

suitable for listening on a portable player)

Rasiklal Andharia: Classical Vocal [ECSD 2991] an LP recorded and released in India in 1985

There is not a lot of information about Rasiklal Andharia on the Internet. He seems to have been born in 1931 in Punjab and died around the time of this LP release, apparently of severe heart disease.

The only recordings of which I am aware are this one LP and also a CD on violinist Sangeeta Shankar's CD label Legendary Legacy Recordings entitled "Nirmal." There are several baithak and other recordings on youtube which I highly recommend.

Andharia appears to have been taught primarily by his uncle. Some of the rather scant biographies I found also mention the great Amir Khan; it is unclear whether there was actual teaching going on or if Andharia simply was influenced by the legendary maestro.

I have been holding on to these recordings for several weeks for the somewhat ridiculous reason that after completing the vinyl transfer process, I misplaced the physical LP and was waiting to find it in order to make the cover and label scans. Don't worry -- I'm sure the LP will turn up in my home office. Probably in a big stack of other LPs waiting to be transferred. In the meantime I will use the scans which I found on the singularly invaluable "Anthems for the Nation of Luobaniya" blog.

Either way, this is an extremely lovely LP. Andhari's vocal style is peaceful and beautiful. One gets the impression that he is simply singing the music without adding any unnecessary gymnastic embellishments. It takes quite a bit of artistic courage to adhere to such a simple style and make it work.

Even if you do not normally download vocal recordings, I sincerely suggest you investigate this.

Equipment used in transfer: 

Preparation: Ultrasonic cleaning for 20 minutes in pure clean water

Turntable:  Audio-technica AT-LP-1240

Cartridge: Audio-technica Shure M97xE 
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.

Recorder: Edirol R-09HR at 24bit/96kHz resolution
Software: Audacity, ClickRepair, and xAct. 

24bit, 96kHz FLAC (833 MB)

(the highest resolution I am capable of producing; only playable on a computer or other player capable of playing HD files)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC (213 MB)

(after decoding to WAV, suitable for burning to CD)

320 kbps mp3 (100 MB)

(highest possible quality mp3 file; 

suitable for listening on a portable player)

Nishat Khan with Zakir Hussain: In Live Concert at the Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi [ECSD 3134] An LP recorded and released in India in 1985

Nishat Khan (born somewhat mysteriously in the "mid 1960s" as his wikipedia bio states) is the oldest son of Imrat Khan, which makes him a nephew of Vilayat Khan.

His recorded output has been sparse compared to others in his lineage. There were two EMI LPs in the "mid-1980s" (I can be mysterious, too!) and then not much beside a Nimbus CD and a few releases on the Amiata Records label.

He composed a "Sitar Concerto" which he performed with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales during the 2013 BBC Proms season.

This album was originally recorded "live in concert" and there has been some not-very-subtle editing on the part of the un-named EMI engineers. We have some woozy balance issues in the first two minutes (able to be easily corrected with Audacity and a bit of creativity) and some ham-handed splices of music and applause (not able to be fixed at this time). Certainly it would be wonderful for EMI to discover the unmolested tapes of the concert and produce a one or two CD set of the entire show, but that is too much to expect or even hope for these days, sadly.

Nishat Khan: sitar
Zakir Hussain: tabla

Side one:
Raga Yaman Kalyan (alap and jor)

Side two:
Raga Yaman Kalyan (vilambit [slow] gat [composition])
Raga Suha Sugrai (drut [fast] gat and jhala)
Raga Bhairavi

Equipment used in transfer: 

Preparation: Ultrasonic cleaning for 20 minutes in pure clean water

Turntable:  Audio-technica AT-LP-1240

Cartridge: Audio-technica Shure M97xE 
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.

Recorder: Edirol R-09HR at 24bit/96kHz resolution
Software: Audacity, ClickRepair, and xAct. 

24bit, 96kHz FLAC (774 MB)

(the highest resolution I am capable of producing; only playable on a computer or other player capable of playing HD files)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC (200 MB)

(after decoding, suitable for burning to CD)

320 kbps mp3 (101 MB)

(highest possible quality mp3 file; 

suitable for listening on a portable player)

Hariprasad Chaurasia: La Flute de Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia [ESP 8408] an LP recorded and released in France (1983-84)

This LP is part of a series on Sonodisc which had some support from UNESCO. All of them sport the same cover design with minimal variations. It is labeled as number 12 in the series. Some of the previous issues can be seen on the back cover. It was recorded in March December [thanks, Rory!] 1983 and sports a copyright date of 1984.

side one: Raga Bhupali (alap): 20:54
side two: Raga Vashaspati (gats in rupak taal and teentaal): 18:26

Hariprasad Chaurasia: bansuri
Shafat Ahmed Khan: tabla
Manmohan Raya: tampura

Equipment used in transfer: 

Preparation: Ultrasonic cleaning for 20 minutes in pure clean water

Turntable:  Audio-technica AT-LP-1240

Cartridge: Audio-technica AT-440MLb
Pre-amplification: Vintage refurbished Pioneer SX-780.

Recorder: Edirol R-09HR at 24bit/96kHz resolution
Software: Audacity, ClickRepair, and xAct. 

24bit, 96kHz high resolution FLAC (789 MB)

(the highest resolution I am capable of producing)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC (218 MB)

(suitable for burning to CD)

320 kbps mp3 (108 MB)

(highest possible quality mp3 file; 

suitable for listening on a portable player)

Mahmud Mirza: Rag Darbari [Tangent TGS 123] An LP recorded and released in the UK in 1976

Here is a delightful LP released on the Tangent Records label from England. Tangent is known more for folk releases, but they did release several albums of music from India as well as "the World of Islam" in the early to mid 1970s.

This is not exactly a super rare LP; several other blogs have featured it. However, I believe my transfer has fewer defects and more mid-frequency warmth than other transfers I have listened to. This is despite two large pressing defects on each side (it looks like 4 tiny wads of cardboard the size of a grain of uncooked rice somehow got mixed into the vinyl at the pressing plant). Naturally, I wouldn't be uploading the transfer if I weren't confident that I had repaired most if not all of the sonic aberrations.

The first Raga, Darbari, is present only in the alap section and this section has been spread out over two sides (see photo of the back cover or of the labels). I have combined the two parts of the Raga in a way that is not perfect but does flow very well.

One interesting aspect of this copy is that the original purchaser has inscribed his full name and postal code on the back cover in blue ink (see photo). Maybe if Mr John Lewis is reading this, he can tell me the story of where and why he bought this LP!

Mahmud Mirza: sitar
Ramzon Khan: tabla (track 2 only)

01 Raga Darbari: Alap, Jor, Jhalla
02 Raga Kafi: gat in teentaal

Equipment used in transfer: 

Preparation: Ultrasonic cleaning for 20 minutes in pure clean water

Turntable:  Audio-technica AT-LP-1240

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

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

24bit, 96kHz high resolution FLAC (996 MB)

(the highest resolution I am capable of producing)

16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC (282 MB) 

(suitable for burning to CD)

320 kbps mp3 (142 MB)

(highest possible quality mp3 file; 

suitable for listening on a portable player)