Ragas Maluha Kalyan & Nat Bhairav - December 1975

Description

Live recording of sitar player Nikhil Banerjee, accompanied by Anindo Chatterjee on tabla, from December 1975. It was recorded at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, India's premier cultural institution. Digitally mastered from the original source tapes.

The late Nikhil Banerjee was an exceptionally admired and respected master of Indian music and unquestionably one of the greatest sitar players of his generation. He was born in 1931 and began learning the sitar at the age of six from his father. His concert career began in 1954 and continued, with spiralling success, until his untimely death in 1986, at the age of 54. For many his refined style combined the best of all the major schools of sitar playing, making him an ideal exponent of this popular instrument.

Raga Maluha Kalyan is one of the rarest ragas performed by the sitar maestro. Like a sandstone castle building up tier upon tier and ultimately assuming the form of an imposing structure Nikhil Banerjee builds the edifice of the raga through the "jod" and "jhala" sections. Raga Nat Bhairav is an engrossing mixture of post sunset ragas and pre dawn ragas. The dominant sentiment of the raga is devotion with more of a romantic feel rather than prayerful.

Personnel: Nikhil Banerjee (sitar), Anindo Chatterjee (tabla)