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About Afternoon Ragas
Review From the first note, an invisible architecture emerges and with it great heights of emotive playing are achieved. -- Fanfare, May/June 1993 The late Nikhil Banerjee never faltered, in technique or taste; he was for decades one of India's top sitarists. -- Rhythm Music Monthly, Vol. 2 No. 2 Product Description "My approach to music is very deep. I do not compromise with anybody or anything else in the world. I do not care. I want to really go beyond this materialistic world...not for the sake of enjoyment, entertainment, no. A musician must lift up the souls of the listeners, and take them towards Space." --Nikhil Banerjee Padmabhushan Nikhil Banerjee (1931-1986) was undoubtedly one of the finest sitarists of his time. His music earned deep respect among India's classical music connoisseurs as well as gaining him a devoted international following. He was the disciple of the two greatest forces in 20th Century Indian classical instrumental music, Padmavibhushan Allauddin Khan and his son Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Though he recorded a number of LP's, few were of live concerts, in which his leisurely, majestic raga development was unsurpassed. Mr. Banerjee disliked being recorded, feeling that the process distracted and somewhat compromised the inner meditative quality of his music, so high-fidelity live recordings are rare. Raga Records is releasing a series of concert recordings to help preserve Mr. Banerjee's legacy. Legendary tabla player Kanai Dutta began to study as a child under Satish Das. Later he was a student of the noted Calcutta teacher Jnan Ghosh for over ten years. He first travelled to the West with Ravi Shankar in 1955. He recorded a number of LPs with Mr. Banerjee for EMI India. Bhimpalasri: Late afternoon; mood of devotion, pathos, joy. "You can make the animals cry with this rag..." Multani: Late afternoon. "Take out pathos effect of morning and put in devotion and heroic..." "...as sun is going down and down, komal ri and tivra ma start coming out..." (Quotes from Ali Akbar Khan classes.) MY MAESTRO AS I SAW HIM by Nikhil Banerjee 'Gurukul' method of training is perhaps the most unique feature of our music and it's heritage. It may appear rather old fashioned if not primitive to those students who sit around modern electronic wonder gadgets like tape or video recorders and pick up their lessons. But truth is what it is. Gurukul system presupposes that the students have to be in constant company and guidance of their master whom they serve in every way. As in the case of religion, it is only when the master is satisfied with the earnestness and sincerity of the student, then he imparts his power and the wealth of all the feelings and realizations of his own Sadhana or practice. Between the teacher and the taught the principle of give and take is only this. The student can only offer his devotion and service, and the teacher can let him have knowledge and truth. We can find easily how a system as such can effect the total development of a student both physical and mental under the strict vigilance of the teacher who knows how to let the flower blossom. Sad to say, for many many years this principle used to operate in a limited sense and the great Ustads kept up a very secretive approach. They would not let the student see the truth unless there was any blood relation between them. Baba Allauddin Khan Sahib was great in going against this current, and courageously proving that our music is not a hidden magic but essentially a matter of practice aiming at self-realization. He was not a musician by family tradition. His life is quite a classic story of endless tests and trials through which he found his way towards knowledge and enlightenment. It is probably this background which bred such a strong antipathy towards anything mean and narrow in the sphere of teaching. He was a teacher incarnate with the purest vibration. Any student, if really deserving, had from him the shower of his blessings and by the she
