Music from Iran - The Living Tradition
Recorded and Produced by Deben Bhattacharya
Argo - ZFB 51 - P.1971
Side A
A1 Shur on Santour - Hossein Saba 7'39
A2 Shur on Tar - Jabad Aliyani 13'15
Side B
B1 Shahnama - Recitation from book of Kings by Firdowsi 14'01
B2 Mahour on Setar - Eskandare Ebrahimi 8'17
A1, B1, Recorded 1955, Tehran
A2, B2, Recorded 1955, Meshed
Another of Deben Bhattacharya's early recordings from 1955. Magnificent music and certainly pioneering work of this budding fieldrecorder. I often find that the earliest recordings have a most delicate atmosphere and having now listened to many of his recordings in a row, I certainly prefer the recordings he did in the Indian subcontinent and Asia Minor to the ones in Eastern Europe. There are definitely some gems there as well but in my opinion less so. Maybe I am just biased because I like Indian, Persian and Arabic music so much. In some days you will be able to judge for yourself. Just one or two more LP's before we go to Europe.
