Kalavati
Zia Fariduddin Dagar
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“I thought that this was the most beautiful voice I ever heard”
We stopped at Nathdwara a town rich with Dhrupad history
“In the summer of 1968 Fariduddin Dagar took me to his hometown Udaipur where he and Z.Mohiuddin Dagar had grown up with their father who was the main court musician under H.H Maharaja Bhupal Singh. We bicycled around, met Chatur Lal’s guru Hafiz Khan, visited the palace and also his music school where he was teaching, The Dagar Sangeet Vidhya Laya. On the way we stopped at Nathdwara a town rich with Dhrupad history and there we met a very very good elderly pakhawaj player who accompanied Farid in a spontaneous rendering of Raag Kalavati in Dhammar tala of 14 beats. He was wearing a turban and I am really sorry that I never got to know his name but he was uncle of the pioneer of the Nathdwara school of Pakhawaj playing, the famous Purushottam Das. If anybody knows his name, please let me know.
He spontaneously started singing a thumri
The last track in this release was in fact recorded much earlier, in fact the first time I met Fariduddin in Ustad’s place where he had just arrived from Udaipur early in 1968. We had a wonderful lunch at Ustad’s closest student Chandrashekar Naringrekar’s flat in the same house in Chembur. When we were sitting talking afterwards in Ustads apartment he spontaneously started singing a thumri and I thought that this was the most beautifulvoice I ever heard. Actually I still think it is. Unfortunately the tape ran out after five minutes but I still think this is very well worth listening to.” /Bengt Berger
Musicians
Zia Fariduddin Dagar: Kalavati
Zia Fairiduddin Dagar, vocal, Purushottam Das’ uncle, pakhawaj
More info
01 KALAVATI – alap, jor, jhala 24:23
02 KALAVATI – Dhammar 9:33
Recorded in Nathdwara 19680723
03 Thumri – 5:33
Recorded in Chembur 19680201
Recorded and produced by Bengt Berger
Mastering by Claes Persson, CRP Recording
This is a digital-only-release available from June 8, 2018
In the Dhammar composition in Kalavati Fariduddin is singing a text from raga Chandrakauns: Chalo Sakhi Braj Bein
Here is the booklet for this album
If you download the album and burn a cd you can print your own pocket.
Here is the Newsletter about this album
Here is a very informative and deep article on the origins of Dhrupad and review of our 2018 albums by Raul da Gama in World Music Report, Dagar Dynasty: The mysticism of Dagar “Vani” Dhrupad
