CEX21

Dhrupad

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar or Zia Fariduddin Dagar

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“It felt like Ustad was transported back in time“

100 years ago..

100 years ago the Maharaja of Udaipur, H.H Maharaja Bhupal Singh, whom you see on the cover, was most likely calling his finest court musician Ustad Ziauddin Dagar to sing before him as he usually did. Ziauddin’s sons were not born yet but later on they would often join their father in performance before the king. 50 years later, on April 12 1968, Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar received a visit from H.H. Laxman Singh Bahadur, the Maharaja of Dungarpur in his apartment in Chembur. Something very special happened that day. It felt like Ustad was transported back to the time when his father was playing before his Maharaja in Udaipur.

they sang very old, very rare and very beautiful Dhrupad compositions

Ustad and his brother Fariduddin started with a vocal and rudra veena duet in raga Multani and after that they sang very old, very rare and very beautiful Dhrupad compositions for more than one hour, some of them even composed by Tansen at Akbars court in the 16th century. Luckily I had my Nagra tape recorder at hand so now you can take part in this once-in-a-lifetime event as the album DHRUPAD is out in digital format. At the same time we release an album with Raag KALAVATI (CEX20) recorded later that same year by Ustad Fariduddin Dagar plus one more unique recording, a one-and-a-half-hour morning duet between two great singers from different branches of the Dagar family tree, Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar and Zia Fariduddin Dagar. KOMAL RI ASAVARI (CEX22).

Musicians

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, rudra veena, vocal
Zia Fariduddin Dagar, vocal
Subash Naringrekar, Sudhir Naringrekar, Arjun Sejwal, tabla
K. Sridhar, tanpura

More info

Produced and recorded by Bengt Berger at 6, ”Rukmini” Chembur, Bombay, India April 12, 1968
Mastered by Claes Persson, CRP Recordings.
Graphics by Jon Edergren, Spektra.
Release date June 8, 2018
DIGITAL-ONLY ALBUM

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