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depicted as miles upon miles upon miles of sand (and there is no escaping that), cultural- ly and economically it is far more, with its kharif – monsoon planted, autumn harvested – crops and animal husbandry. The opening track on Thar – The Great Indian Desert (De Kulture Music DKM-023-A) is an instru- mental entitled Raag Malkauns played by a Langa quartet. The Langas and the Mangani- yar are Rajasthan’s two principal Muslim hereditary musician clans. In historical times both enjoyed feudal patronage under the Rajputs who set aside religious differences (when it came to music at least theoretically). By the same token, to the present day, Hindus across the caste gulf and Muslims and Hindus alike worship the divinity of Baba Ramdev (1469-1575), the embodiment of sant and pir status (respectively Hindu and Muslim ‘saint’). This happens across Rajasthan and into Mad- hya Pradesh and Kutch and over the border into the Pakistani province of Sindh (Mangal Singh Rathod’s Vaghad Bhajan on Glimpses Of Kutchi Music – patience – includes a bha- jan or Hindu hymn in praise of “Lord Ramdev […] on horse from the west” in a neat piece of ‘compass-spin’). Raag Malkauns is per- formed by a mixed wind and percussion ensemble. Its algoza (see above, but also known as jori locally) is a defining Rajasthani sound. When it comes to sonorities (and sonorities are something which runs through this round-up like a hot desert blast), the ravanahatha – a bowed stringed instrument – is its silken-tongued ‘violin’. Ghevaram and Jiyaram Bhopa’s Bhope Ki Dhun has no trans- lation from the Rajasthani but ‘Bhopa folk air’ might pass muster, once given the foot- note that Bhopas are the priest-musicians presiding over a parallel folk religion wor- shipping local Rajasthani deities, most spe- cially ‘Pabuji’. This is something Shaika Bhopa reinforces with the CD’s last performance, Pabuji Ki Maand, played on a brusquer- voiced ravanahatha). Suggested entry points: Rāg Malkauns and Bhope Ki Dhun. The Sufi singer Raza Khan was born in Batala in the northern Indian state of Punjab. The three-track Call Of The Soul (De Kulture Music DKM-035-A) is his breakthrough album. He is a polarising singer, partly because he is Christian Sufi. Vocal traditions tapping into mystical religiosity are not unusual and one reported-speech quote says, “He believes that only a person who is Sufi can truly sing Sufi…” He polarises more because his vocal range soars into an acquired-taste form of falsetto (at times of
questionable intonation by Indian standards). He is, for example, quite unlike Punjabi qawwals on the Indian side of the Wagah border such as, most prominently, the Wadali Brothers. Let alone on the Pakistani side of the frontier. With the opening track, Nasi- hatein (‘Message’) he lays out his stall. If you warm to his voice and vocal expression, you could grow to love the album. It is not an easy ride. Suggested entry point: Nasihatein.
The Rajasthani classical sarangiya (saran-
gi player) Sultan Khan (1940–2012) intro- duced many to the delights of the stringed instrument, often said to be closest to the human voice – next to the bansuri or bamboo flute. Touring with the George Harrison / Ravi Shankar Festival From India package in 1974 Sultan Khan followed the sarangiya Ram Narayan in continuing the instrument’s ascent to the classical stage. He also introduced both instrumental and vocal folk elements from Rajasthan. Lakha Khan, a tradition-based, hereditary musician from the Muslim Man- ganiyar community, plays a regional folk vari- ant called the Sindhi sarangi (after the Sindh region). Recorded in 2011 and 2012 with his sons Dane and Pappu accompanying on dho- lak (double-headed drum), At Home (Amar- rass AMAR 007) (home is the desert region around Jodhpur) is a majestic, yes, truly majestic addition to the Rajasthani canon. Some of its music is Sufi-inflected; for exam- ple, he sings the Punjab’s preeminent Sufi sage Bulleh Shah’s Khedan De Din Chaar (no translation provided) in Punjabi marvellously. On the other hand, Guru Bina Kaun Sanghi Man Mera (ditto) from the religion-crossing bhakti (literally ‘devotion’ or ‘devotional’ but betokening the Hindu Reformation) mystic Kabir is transcending performance. No con- test, one of the five greatest albums of Rajasthani music ever to cross my path. Sug-
gested entry points: Instrumental in Rāg Bhim Palasi, Khedan De Din Chaar and Guru Bina Kaun Sanghi Man Mera.
Recorded in May 2012 in his home vil- lage of Hamira and the nearby town of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, the Manganiyar Sakar Khan’s At Home (Amarrass AMAR 006) is his postcard to the future. It may be conjecture but surely when he recorded this music he must have had an eye on posterity. Joined here by his sons Ghewar (kamancha and vocals), Firoze (dholak double-headed drum and vocals) and Dara (kamancha), Sakar Khan (1938–2013) was master of the kaman- cha or kamaicha (or similar). One of Rajasthan’s major folk instruments, it is a bowed stringed
folk instrument with a sound box covered with goat skin, three primary playing strings made of gut and fourteen sympathetic strings made of metal. It was only in the Spring of 2014 that Amarrass Records gained a major foreign distribution deal. Before that Sakar Khan had been one of the ten Rajasthani musicians and dancers that had taken part in the From The Sitar To The Guitar concerts in November 1995, put together by Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar and held in Brussels. (The DVD came out in 2006.) The CD includes Hindu devotional material (Kris- han Kanhaiyo), local folksong (notably Hich- ki) and original compositions in a folk vein (Train Song #1). The onomatopœic Train Song #1 mimics a steam locomotive as it huffs and puffs and clickety-clacks over the tracks with occasional toots on the steam whistle. The well-known Rajasthani folksong Hichki appears in both instrumental and sung ver- sions. Hichki derives from the folk belief that when you get the hiccoughs it means your lover or spouse is thinking about you. Sug- gested entry points: Train Song #1 and Hichki.
The Barmer in Barmer Boys refers to an administrative district in western Rajasthan. Their At Home (Amarrass AMAR 008) is a more modern conception of Manganiyar tra- ditional music. It combines local instruments – dholak, tension drum and khartal (wooden clappers) – with harmonium (neither credited nor photographed) accompaniment. Mangey Khan, the lead singer, has a powerful voice but ultimately that harmonium – the “bane of Indian music” – grates. Suggested entry point: Raichand.
Little gives as much pleasure as having ears opened to an unfamiliar act that is creat- ing work of riveting musicality, significant quality and intelligence. In the early 1990s one of the first truly revelatory musicians to shatter the tourist mould in Western Europe was the Pashto singer Zarsanga. She raised the bar. It really seemed as if it didn’t have to be quite like it had been before. (In March 2014 she gave a concert alas totally off the Anglophone radar at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.) Lakha Khan and (regrettably too late) Sakar Khan are discoveries of similar strength. Lakha Khan is now touring abroad.
Contact details:
Amarras Music
www.amarrass.com via Harmonia Mundi
www.harmoniamundi.com
Beat of India:
www.beatofindia.com/ De Kulture Music:
www.deKulture.com
Ken Hunt
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