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News and Events

2010 01 05

Sahana Banerjee

Sahana Banerjee is one of the best living sitarists, who never fails to deliver original and highly inspired performances.

Here’s an excellent performance of Shyam Kalyan from 2008, Paris, with tabla player Prabhu Edouard.

Her most recent video that I’ve been able to find is this outstanding alap in Ahir Bhariav at a peformance in Mumbai, Novemeber 2009.

From http://www.artindia.net/sahanabanerjee.html:

SAHANA BANERJEE is one of the promising and outstanding female sitar players of India, belonging to the Rampur Senia Gharana. Under the tutelage of her father and years of hard training she won the Pandit Nikhil Banerjee Challenge Trophy at the Dover Lane Music Conference in the year 1990 in Calcutta and was conferred the “Best Instrumentalist” award.

Apart from being a graded artist of the All India radio and Television since 1995, Sahana has also given many prestigious stage performances in India (Sangeet Research Academy, Calcutta, Gandharva Mahavidyalaya/Delhi, Bharatiya Sanskriti Parishad, Calcutta, etc) and also in Europe (Germany, Switzerland, France, etc).

Sahana Banerjee doesn’t appear to have any commercial recordings available or a website. If you have any more information about this artist or her music, please send us an email or leave a comment.

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2009 12 25

iTablaPro iPhone app released

Musician and software developer Prasad Upasani has just released the iTablaPro software for the iPhone and IPod Touch:

http://upasani.org/home/iTablaPro.html

Although I have not had a chance to review this software yet, it’s getting glowing reports from users and has a rich feature set. Given that it only costs $19.99 and will run on a $200 iPod Touch, my prediction is that it’s poised to revolutionise the entire tabla machine industry. Musicians have been asking for a device like this for years.

Not to be outdone, Prasad has also developed the excellent iLehra and iTanpura iPhone / iPod Touch apps:

http://upasani.org/home/iLehra.html
http://upasani.org/home/iTanpura.html

Thank you Prasad!

Have any readers used iTablaPro? I’d love to hear about your experiences using it in the comments.

Here’s a video demo of iTablaPro in action:

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2009 12 13

Shahid Parvez, WKCR Radio Broadcast

WKCR’s radio broadcast of Shahid Parvez’s October 11th, 2009 performance in New York City.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/cbjxvq

The pieces performed are:

- Raag Bageshree
- Raag Abhogi
- Raag Pilu
- Dhun

Thanks to Daz for making this mp3 file available! 

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2009 12 08

New music by Clem Alford

British sitarist Clem Alford has relased some new music on his mySpace page.

http://www.myspace.com/clemalford

Have a listen to the brief but lovely Darbari in the music player. It’s wonderful!

A recently uploaded video by archivist Trippy Monkey shows this rare footage of Clem Alford on British TV in the 60’s

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2009 12 04

Fosse Electric Sitar

A new electric sitar is under development by Greg Fosse.

It’s the best sounding electic sitar I’ve heard, and seems very promising. Congratulations to Greg Fosse on a considerable engineering achievement! There is no word yet on production dates or cost, but units have apparently been built and shipped.

Have any readers played this instrument yet? We’d love to hear your experiences. Expect a full review on sitar.co.za as soon as we’re able to test drive this creature.

For more information, visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/FOSSE-ELECTRIC-SITAR/176188250689?v=wall

Or, email Greg Fosse at:

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2009 06 17

Sitar featured in Firefly video

South African band Firefly has released a new video of their song “Falling Rain” which features prominent use of the sitar.

For more information, visit http://www.zaria.co.za

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2009 02 15

How to make a sitar

Ever wonder what goes into the production of a sitar? Take a look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0XCH0Y2AHs (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE_VaHU9Rsg (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1QcE7RRjXQ (Part 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-NNuJ6eGwg (Part 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqcewFjYi2Y (Part 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcNMsmDwzCM (Part 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKxsmrvWxBo (Part 7)

This is the from the shop of RA Sitarmaker. Thanks to Lars for uploading these.

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2008 09 05

Deepsankar Bhattacharjee

A promising new Calcutta based sitarist, Deepsankar Bhattacharjee:

And we absolutely love the crazy editing and real smoke of this finale! Make sure you watch through till the end:

This is from Deepsankar Bhattacharjee’s website:

I am a young sitarist from Indore gharana where from my father descended the true and direct touch bearer of Jaffer khani Bazz (Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan).

I feel proud when I say that I am son of Pandit Harashankar Bhattacharjee. He is god for me. He told me that “If you love sitar, sitar will loves you. With out sitar you are incomplete”. He is the first person who makes me feel that I am really incomplete without my sitar. He always says keep on thinking, always absorbed with music. I have only dream to fulfill dreams of my parents.

For more information, please visit http://www.deepsankarbhattacharjee.com/.

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2008 09 03

Master Class with Ravi Shankar

Blogger Angelo Misterioso has posted his experience of a Master Class with Ravi Shankar which recently took place in Paris.  Here’s some video from that class:

Here’ the text from the original article:

Ravi Shankar is in Paris for what is supposed to be his last ever european shows. He’s with his daughter Anoushka .
He played a “normal” concert @ la salle Pleyel yesterday which i couldn’t go to .
But tonight is different , this is a Master Class with the Master of indian music in the very same theatre.
Of course, both shows are Sold Out because it’s probably the last time ever that a french audience will have the pleasure to hear such a gifted musician.
For the people who don’t know him , he’s a sitar player from India , as a kid he was a dancer ( he first came in Paris in 1933 ) and then turn to the sitar .
He’s wellknown in western countries for playing the Monterey & Woodstock festivals and for co-organising “the concert for Bangladesh” in 1971 with Beatles’ George Harrison.
He’s also the father of Norah Jones( yes , the one ).
I really did not know what to expect tonight. First he started talking about his life then about indian music ( what it is, where it comes from , how you play it , the different rhythms and so on ... ) I thought he would never stop . You can’t imagine how complicated this music is .
After a good hour , we still haven’t listen to a single note of music. He started introducing each instrument ( tabla , flute ... ) with a

...Continue Reading Article

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2008 08 26

Panchahan Sardar - Dunmore Lasses

Here’s something a little different. Raag mishra kafi played by Panchahan Sardar using the Irish melody Dunmore Lasses.

Watching that I was reminded of “Scarborough Kafi” by Praful Kelkar (sarod) and A. Pavan (tabla):

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