Title: Miner/Ramnath/Bhattacharya : Rainbow-Seven Colors of Seven Instruments
Artist: Miner/Ramnath/Bhattacharya
Label: CD Baby
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 796042010328
Genre: International

Daya Shankar - Shehnai -Raga Gujri Todi, Tabla in Teen Taal - Ajit Kumar Pathak, Debashish Bhattacharya - Guitar - Raga Bairagi, Tabla in ek taal - Subhashis Bhattacharjee, Allyn Miner - Sitar - Raga Durga, Tabla in Roopak taal - Shyam Kane, Snehasis Muzumdar - Mandolin - Raga Hansadhwani, Tabla in jhap taal - Shubhen Chatterjee, Arawind Thatte - Harmonium - Raga Tappa Khamaj,Tabla in punjabi taal - Ramdas Palsule, Tarun Bhattacharya - Santoor - Raga Bageshree, Tabla in Teen taal - Abhijit Banerjee, Kala Ramnath - Violin - Bhajan in Bhairavi, Tabla in Keherwa taal -Vijay Ghate, 1. Daya Shankar - Shehnai - Raga Gujari Todi The Shehnai is the North Indian oboe. A double reed mouthpiece attached to a thin metal tube is fitted into the end of the instrument's body. The hollow wood body has seven fingerholes and is slightly flared, with a metal bell at the end. The ancestor of this instrument was the Persian surna or surnay, used in the outdoor court and temple ensemble called the naubat, which performed at fixed times of the day and for special events in medieval North India. The Shehnai, with it's unique penetrating sound is essential at weddings and other auspicious events and processions. The concert shehnai has a difficult and exacting technique. The slides and nuances essential to classical music are produced by partial opening and closing of the fingerholes, control of the lips on the reed, and varying pressure of the breath in the air column. Credit for bringing the shehnai to the modern concert stage goes to Bismillah Khan of Banaras (b. ca. 1908) after a debut in 1926. The concert format is traditionally a shehnai ensemble in which at least one player provides a background drone, and one or two others shadow the melody of the main player. The traditional drum for shehnai accompaniment was originally a pair of small hand-played kettle drums called khudrak, dukkar or duggi, but tabla is now commonly used. The music played on the shehnai is the alap-jod-gat genre which it shares with other Hindustani instruments: The shehnai now is a well-loved concert instrument. Gujri Todi is a mid-morning raga which has six notes, Sa Re Ga Ma Dha Ni (C Db Eb F# Ab B) in ascent and descent. Gujari Todi is also known as Gurjari is characterized by a repeated gliding movement between Re and Ga. The tonic Sa is avoided for several sequences of phrases and there is pronounced use of the predominant note Dha on which many phrases resolve. Daya Shankar learned the instrument from his father, well known maestro Anant Lal of the Banaras Gharana, and later from Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. 2. Debashish Bhattacharya - Guitar - Raga Bairagi Western guitars have been known and used in India since at least the 19th century, and have been used in film and light music ensembles for several decades but the guitar was developed as a serious concert instrument in the last three decades or so by players in musical lineage of Ustad Allauddin Khan. Present-day Virtuosi such as Debashish Bhattacharya have helped make the guitar a popular concert instrument. The Hindustani concert guitar is tuned almost like a sarod. It held on the lap and plucked with metal right hand finger and thumb picks. Players have added sympathetic strings and drone chikari strings which have contributed to give the instrument a resonant tone and long sustain. Melody is produced with a metal slide held in the left hand. The guitar has the capability to produce both vocal-like slides and fast instrumental rhythms. Concert guitar players play in the alap-jod-gat format which they share with sitar and sarod. Bairagi is grouped in the Bhairav family of early morning ragas. Bhairav is a fearsome incarnation of the god Shiva. A Bairagi is a female ascetic or enunciate. Raga Bairagi uses a pentatonic scale consisting only of the notes Sa Re Ma Pa Ni Sa (C Db F G Bb C) in both ascent and descent. As in other ragas of Bhairav family, it's melodic movement is particularly characterized by a descending slide on the important note Re. It's character is serious and meditative. Debashish Bhattacharya was born to devoutly musical parents in Calcutta. He was trained in guitar by guitar maestro Brijbhushan Kabra. He also learned classical music from Ajoy Chakrabarty - the celebrated Vocalist. He has performed with renowned guitarists such as Dr. Martin Simpson (UK), Dr. Robert Brozman (USA), jazz saxophonist Chicko Freeman. 3. Allyn Miner - Sitar - Raga Durga The sitar is one of the most common concert instruments of Hindustani music, and is India's most famous contribution to world music culture. The sitar has a half-gourd body, flat wooden face and long hollow wooden neck and 20 arched metal frets movable to different scale positions. The sitar has six or seven main strings, and 13 sympathetic string running under the frets and resting on a small bridge of their own. The long wide neck and the positioning of the playing strings to one side allows' main melody string to be pulled laterally, sounding intervals of up to a fifth on each fret. The right hand rhythmic work is made possible by a pointed wire plectrum (mizrab) worn on the Forefinger. It is believed that a brother of Na'mat Khan, Delhi's leading musician of the time, introduced the small three-stringed Persian sitar which he had brought from Kashmir at the court of late Mughal Emperor Muhamrrntd Shah in the mid 18th century. The sitar was quickly adopted for use in accompaniment to song and dance, and soon professionals gave it some of the physical attributes of it's predecessor the vina or bin. They also created for it a solo music of it's own, the compositions called gat and their variations. Today it has virtually become a musical emblem of India. Durga is an evening rage named after the Goddess, the powerful and benevolent wife of Shiva. It uses the notes Sa Re Ma Pa Dha Sa (C D F G A C) in ascent and descent. Pa (G) is the most predominant note, and leaping phrases such as Sa Dha Ma Re, Sa Re Pa characterize the raga, giving it a bold yet delicate character. Allyn Miner was trained in western classical violin from an early age in her native city of Philadelphia. She studied sitar under Thakur Raj Bhan Singh in Varanasi from 1971-82, and has been a disciple of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan since 1985. She performs regularly in India and the U.S. and teaches Indian Music at the University of Pennsylvania. 4. Snehasis Mazumdar - Mandolin - Raga Hansadhwani The mandolin is rarely heard in North India, though it has become familiar in South Indian music in the hand of young virtuosi in the last few decades. Like the guitar, violin and harmonium, the mandolin came to India with Europeans in the 19th century. Hindustani music is playable on any instrument that can handle the nuances of the ornamentation and slides. Snehasis Mazumdar's mandolin is deep-toned and has chikari striagstas'irn'si1ar and sarod. He is able to produce a powerful and nuanced sound from this, instrument and produce very fast and unusual right hand rhythms. Hansadhwani, the voice of the swan, is a well-loved raga of South India. It was introduced into North Indian music in the last few decades and is now a standard part of the Hindustani repertoire. It is an evening raga using the notes Sa Re Ga Pa NI Sa (C D E G B C) in ascent ascent and descent. It's predominant notes are Pa and Re, and some of it's characteristic phrases are Ga Pa Ga Re, Ni Pa Re Sa. Snehasis Mazumdar was born in a family of strong musical background. His grandfather Bibhuti Ranjan Mazumdar gave him early training and later his father Himangshu Mazumdar and uncle Ranjan Mazutndar groomed him. His cousin, Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar, who is is renowned sarod player, gave him the guidance as well. For the past twelve years he has been learning music from a great Musicologist of the Maihar Gharana. Acharya Ajoy Singha Roy and rhythm from Talkari Anil Palit. 5. Arawind Thatte - Harmonium - Raga Tappa-Khamaj Ubiquitous in North India in accomp

Tracks:
1.1 Daya Shankar - Shehenai - Raga Gujri Todi
1.2 Debashish Bhattachraya - Guitar - Raga Bairagi
1.3 Allyn Miner - Sitar - Raga Durga
1.4 Snehashish Mujumdar - Mandolin - Raga Hansadhwani
1.5 Arvind Thatte - Harmonium - Raga Tappa Khamaj
1.6 Tarun Bhattacharya - Santoor - Raga Bageshree
1.7 Kala Ramnath - Violin - Bhairavi