Producer's Note: A Nikhil Banerjee concert was a rare
and eagerly awaited event, and I was fortunate enough to be in
California at the time of the concert reproduced here. It was
the dawn of the Walkman era, when everyone could have a pocketable
tape recorder, and in view of the dearth of available recordings
of any kind, let alone concerts, I was not about to let this one
get away. Using a good deck, separate microphone and sitting near
a PA speaker, I got a serviceable audience recording, the kind
that makes a fan really happy, but well below the standard of
a studio recording. Fortunately for posterity, the sound person
at the concert, my friend Bill Lewis, was able to hook up his
Nagra, but the first few minutes of the master tape did not survive
to the present time. A performance of a raga, or any section thereof
can be of any duration; Mr. Banerjee might well have begun where
the master tape now begins, had his mood been different-much of
the material is repeated. In some of Mr. Banerjee's Indian discography,
bleeding chunks (excerpts) are presented. But I know that for
my own personal collection I would want the complete performance,
and that is how it is presented here. The audience recording is
used to cover the missing beginning of the master tape. People
may want to hear only the crystal-clear master, so track access
has been provided. -John Wilton
Raga Records was formed in large measure to keep Mr.
Banerjee's music, especially live concerts, available. Specializing
in live concerts and other archival recordings, the catalog includes
work of sitarist Manilal Nag, sarod player Buddhadev Das Gupta,
and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt playing a modified guitar. Please write
to:
Raga Records, P.O. Box 635 Village Station, New York, NY 10014
for a catalog, and mail order information.
Photo Credits Front cover, pp. 5, 18, 20, 21, 26: Ira Landgarten.
Swapan Chaudhuri: John Wilton. Faiyaz Khan p. 6, Nikhil Banerjee
pp. 24-25, 29, 30: collection John Campana. Allauddin Khan p.
13: collection Ali Akbar College of Music. Amir Khan p. 8: collection
Sangeet Natak Akademi.
Credits: Released by arrangement with Mrs. Roma Banerjee.
Recorded in Wheeler Auditorium, U.C.B., October 23 1982 by Bill
Lewis. Schoeps microphones, Nagra tape recorder. To maintain the
purest possible sound, the program remained in the digital domain
after transfer from the original master tape, without any later
mixing or equalization. Audiofile Engineer: Andy Green. Special
thanks to Subrata Chowdhury, John Campana and Ray Spiegel, and
to NVI for digital studio facilities. Associate Producer: Ira
Landgarten. Produced by John Wilton.