john wilton
From Fanfare, March/April 1993john wilton
From Fanfare, March/April 1993
While many giant labels create much noise (Ambrose Bierce defined
it, "a stench to the ears") and publicity while touting
their "product," there exist more modest recording companies,
of smaller scale but tended with far greater insight, backed by
knowledge rather than marketing, the fruit of their near-to-desperate
concern for their music's survival. The efforts of such unsung
heroes balance the dangers facing music's historic course, of
the weighty versus the substantial. Raga Records is one, the brainchild
of its co-founders John Wilton and Ira Landgarten, who know well
that India's greatest classical musicians are at their best live.
They have begun documenting the performances of ragas in which
time bears no constraint and the presence of a receptive audience
yields some of the finest playing. Three CD's of the late, awesomely
gifted sitarist Nikhil Banerjee are available as well as other
releases. A new and absolutely essential document, a model of
its kind, comes in the form of Das Gupta's CD, which is accompanied
by a fifteen-page booklet containing an in-depth interview with
the artist who positively demystifies the art of sarod playing
and its origins. Suffice it to say that it arrived in India through
the rebab players of Afghanistan before gaining acceptance at
the courts. Das Gupta points out that much of its idiomatic playing
is based upon the right-hand picking technique of the rebab: having
this in mind allows the ear to better follow the way Das Gupta
outlines other appropriations made by sarod players, such as the
imitation of other instruments. Such documentation of an artist
representing an otherwise unfamiliar or vaguely understood medium
for Western listeners is an absolute marvel and makes the interview
alone worth having as a reference work.
Then there is Das Gupta's playing. Adjectives such as sultry,
introspective, gripping, or fervent would barely suffice to create
an impression of the expressivity and mastery in his playing.
The interview by Ira Landgarten clarifies his underlying technical
excellence and the inheriting of a grand tradition from his mentor,
Sri Radhika Mohan Maitra, a legendary sarod player whose art has
become undeservedly obscured due to the lack of recordings (except
for half an LP once published in India). The sixty-eight minute
raga played here is characterized by having a flatted third and
seventh notes and is summoned out of the instrument with great
spontaneity. What Raga Records has accomplished yet again is to
pair a superb performance with a text essential to any listener
interested in India's highest musical expression.-- Allan Evans
Raga-210
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