Two record companies dominate the UK market for
Indian classical music. Navras has built up its extensive
catalogue from live concert recordings, whereas Nimbus
favours studio recordings, always presented with excellent documentation.
Nimbus has now produced an important book, The
Raga Guide, its covers strengthened by the attachment of
four full length CDs which survey 74 Hindustani ragas. It is
an elegant and enormously attractive production, to which has
been brought a wealth of scholarship and expertise in a project
which dates back for one and a half decades before coming to
fruition. Here you can find all the ragas you are ever likely
to encounter in miniature performances on flute (Hariprasad
Chaurasia, King of Indian masters of the keyless Indian flute),
sarod (Buddadev DasGupta) and voice, the ascent-descent and
melodic outlines of each rag transcribed in both western
and Indian notation.
For me, the core of the enterprise is the raga Alhaiya bilavi,
winningly sung by Shruti Sadolikar-Katkar in a four minute
version and fully transcribed in its entirety; I have played
it over many times with increasing pleasure and appreciation.
For more complete edification, one might wish that others of
the miniature performances had been transcribed similarly, rather
than devoting so much space to the more esoteric background
and to 40 (admittedly attractive) colour plates illustrating
different rags.
Had the project been reviewed recently during
its long gestation, a CD-Rom might well have been considered,
to include help with the rhythmic basis of the compositions
(talas) which in performance are accompanied by claps
and waves of the right hand, without which they are hard to
follow. If there is to be a second edition of The Raga Guide
it may be hoped that the needs of ordinary music loving Westerners
will be addressed more fully. Despite these reservations, it
is excellent value and bound to give great pleasure and satisfaction.
Hariprasad Chaurasia is the ideal exemplar of the derivation
of Indian classical instrumental performance from its vocal
basis. It is unbelievable what subtlety of expression can be
obtained from so seemingly primitive an instrument as the key-less
bamboo flute (bansuri),
Nimbus NI 5298 Rag
Bhimpalasi 
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& NI5527 Four
Dhuns
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Shruti Sadolikar-Katkar's CD of three ragas in khyal
and thumri styles is a delight, her fresh young voice
conveying love and enthusiasm for the music
Nimbus NI 5346
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for £12 postage paid World-wide.
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Reviewer
Peter Grahame Woolf
Book (196 pages) with 4 CDs Nimbus NI 5536-9
