[maestro]

I'm trying to find somewhere to stream some samples of Mohammed Rafi... anyone have any suggestions?

 

[kunwar]

not sure if you will find any straming songs
Do check out some hindi songs sites.

just type mohammed rafi mp3's and you should be OK.
I will try to find some links

 

[maestro]

I found this http://www.artistdirect.com/store/ar...851978,00.html

but let me know if you come across any mp3s

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kunwar Hate to spoil the fun for you but Ravi Shankar is an overrated player really. He became famous cos' he knew one of the beatles guys and got into fusion cos' he was not doing too well at Indian Classical performances. He is rather uptight too.

Yes.

I agree.... as I said "Ravi Shankar is a good starting point(much the same as Bob Marley is to reggae, popular but far from the best)"

Mike.

 

[kunwar]

If anyone is interested in Instrumental stuff at all, then try getting your hands on an album done by Sultan Khan(Sarangi) and Shaukat Khan(Tabla).

this album is a brilliant example of virtuosity on one instrument.
Believe me when i say that Violin was made by man for men to play, a sarangi was made by someone who craved a human voice and couldn't find one sweet enough.

Anyone know where I can upload a 20-25 second clip of music in Mp3 form.
Just to get people started on the path.
I think somebody here has this in their sig
"India has had time to forget more music than Europe has had time to learn"
That is precisely how I feel

 

[negroswamy]

haha a decade late but I'm south indian (more carnatic, less hindustani) and i think ravi shankar is one of the top sitar players. i have very rarely (if at all) heard him strike an off-note.  he seems to be quite flawless.  his daughter is VERY on point also, which means he is also a good guru...on the other hand, lalgudi gets props for playing perfectly but i feel like i have heard him mis-play a note or 2 (i also have listened to about 239982458 times more lalgudi than ravi shankar).
 
other good stuff (hindustani):
1. zakir hussein (tabla) - try to youtube some mridangam (southern style) vs. tabla (northern style) jugalbandhis to get a feel for the differences in the 2 forms of indian classical music
2. hariprasad chaurasia (flute)
 
carnatic instrumental:
1. mandolin u srinivas (RIP)
2. shashank flute
3. numbers 1 & 2 above are probably the most western-friendly carnatic music you can find (no lyrics, great timing, & "new school" enough to evolve to changing tastes in carnatic music while still respecting the science & tradition of it) and a great place to start.
3. lalgudi jayaraman violin thillanas (fun, not serious...check out his desh raga thillana)
4. kadri gopalnath does carnatic saxophone & it sounds really nice...like kenny G's sax was brined into mango-pickle (<-- joke)
5. i feel like anyone with the electric violin (karthick iyer) has a nice sound...he does fusion, also...and its not super "cheesy" ▶ Karthick Iyer - At The theatres - Contemporary Indian Pop/Carnatic/Fusion music - YouTube (live carnatic electric violin can be awesome)
 
carnatic vocal:
1. i think maharajapuram santhanam has the best voice & style 
2. p unnikrishnan has a nice voice
 
3. a lady named charulatha mani is making youtube videos that teach how ragas are different than each other and her voice is great
4. balamurali krishnan's claim-to-fame is being able to sing in 3 (or 4?) consecutive octaves.  he's cool but i like the above better.  my mom says he performs drunk.
 
some of my favorite ragas (and notable ones that will allow a newbie to "feel" the different emotions conveyed by them):
1. mohanam (happy)
2. hamsadhwani (happy)
3. sindhu bhairavi (serious/contemplative)
4. mishra khamaj (patriotic, proud?)
5. shivranjani (sad, mournful)
6. one reason i like shashank so much is that he does songs where he will change to a totally contrasting raga during the improvisational part to really change the mood of the listener & contrast how powerful music can be when used in certain ways...hard to find clips of that, but look for shashank concerts & scroll to the last 10-15 min for the improvisational segments.  he will really "go hard" & "flow" in a certain raga and get everyone on board, then suddenly start flowing hard in a contrasting raga and really mess with your head (in a great way).
 
videos to help understand whats going on (arranged like an accelerated education in this stuff):
("undergrad")    1. ▶ Understanding the Basics of Indian Raga Music - YouTube
("masters")        2.  ▶ Indian Classical Music: Niladri Kumar explains a raag or raga - YouTube
("art elective")   3. ▶ Mridangam Talk by Patri Satish Kumar - YouTube (this is like a "art elective" video - my favorite drum by far...i like the resonance better than the tabla)
("extra credit")  4a. ▶ Learn Ragas with Charulatha Mani - Raga Mohanam - YouTube (she does a great explanation of many ragas if you see her other videos)
                         4b. Raga Surabhi - YouTube (like a raaga "cheat sheet")
("PhD studies")  5. TheCMIVideos - YouTube (advanced explanation & description of raaga evolution, etc...but a bit over my head...but parts are interesting)
 
 
listen to these if you're bored/curious (i tried to list these in order of entertainment value):
1. ▶ INDIAN DRUMS - Jugalbandhi - Hari Narayanan LIVE - YouTube
2. ▶ Raga Malkauns/Hindolam by SANGAM-Indian Classical Music (Hindustani and Carnatic Music) - YouTube
3. ▶ Dhun Vaishnav Jan To - Based on Raga Mishra Khamaj - YouTube
4. ▶ U. Shrinivas & U. Rajesh - Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram - YouTube
5. ▶ Master Shashank, Flute; Madras, India; Raga Hamsanandam - YouTube
6. ▶ Amazing young indian mandolin player U. Shrinivas (or Srinivas) and violin player Kanyakumari - YouTube
7. ▶ Nannupalimba - Mohanam - Maharajapuram Santhanam - YouTube
 
i was raised in USA by south indians and indian music is what i was raised on and learned in my early years until i started listening to my friends' music and what was popular...so i was brainwashed a long time ago...this post will be from my perspective (obviously) and probably won't be agreed with by purists.
 
if a deaf person who only heard western music before asked me to describe indian music, the word i would use is "round & flowery".  i feel like western music jumps from note to note and ignores the infinite frequencies in between the notes.  indian music will "round out those rough edges" by not leaping from note to note, but "gently carrying" you from note to note.  it will jump you 3 steps forward, then come back and tap dance on the notes in-between in a "structurally erratic" way, then continue on moving forward, then "slide" all the way back down and start carrying you forward all over again.  I'm not saying one music is better, because without western music, indian music would be hard to describe.  so they are like 2 pillars that can be used to contrast the other when you zoom out and see them side-by-side.  however, both pillars are needed to hold the ceiling up and it would be stupid to say only one pillar can support everything.
 
i think that westerners will be more willing to accept hindustani music because it is more trance-like and not so "forceful" on newbie ears.  i really like it also, but after the concept of how to "think musically" is established, the mind wants to move further.  so many carnatic purists will find hindustani music to be repetitive and eventually boring.  people that are used to hindustani will think carnatic is like "overacting" and "overemphasizes" the little nuances between each note of the raga. in my mind, its like: hindustani lovers think carnatic is "over-the-top" like watching the old 3 stooges movies.  carnatic lovers think hindustani music is like "dude wheres my car?" (from the title, you know that all they have to do is find their car, but they take too long and its not as entertaining as about 15 minutes of the whole 90 min movie). but its easier for a carnatic listener to understand hindustani, because its like a point that has been established and reestablished and rereestablished, etc (at a certain point, there feels a need to advance to more fun stuff).  to a hindustani listener, carnatic music probably sounds cheesy like a kid playing with a video camera for the first time (they will use the strobe, sepia, backgrounds, basically all of the cameras features in 1 video - while an adult may find all these effects distracting).  haha hopefully that got the point across...
 
carnatic singers usually will try to "stutter" their voice & make things EXTRA (almost TOO) SWEET and flowery...which can sound "cheesy" to many listeners, but i realized that the more carnatic music i have listened to, this "stuttering" has become important and actually starts to sound "delicate & purposeful" instead of "naive, rough, and clumsy".  i have become so brainwashed/addicted that if i don't hear it with my ears, my brain will start dressing up the music for itself...
 
after being exposed to this music until about middle school, i started to listen to stuff on mtv & bet (what my friends got me into).  it was the closest american music i could identify with because of the beats mostly.  then i started to think of the lyrics like witty wordplay & that gave me another level to appreciate (most of indian music is trying to use your skills/wit to make a song awesome while still "coloring between the lines"...there is so much improvisation, but its all kind of regulated unlike western jazz thats like a box full of fireworks shooting in every direction).
 
i wonder if any indian listeners out there can take a jazz song (example: dave brubek take 5) and freestyle it into a raga...does it fit any 1 "mood"?
 
anyways, hopefully someone got something out of this post, but its nice to see a discussion of raga-based music on a site dedicated to sound quality.  it really is an under-rated music style and once you get into the intricacies of indian percussion, another level gets added on top, but still folded in (like a croissant + donut = cronut).  indian drum culture is another underrated topic and i wish it got more attention...theres actually a level of math and calculation involved (not that regular drums aren't), but its a bit more complicated...ill just leave it at that for now...
 
thanks!  by the way, i just bought 1964 V2s for black friday and can't wait to hear my music out of them!