Jaane kahan gaye voh din!

Re: # 96, ZahraJ dear,

Don`t get too harsh on the oldies. Please! I request you not to.

Samar

Re:zahraj#95

[..Do yourself a favor and get the hell out of your own bubble of ``taste``. ...]

Well, we all know that the only ``culture`` in Pakistan is agriculture. Its either jumping around doing ``balle balle`` or some religious crap. No wonder, your tastes are so in line with that. We Indians are cultured people and can appreciate sophisticated poetry and good music - something that you will only find boring and slow.

ranjit#98:

Please do not turn this into a India-Pakistan thing. Remember, one of your favourite songs is by Faiz, a Pakistani poet. People do have different tastes. And, going by your logic, most Indians also no longer have taste as Reshamiyya and his ilk are the most popular singers today.

Zahra
I took your advice and went and asked my son about Shakira. He gleefully led me to the youtube clip with her and Wycliffe Jean. Impressive physique. Not a bad song either. Now I want to see Mallika Sherawat do that. -)
I heard another song of hers and if her voice has not been altered digitally it`s rather good.

For some reason that video got me thinking of Madonna`s La isla Bonita and this song by Lita Ford both of which I like.

#99 dost ji

``Please do not turn this into a India-Pakistan thing. Remember, one of your favourite songs is by Faiz, a Pakistani poet``

did Faiz ever say that he was a Pakistani poet??

Re: # 100
The said song is very popular in many health-clubs for cardio and aerobic exercises. It can make an average person lose twice the required calories. Madonna is doing very well. I guess she and Angelina Jolie are ready to adopt all the colored children of the world. I do like the song you have mentioned.

I always wonder if vocal music is recoreded any where on any site by Alla Diya Khan and B.Bakhale. If some body knows let me know , Here ot at ahmedmadani2048@yahoo.com.
( also wonder if of their work is recordrded ?), Thanks

I always wonder if vocal music is recoreded any where on any site by Alla Diya Khan and B.Bakhale. If some body knows let me know , Here ot at ahmedmadani2048@yahoo.com.
( also wonder if of their work is recordrded ?), Thanks

Re: # 98 Ranjitji.... It is always better many things unsaid , better left as a open secret. L. Ali Khan once said ``what is Sindhi culture, driving donkeys?`` The words came haunting him all life. It is better to say nothing many times in such matter.

Re:ahmedmadani#105

Madaniji, sorry for that interact, but if you look at a few interacts back, Zahra was saying that she never liked the voice of Madam Nur Jehan. In fact she said she could not stand a single song by her. Think of that!! Pakistan has hardly produced a handful of artistes such as Nur Jehan, Malika Pukhraj, Roshanara Begum, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan etc. I had to jump in and as an Indian, defend Madam Nur Jehan`s rich legacy such as ``Mujh se Pehli si Mohabbat, Mere Mehboob na Maang``. Please tell me if I am wrong in calling her uncultured after that.

As far as Ustad Alladiya Khan is concerned, he was the doyen of Jaipur gharana and I believe he got the title of gaan samraat. If I am not mistaken, Kesarbai Kerkar and Mogubai Kurdikar trained under him. Unfortunately I dont believe Ustadji made any recordings that survive to this date.

Re: # 104
Even if there were recordings of Ustad Alladiya Khan and Pandit Bhaskarbuva Bhakale I am not very sure I would want to listen to them. One died in 1936 and the other in 1923. Recording techniques of that era could never do justice to their talents.
Even today most microphones and amplifiers thereby cannot pick up the variations of some musical instruments. Palghat Mani Iyer used to refuse to play in front of a microphone precisely because of that.
I`ve often listened to a mridangam whisper notes that somehow were never reproduced in a recording.

Ranjit
Why should a dislike of Nur Jahan etc be associated with a lack of culture? It`s personal. If somebody can appreciate Longfellow that`s a cultured outlook too.

#98 by ranjit,

It is not a matter of India/Pakistan. Neither is it a matter of taste. It is the difference between connoisseurs and philistines. Only a few people won`t settle for anything less than a gourmet meal, while most will stand in queue quite happily for a McDonalds.

Re: # 107

Swarrier - Most of the Latin groups have great music and songs but I do not care much for their recent music videos. The videos I really liked were from 80s and 90s. I am not sure if you have every listened to Dixie Chicks and the video of their latest album, that is a classic. I love it. I love it as much as I detest Nur Jehan and many of her ilks. I find some of the Indians extremely naive when they expect the other side of the border to like each and every singer or poetical verse on this side. Sorry not all of us have the nationalists` bent of mind. Many of us nurture a global perspective than the disgusting traditional nationalistic approach. In any case, the jahilae` mutliq -- ``ignorant`` does not need to be clarified on anything. He seems to come from a background where people have no regard and understanding of a different point of view. What`s new? That`s the typical mindset of a jehadi -- from other side of the border though :) Chowk has enough of that cursed mindset from the Pakistani side. I am glad the other side is also showing its True Colors (great song by C.Lauper).

Re: # 109
I like the Dixie chicks, actually I liked them prior to 1993 when they were more bluegrass oriented and before Natalie Maines joined them and they went mainstream. I don`t know if the video you are talking about is about the song ``Not ready to play nice``. I like a more raw sound than they do now, and I have Shut up and Sing on my Netflix queue.

As for the Latin scene most of my experience is with folk bands like the mariachis of Mexico, not mainstream pop. And of course Brazilian stuff by Caetano Veloso, Gil, Djavan is etc is great. I particularly like the Tango , Milonga (Astor Piazzolla) from Argentina. More classically Hector Villa-Lobos.

Actually I used to be amazed at how Indian music directors seamlessly mixed music from South America, Spain, Portugal(Fado) with Indian folk tunes and produced lovely music. Salil Chowdhury for example picked up an old Polish folk dance to produce ``Julmi sang aankh ladi``, in Madhumati.
I think the advantage then was that pop music had not yet been ruled by the record companies that sell music to kids with disposable incomes, and more real music was available to experiment with. Real folk music is the life breath of all musical forms even of the classical variety.

I don`t think music directors today are less creative. However there is less variety and more uniformity because of pressures from record companies and less experimenting and therefore less inspiration. Or perhaps they are just too lazy to go out and search for the real folk music. But personally I think things are looking up, I am hearing good music in India today. Recently somebody had posted a pretty neat song from Pakistan on UP(unplugged).

Anyway winter is gone now and hopefully Harvard square will throw up some nice artistes again to while an afternoon away.

swarrier:

Are you aware of any uses of yiddish folk music by Indian music directors? BTW I was amazed at the similarity between Ghar Aaya and the Arabian song you had posted earlier.

Re: # 111
DM , no offhand I cannot think of any direct Yiddish folk influences. There are some from the Lebanese composers (Rahbani brothers) and these are more North African but close enough to resemble Havaa Nagila.
The interesting thing is that Yiddish folk tunes may have also had some Roma influences and if you listen to Roma music it is very close to Indian folk. That isn`t very surprising of course.

# 110

I was wrong in this post. The Polish folk dance inspired tune is ``Dil tadap tadap ke keh raha hai`` not ``Julmi sang aankh ladi``. My mistake.

``Julmi sang aankh ladi`` is all Salil-da. What an incredible composer!!!