Another archive CD - Surshree Kesarbai Kerkar

While searching for a particular CD from my collection, I spotted another rare gem of a CD. An archive of Surshree Kesarbai Kerkar. She was one of the best female singers of her time and a disciple of Khansaheb Alladiya Khan, the founder of Jairpur-Atrauli school of music. She had a rich and powerful voice but yet sounds mellifluous. I like her uncanny ability to portray the entire beauty of a Raga within a minute of beginning the same and her wonderful taans - the result of rigorous practice for years on end.

The list of accompanists is unknown. This CD contained some ragas which are treasures of the Jaipur Gharana.
Khambavati
Kafi Kanada (Jod or Anvat Ragas were a speciality of this school of music and this raga is an amalgam of Kafi and Nayaki Kanada both pleasing ragas by themselves ) and
Gauri. (more on Kesarbai's Lalita Gauri some other time)

The CD also includes a few light classical thumris in Des , Kafi and Bhairavi.

The recording contains a lot of disturbance and the volume of the music is low. All these minor faults / aberrations can be ignored when one listens to the magic woven by Kesarbai :-)

Comments

Unknown said…
Are the recordings available for download? I would love to have them.
November 4, 2008 at 3:10 AM
Anonymous said…
Keep up the good work.
November 10, 2008 at 10:48 AM
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