Asha Bhosle has just come back after recording eight tracks from RD Burman’s repertoire. It’s for Kronos Quartet, who won a Grammy this year for Best Chamber Music Performance. ‘‘They felt that there is no greater musician than Pancham,’’ beams the 71-year-old legend.

The four-member quartet that has been around for three decades includes David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola) and Jennifer Culp (cello). In San Francisco last month for the recording, Bhosle completed the project in eight days. ‘‘I won’t reveal the names of the tracks and I don’t know how they will be treated,’’ says the singer who implicitly trusts the American musicians.

Great piece of news Pavan bhai!! Definitely looking forward to this one!

N

4 Stars
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,526...-110430,00.html


April 8, 2006 Concert in Carnegi Hall
http://www.carnegiehall.org/textSite/box_o...eddate=04082006

listen here

http://www.nonesuch.com/Hi_Band/kronos/

Anyone have the bangla track on this website?

thanks

Manoneet,
I have it on tape - give me a couple of days. I am assuming you have already heard the four tracks. The point of the album is.......?
Shaibaal.

Shaibaal,

From what I have read, the Kronos guys are big fans of Pancham and want to introduce his work to the western world. I've heard the quartet (they are based here in San Francisco) and they are really awesome musicians- very knowledgable and always experimenting. I'm glad our music will get some intl exposure this way.

Here is an interesting article

http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=12298

-manoneet

Manoneet,
Thanks for the interesting article.
Here is the song.
Click to view attachment

Oh My!! Oh My LORD!! Asha is in such great form on this album!!! She is simply divine on each one of the tracks but the 'Piya Tu Ab To Aaja' is out of this world. The la-la-la-la is mindblowing. We are lucky to be living in these blessed times when Sachin bats (when he does), Amitabh acts and Asha sings.

The concert to promote this CD is playing four venues only (London, Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles and San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.) I've scanned a postcard from the last venue for your enjoyment.




Click on thumbnails for full pics (once at imageshack, you may have to click again if you use Mozilla to really see the full size).

Band's website.
http://www.kronosquartet.org/

Folks in the US looking for this CD should try Tower Records, Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc.

Folks looking for tickets can try the following links:

Thursday September 22 and Friday September 23, 2005 YBCA, San Francisco
http://tickets.ybca.org/tickets/production...manceNumber=578
and theater seating chart for SF one
http://www.ybca.org/tickets/theater_seats.html

Saturday September 24, 2005 Royce Hall, Los Angeles http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0B003ADE...01&minorcatid=4

Friday October 7, 2005 Barbican, London
http://www.barbican.org.uk/contemporary/07oct05.htm

Saturday April 8, 2006 Carnegie Hall
http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/box_of...eddate=04082006

thanks a bunch for the heads up. I signed up for the SF performance

YW, bought mine earlier today too.

I so wish she'd come to Toronto with the Kronos Quartet. I bet those concerts will be amazing.

Anyway, for anyone who hasn't heard the whole album, here's a zip file of the whole disc:

http://s40.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1PFBL2W...X01EQWEUYIOBXDA

I think it's a pretty solid album. i'd love to hear the original, in mp3 format, of Saiyan Re Saiyan. Does anyone have it?

Nathan!!!!!! This is like a bolt from the blue!
Where have U been all these months!???? Busy? Great to see U here.
Welcome back! And what a comeback!!! Thanks for the files.
Now do stay on here and do not disappear.

I do have saiyyan re saiyyan. Lemme hunt for the disc and will ul it.

Priya

Dont u dare u/l it !!!!!!!!!!!!! Naya album hai re maar khaayegi tu!

Nathan is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHERE THE HELL HAD HE BEEN ALL THESE MONTHS

N

GRRRRR!!!!!!!!!



He said he wants the original na.

Naya album main kahan se laoongi? And as though I ul new albums. First Sani, now U. GRRRR

tab to tik hai hehehehehe

Sorry for making u pull ur hair woh bhi subeh subeh

N

Here it is.

Saiyaan re saiyyan. Original.

He he Nimz at this rate soon I will have no hair!

Ya u lose your hair and I will have a permanent bump on my forehead

N

Thanks for the welcome back. I'm really sorry I vanished. I've been SO busy with school and life. also, my computer at home doesn't work so well anymore, so I have to do all of this stuff at school.

Anyway, glad to see you and Nimii seem to be alive and well, and still Asha-obsessed!

LOL

You're still as funny as always!

I haven't a clue how to download that. When I click on it I get an error. And then when I tell it to save into the briefcase, it says I have to pay...

Wow. Things have sure gotten complicated in my absence!

(Also, remind me what to do with a rar file???)

NATHAN!! WE DONT CHANGE WHATEVER HAPPENS AROUND US!! YOU CAN BE ASSURED OF THAT!! NOTHING CAN CHANGE US!!

RAR FILE - IS A COMPRESSED FILE LIKE ZIP FILE. YOU NEED TO HAVE WINRAR UTILITY ON YOUR SYSTEM TO UNCOMPRESS THAT FILE.

n

Sani is absolutely at no fault for that misunderstanding...since Sani didn't know the 1987-boundary rule then

Nimii...ahh..U can blame her as much as U want - U have my complete support.

Sani are you telling me that!!

Ya I know you!! Now how do I trust you on that score? Considering your ulterior motives of converting us!!

N *rolls her eyes*

Heyyy.I just noticed...Nimii has a different cat now! I mean..her cat I think now has a frown! Cooool..!

Ohhh...convert U shall one day for sure - U can't ward off Lata forever...only a matter of time...and with the number of Asha goodies that I have instored for U all...even if U don't want to...transformation will take place (just like with goodies, u can make children do anyyythinggg)

I think this Lata-Asha thing is getting all old (purani ghisi-piti kahani)...time will only tell...maybe I should tease U two about something else for a change.

Oh ya I forgot that!!!!
U have to be a trusted member to be able to download. U can send Pradeep a PM requesting him to upgrade Ur membership.
Briefcase is a utility to help us store our files (they are now cleaned up every month) and hopefully to help support the site. Just a little way we can contribute to the smooth running of HF.
Rar is like zip. Better than it tho. U can dl it free from the web. Most of the files zipped on HF are with this software.
And yeah we are alive and kicking as U see, what have U been upto? Finished school?

NO NEVER NOT WHEN I AM ALIVE NOT WHEN I AM DEAD!!

N

Fineeeee..agli janam main...for sure.

Agle janam kis ko chahiye re!

Ek hi janam kaafi hai mere liye.. jo chahiye woh milgaya hame..

Aur kisi ki aasha nahi hai!

N

Oh wow, new board look. LOL, I haven't been here in days. Anways, wanted to share that I went to the concert tonight and it was fabulous (as expected). She was so cute. And said that in her entire singing career, this was the first time she was ever nervous on stage, and I think it showed (I've seen her 3 times previously). But she received a warm welcome and in the end a standing ovation, which prompted her to sing one more song for us (Piya Tu Ab Tau Aaja). Let's see, what else, she mentioned her birthday and her age - spoke in English. Talked about how there are usually 60 to 100 musicians at the Bollywood film song recordings but there were only 4 or 5 people creating the music tonight and that they made her forget the 60 musicians. (There were actually 6 - the Kronos Quartet (4), plus Wu Man, plus tabla player. Kronos was just fabulous!!! Before she sang Mera Kuchh Samaan Pada Hai - she said it was the song of her life and talked about what a sad song it is. But she also mentioned that was how RD was, ek sad song ke bad dance song/item number/cabaret number. Dum Maaro Dum was a huge hit. Mentioned that Kronos had chosen all the "difficult" songs, for her to sing - said it was the first time ever singing Koi Aaya Aane Bhi De on stage.
The printed program had extensive background notes on SD Burman, RD Burman, Ashaji and others. I remember when I was listening to the CD for the first time, I was hoping she would include the missing "akele mere armaan tadap tadap ke kyon rote" verse for Chura Liya - but it wasn't on the CD. However, tonight, she sang that verse. Hope to hear from others here that attended tonight or will attend tomorrow night. Want to know how you all liked it.





Here's an article that ran in my local paper last Friday:

Kronos captures R.D. Burman's vibrant Bollywood

By Andrew Gilbert

TIMES CORRESPONDENT

"I just trust my ears," said David Harrington, violinist and artistic director of Kronos Quartet, explaining how the celebrated new-music ensemble came to explore the infinitely rich world of R.D. Burman's Bollywood film music.

Though he had never seen any of the Indian movies for which Burman wrote his dazzlingly disparate songs -- and he couldn't understand the lyrics -- Harrington nonetheless selected a program made up entirely of love songs for "You've Stolen My Heart," the new Kronos album on Nonesuch featuring Asha Bhosle, the legendary Bollywood "playback singer."

"It's amazing how ignorant a person can be, but there's something about our ears that ends up telling us some truths," Harrington said.

The ears of lucky Bay Area music lovers will hear some delectable truths when Bhosle joins Kronos, Sept. 22 and 23 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater for the world premiere of "India Calling: Songs From R.D. Burman's Bollywood."

The first part of the program features the San Francisco premiere of Terry Riley's "The Cusp of Magic," a six-part cycle the composer wrote especially for Kronos.

While the San Francisco-based string quartet has a brilliant track record of collaborating with musicians and composers from around the world, Harrington made it clear that "India Calling" isn't just another fascinating cross-cultural project.

"Several years ago it occurred to me that we might be lucky enough to introduce our audience to Stravinsky and Elvis at the same time," Harrington said from Kronos' Sunset District rehearsal space. By "Elvis," Harrington means Bhosle, a singer whose high lilting voice has made her an international icon.

The most recorded vocalist in history, with some 13,000 documented songs to her credit featured in about 1,000 films, the 73-year-old Bhosle made her Bollywood debut in 1948. Though she worked incessantly, recording songs for actresses to lip-sync onscreen, she didn't start gaining renown until the late 1950s, about the time she started collaborated with Burman. By the 1970s, Bhosle was more famous than many of the actresses who borrowed her voice, winning eight Filmfare Awards (India's equivalent to the Oscar).

She also became the wife of R.D. Burman, who in Harrington's estimation stands alongside other giants of 20th century music. The ingenious songwriter and film composer produced a vast body of work, with some 330 film scores to his credit. In many cases, it was Bhosle who ended up introducing his songs, such as "Dum Maro Dum" ("Take Another Toke"), a giddy international hit from Dev Anand's 1971 film about the hippie counterculture drawn to Nepal and India, "Hare Rama, Hare Krishna."

"As an orchestrater, to me he belongs in the same sentence as Stravinsky, Duke Ellington or Debussy, in terms of sheer creativity and the joy of writing music and working with sound," Harrington said. "As a writer of melody, he belongs in the same sentence as Schubert, Gershwin or the Beatles."

By the time Burman died in 1994 at the age of 65, his reputation had spread far beyond Bollywood, as many music lovers encountered his work on albums, apart from the films that initially inspired the music. In many ways, Burman's omnivorous sonic sensibility is a perfect match for Kronos. His cosmopolitan scores incorporated influences from jazz, mariachi, flamenco, circus music, can-can, surf and psychedelic rock, as well as Indian classical music and various folk styles.

"I definitely feel like there's some relationship between Kronos and Burman," Harrington said. "I think Asha feels that, too, a connection that none of us can define. I think we would have been friends, and I know for sure he would have written for Kronos."

In a departure from the quartet's usual recording process, "You've Stolen My Heart" was a meticulous, time-consuming studio undertaking in which each piece was built layer by layer. Much like Burman, who always sought to incorporate unusual sounds into his music, Kronos pushed far beyond their usual musical practices, using vintage electric keyboards and encouraging percussion master Zakir Hussain to explore new textures. (In an interesting side note, the album documents the first encounter between Bhosle and Hussain, who started his career writing and playing on Bollywood scores.)

"On every track, Zakir created a palette of percussion that's stunning," Harrington said. "After we got that layer recorded, we began adding all the keyboards and bass lines, and as we were finishing up a lot of the layering, Asha began laying her tracks down. The mix took months."

Translating the intricately produced album from a studio confection into a stage performance is a difficult undertaking that Kronos was still working out at the time of this interview. As on the album, the quartet will joined by Wu Man, the Chinese-born master of the pipa, the Chinese fretted lute, and tabla player Debopriyo Sarkar.

With the Yerba Buena premiere followed by performances at UCLA, London's Barbican and next spring at Carnegie Hall as part of a six-concert series "Kronos: Live Mix Festival," Harrington's dream of presenting Elvis and Stravinsky and more to the Kronos audience is reaching fruition.

"I definitely wanted to be sure that our listeners had a chance to hear this music in the way that I heard it first, that is without the film, just as a song," Harrington said. "To me, R.D. Burman is such an amazing creative person. There's a joyfulness that brings to mind Mozart."

Another article from the SF Gate from this past Wed.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g.../09/21/apop.DTL

I am so jealous and so upset that I could not see the show myself. My wife did
get to go and the quick 1-liner I got from her was that the show was fun. I
should know more when I talk to her later.

Did Asha do a lot of extemporizing the way that a lot of jazz players do?
Or was it very much by the book like the way it is with most Hindi film music
recordings.

I am so sorry that you didn't get to go. I almost didn't make it there myself tonight. There's one more show tomorrow night and I think tix are still available. Well as far as one can extemporize within the confines of the music - both she and Kronos did a bit, but there was no extensive improvisation. If you've heard the Kronos CD, then it was very similar to that.

Nahi jaa paooNga mai. Am sitting in India on work. Won't even be back in the US in time
for the Los Angeles show

BTW, did Asha's voice co-operate? As of late, for obvious reasons (she is 72 for crying
out loud), her voice has lost a lot of suppleness. I cannot imagine what she would have
done with such opportunities in the late 70s and early 80s when her voice had tremendous
substance and did whatever she wanted it to.

Ur wife watched the show?????

Love ke liye kuch bhi karega haan?

I guess so. I wish I could say "meri biwi ne dekh li to samjho maine bhi dekh li",
but naaaah, it doesn't work that way.
Just spoke to her. She enjoyed the concert and the Kronos Quartet was great.
The audience was apparently 50/50 in terms of Indians v/s Non-Indians. There
was a Chinese pipa (sp???) player who was amazing. Asha did do some great
taans and gamakas, but over-all, age did show. However, when one remembers
her age, one is willing to give her the benefit.
Over-all, as fusion concerts went, it was very good.

I'm glad she enjoyed it. The Pipa player was Wu Man - she played it on the CD as well in the place of a sitar. If anyone is interested in scans of the program let me know. Hope to hear from others that will attend tonight.

Thx for the heads-up JKD. Im going tonite and taking my in-laws along for brownie points

Scribe Manoneet will report after the concert.

So i went to the concert last night in San Francisco and it was a lot of fun. The bottomline is that Asha is a great showman and stage performer even if her voice no longer has the same magic it did 20 years ago.

We had front row seats so we were literally sitting right next to the stage and I could see everything up close. She came out on stage in the second half of the performance (in the first half, kronos performed a few western classical pieces that had nothing to do with Burman or Asha). For the ladies-- she wore a pink sparkling sari and her trademark wrist "thing", whatever that is. My wife tells me her earrings were made of 7 solitaires each and must cost a fortune but of course i have no way to tell. What i found most striking was her shoes-- i think she wore white sports shoes (i could be wrong).

Anyway, she came on the stage and began by telling people that she does not speak english well, but she would try to communuicate with them anyway. Throughout the rest of the concert, she kept everyone in splits by talking, in broken english, to the kronos musicians. At one point she said that the kronos guys were "very serious" and never looked up from their notation sheets but in the last 2 days (the concert ran 2 days) she had made them laugh and she was happy about that. The musicians also seemed delighted to play with her. She said "why should they look at me, I am an old woman". She also said that when her son told her kronos wanted to record with her she had asked him how many musicians there were. He said you dont understand english and quartet means 4. She said she was surprised how 4 people would manage what 60-100 people did in India but she liked the result. "Kronos is, what do you say, not bad" she said and had the audience in splits.

She seemed quite concious of singing in a foriegn crowd and said she was happy to see so many Americans in the crowd as normally wherever she goes she sees mostly "Asian people". At one point she told the crowd that she recorded her first song when she was ten years old, in 1943. What does that make me, she asked the crowd, adding, should I give you calculator? (more laughter). Someone shouted "39" from the audience and she said "no, 72" to which someone said "72, going on 17".

She said "someone asked me what i will do if the American peoples doesn't like your album. I said I will cry. Then i will go back to India" (laughter). "but i also know that American people are open-minded and large hearted. They will... what do you say... (pause) accommodate you". And indeed they enjoyed themselves thoroughly througout her singing.

She also made several other jokes throughout the performance. She introduced every song before singing it (she only sang songs from the kronos album). She kept saying that these people have selected my most difficult songs. Before the "deshlai kathe jalao" track she said in this song the woman "is asking the man why he does not come on time. You say morning and come evening. Next time I will not forgive you" but she said "this is story of all woman. they say they will not forgive but they forgive" (more laughter).

overall,l i think dum maro dam was her most appreciated piece. In the introduction, she asked David (the lead Kronos musician) to tell people what the song was about and he said it was about the summer of love. He said i was surprised to learn that there was a summer of love in places other than san francisco. To which Asha retorted that "San francisco is wind and cold, nothing else" (more laughter). I think she had a slight cold and asked the tabla player at one point in hindi "nandu, rumaal hai kya". He did not and she proceeded to wipe her nose against the pallu of her sari!

As far as the actual performance went, she sang as well as her voice now allows. It would not be unfair to say that her voice sounded exactly like it does on the recorded kronos album, implying that they did very little post-processing on the album. The performance was far from flawless, though, as she lost synch with the musicians 3-4 times (i think in India musicians follow the lead singer but the kronos guys kept looking at their notation sheets and Asha had to correct herself as soon as she realized she was not following their lead). The voice showed strain at many points, particularly the higher notes. For people like me who have heard the originals of the songs and marvelled at the unqueness of the throat that rendered them, it was a little poignant. But first time listeners seemed to enjoy every bit of it and dont think they noticed anything "off".

Asha seems to be singing a lot more open throated now. The lower registers in her voice are still very supple and i WISH WISH WISH people made songs esp. for her that are easy for her to sing and explot the unique sweetness of her voice at this age. I cant imagine there aren;t musicians who would compose music especially and tailor-made for the legendary M- sisters. Composers, where are you?

The only time Asha got serious throughout the whole performance was when she sang "mera kuch samaan". She tried to tell people what the song meant herself. "Boy and girl broke up and now she says give me back my things. She says give me back clothes but she mean feeings, moments. This is the story of my life". At the end of the song she was nearly in tears (i could see this on her face being so close to the stage, dont think anyone in the audience noticed). She said this is the life of an artist, one moment laughing, other moment crying.

In all, it was a great show. Asha got a standing ovation at the end and people kept clapping for a good 2-3 minutes after she had left the stage. She came back on stage and the applause still continued resoundingly.
She said " i love you", "i love you" and kept bowing. She clutched Wu Ma's hands (Wu Ma is the exceptional Chinese pipa player) through the applause. I was moved by the love and admiration that people showered on her, and couldnt help thnking no one deserves it more.

Thank you for such a beautiful and heart-felt description of the show.
While on the one hand I can picture it, I am feeling even worse that
I could not be there.
She truly is a great performer. Her sense of humor and ability to
speak extempore are extra-ordinary, and now even more laudable
considering she did it in English, which is a language she is very
uncomfortable.
Thanx Manoneet. Glad you had such a good time.

Thanks for your review. Very thorough. Seems like a similar experience. Came across two more articles today - one is a review of last Thursday's concert in the Daily Californian - there is charcoal sketch of her on the cover as well. http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=19694

Also there's a review in Variety for the LA concert.
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117928333...oryid=1266&cs=1

http://www.rasputinmusic.com/manifesto_web.../0305/asha.html

I came across this review today while shopping online. Rasputins is one of the biggest independent record store chains in the Bay Area, CA. They have a magazine and this is the online version of it. They reviewed the concert the day I went.

thanks BTB for your review.

asha has always been our national treasure

and now she has gone international.

i think much of the credit goes to NRIs.

all of you have carried our tradition, music, lifestyle with you.

such shows wouldn't be possible without the indians (actually asians, as asha says).

Click to view attachment