Sakar Khan - At Home

PRODUKTBESCHREIBUNGEN
KURZBESCHREIBUNG
Padma Shri Sakar Khan (1938-2013), from the village of Hamira in Rajasthan s Jaisalmer district, was one of the great folk musicians of India. His instrument - the kamancha (or kamaicha, kamaycha, kemancheh) - traces its roots back to the 8th century. A bowed lute with a goat skin sound box and three main gut strings with 14 sympathetic metal strings, it harks back to the lost bowed Raba'ab of Arabia, and perhaps further, in terms of both geography and time. Accompanying him on this album are his sons Ghewar, Firoze and Dara. In 2012 Khan was awarded the Padma Shri, India's highest civilian award, for his contribution to music. He has played alongside Yehudu Menuhin and George Harrison, and toured Europe and the USA in the 1970s and 80s, yet this is his debut, and only, album. Sakar Khan passed away in August 2013. His sons, highly accomplished musicians who learnt from their father, will now carry his legacy forward.

REZENSION
Top of the World selection in Songlines magazine. This album certainly has an arresting start. Sakar Khan saws his bow across the strings of his kamancha and repeats the effect faster and faster, generating a shimmering ring of sound from the sympathetic strings. It's the sound of a steam train speeding up across the desert: clearly a bit of a showpiece for Sakar Khan, it's the aural equivalent of the trains depicted in the naive paintings in the grand havelis (private mansions) of the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. With this composition, he welcomed the first train to arrive in Jaisalmer in 1967. Sakar Khan, who sadly died last year aged 75, was a master folk musician of the Manganiyar community in Rajasthan, North India. An impressive looking man with a sharp, pointed face and long flowing moustache, he was the most celebrated maestro of the kamancha, a bowed instrument, carved out of mango wood and covered with goat skin. Its rich, cello-like sound has a glorious lyrical quality with a touch of desert grit and the tingling aura provided by the sympathetic strings around it. In Europe he played with Yehudi Menuhin, Ravi Shankar and George Harrison. On this album, recorded at home in Jaisalmer with his sons on vocals, kamancha and dholak drum, he performs instrumental pieces and songs dedicated to kings and gods. Aside from the glorious playing, there's a comfortable intimacy about the music that makes this one of the best field recordings I've heard for a long time - a master musician heard in his home environment. It ends with another version of the train piece but, this time, recorded out in the desert. --Songlines

Number of Discs: 1

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