Search - Asad Ali Khan :: Raga Jaijaivanti

Fantastic - Complete Asad Ali Khan!

02/10/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you're interested in no-nonsense, anti-new age, real and not watered-down north Indian classical music, you cannot afford to miss Asad Ali Khan, one of only three artists to record on the old rudra-veena instrument in modern times, and the only representative today of his particular playing style which once was heard resounding throughout north Indian courts. This is one of his best readily available recordings, simply because it is full CD-length and features a lenghtly dhamar passage with hard-hitting phakawaj accompaniment - and it is said that while the Dagar family specialise in alap (the other two recording rudra-veena players are Dagars), Asad Ali Khan specialises in the accompanied part and interplay with the drummer. Being a dhrupad player, Asad Ali Khan is also known as a master of Indian intonation, that is playing other scales than the western tempered scale; this is not very prominent in Jaijaivanti so even Western newcomers can appreciate his unequalled twang without being scared away by what they perceive as "out of tune" notes. The only drawback is the drum sound - the Nimbus label like to play around with sound effects and they have made the phakawaj truly boom with so much reverb that it sounds like it was recorded through an irrigation pipe. So much echo, so much reverb, it is hard to take it seriously. With a clean sound, it would have got 5 stars."