Musical Direction: Hridnayath MangeshkarLata Mangeshkar should need no introduction - she is one of the Indian sub-continent's most famous voices, the vocal star of a thousand Bollywood movies over the years. On this beautiful album, the music is divorced from the movie industry, these are not songs for gaudy technicolour dance routine's, they are songs of devotion - music as a form of meditation - a way to become closer to the gods - a pathway to a deeper understanding, all written by Meera, a 16th Century Rajput mystic singer and poet.
The sleevenotes state:
"Meera rightly belongs to the world tradition of women mystics, and a variety of legends have grown around her life. Meera was, by all accounts, a Rajput princess who flourished in the 16th Century. Widowed while still in her teens and with nothing to look forward to in the world, she consecrated herself wholly to religion. Immersed in her holy love of Lord Krishna, she soon forsook the splendour of palace life in quest of a personal God. Her restless, unyielding spirit led her to far-flung places. Bare-footed, the erstwhile princess spanned the vast expanse of North India, singing lyrical songs that were full of devotion, surrender and abandonment to Lord Krishna, and she attracted a vast following wherever she went. Legend has it that Meera sang her way to union with the flute-playing cowherd God at Dwarka, the earthly abode of Lord Krishna, in Gujarat State."The music here is beautifully tranquil and Lata's voice is flawless. Enjoy!
Tracklist:
01 Sanvaro Nanknandan
02 Kinun Sang Khelun Holi
03 Mhara Re Girdhar Gopal
04 thane Kanee Kanee Sunava
05 Maee Mhano Supnama Parnare Dinanath
06 Oji Hari Kit Gaye
07 Ramaiya Bin Nind Na Aave
08 Sanvara Mari Preet Nibhajonji
Get it HERE.
10 comments:
dope!
big thanks for this.
Great one.
I also have this on LP - bought at a UK boot. It's nice - a surprisingly common find as it goes - keep searching though, there are some truly gorgeous Lata LPs out there.
Hey Grand Master, thanks for the comments. Yes this is a gorgeous album full of beautiful music, and different from many of Lata's lp's in that it's not songs for the movies.
I'm sure that many of the records I post here are not rare, but that's really not the object of the blog...I'm just interested in INTERESTING sounds. I don't claim to be an expert on music of any particular genre, and my blog probably wouldn't contain much of interest for collectors of particular styles. What I am interested in is musical cross-pollination...I like to think (or hope) that someone who comes here to check out Lata might take a chance on Bad Brains or Bongwater, or someone who comes to grab the Chills album might take a chance on one of the Mahmoud Guenya cd's I posted. In this way someone might be exposed to something they previously never thought to listen to. Maybe you might like to take a step out of your musical comfort zone and dip a toe in some different waters?
Who knows where that could lead...
nice downloading
right now
greetings from chile
This is nice. When I think of Meera, I think about the 1947 Hindi (i.e., Bollywood) film about her, which had also been done in Tamil two years earlier, starring the great Carnatic singer M.S. Subbulakshmi, with appearances by the incredible bharatanatyam dancer Kamala Lakshman, back when she was the child prodigy known as Baby Kamala. (There's a nice post on it here: http://cinemacorridor.blogspot.com/2009/12/m-s-subbulakshmis-hindi-meera-1947.html )
You and your readers probably already know this, but I sometimes feel the need to point out... Real classic Bollywood did not always consist of "gaudy technicolor dance routines" - first of all, of course, most of it was in black-and-white, but also, lots of these films drew on great classical influences in both music and dance. Moreover, many of the films of the '40s and '50s were quite minimalist, with a good number taking inspiration from film noir.
Lata's always a pleasure to listen to, though my favorite singer is the woman who was her original mentor, Noor Jehan.
By the way, I know you link to one of my blogs, the mostly political one, which also has the eclectic kind of approach to music that you talk about here. But a few years ago, I fell so completely in love with '40s and '50s Indian films and music, that another blog I was doing, which had been eclectic, became one specializing almost exclusively in this stuff - which is where I'm linking to with this lengthy comment. :)
I'd read about Meera before going to India, and I meant to look into her music, but I forgot to. Thanks for posting this. I'm enjoying listening to it.
Thanks from Tallahassee!
So many great posts on your blog, I didn't know this album at all and it is a fantastic find for me, the 1st track in particular is stunning, many thanks for all your great uploads
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