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News and Events
2010 06 29
Fosse electric sitar now production ready
The Fosse Electric Sitar, featured on sitar.co.za a few months ago, is now in production and for sale. This is the most exciting development in sitar design in many years, and the new production model looks great.
It’s the best sounding electric sitar we’ve heard, and the light carbon fibre body makes it a great travel sitar. Expect a full review on sitar.co.za as soon as we get chance to play with one.
For details on current price and ordering, contact Greg Fosse at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/FOSSE-ELECTRIC-SITAR/176188250689?v=wall
2010 03 07
Sitar factory in north Calcutta
A superb video documenting all the steps of production in a factory north of Calcutta, from January 2010 (click the link to view):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZYZBilWnXw
The soundtrack is Vilayat Khan’s Hameer.
2010 01 05
Sahana Banerjee is one of the best living sitarists, who never fails to deliver original and highly inspired performances.
Here’s an excellent performance of Shyam Kalyan from 2008, Paris, with tabla player Prabhu Edouard.
Her most recent video that I’ve been able to find is this outstanding alap in Ahir Bhariav at a peformance in Mumbai, Novemeber 2009.
From http://www.artindia.net/sahanabanerjee.html:
SAHANA BANERJEE is one of the promising and outstanding female sitar players of India, belonging to the Rampur Senia Gharana. Under the tutelage of her father and years of hard training she won the Pandit Nikhil Banerjee Challenge Trophy at the Dover Lane Music Conference in the year 1990 in Calcutta and was conferred the “Best Instrumentalist” award.
Apart from being a graded artist of the All India radio and Television since 1995, Sahana has also given many prestigious stage performances in India (Sangeet Research Academy, Calcutta, Gandharva Mahavidyalaya/Delhi, Bharatiya Sanskriti Parishad, Calcutta, etc) and also in Europe (Germany, Switzerland, France, etc).
Sahana Banerjee doesn’t appear to have any commercial recordings available or a website. If you have any more information about this artist or her music, please send us an email or leave a comment.
2009 12 25
Musician and software developer Prasad Upasani has just released the iTablaPro software for the iPhone and IPod Touch:
http://upasani.org/home/iTablaPro.html
Although I have not had a chance to review this software yet, it’s getting glowing reports from users and has a rich feature set. Given that it only costs $19.99 and will run on a $200 iPod Touch, my prediction is that it’s poised to revolutionise the entire tabla machine industry. Musicians have been asking for a device like this for years.
Not to be outdone, Prasad has also developed the excellent iLehra and iTanpura iPhone / iPod Touch apps:
http://upasani.org/home/iLehra.html
http://upasani.org/home/iTanpura.html
Thank you Prasad!
Have any readers used iTablaPro? I’d love to hear about your experiences using it in the comments.
Here’s a video demo of iTablaPro in action:
2009 12 13
Shahid Parvez, WKCR Radio Broadcast
WKCR’s radio broadcast of Shahid Parvez’s October 11th, 2009 performance in New York City.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/cbjxvq
The pieces performed are:
- Raag Bageshree
- Raag Abhogi
- Raag Pilu
- Dhun
Thanks to Daz for making this mp3 file available!
2009 12 08
British sitarist Clem Alford has relased some new music on his mySpace page.
http://www.myspace.com/clemalford
Have a listen to the brief but lovely Darbari in the music player. It’s wonderful!
A recently uploaded video by archivist Trippy Monkey shows this rare footage of Clem Alford on British TV in the 60’s
2009 12 04
A new electric sitar is under development by Greg Fosse.
It’s the best sounding electic sitar I’ve heard, and seems very promising. Congratulations to Greg Fosse on a considerable engineering achievement! There is no word yet on production dates or cost, but units have apparently been built and shipped.
Have any readers played this instrument yet? We’d love to hear your experiences. Expect a full review on sitar.co.za as soon as we’re able to test drive this creature.
For more information, visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/FOSSE-ELECTRIC-SITAR/176188250689?v=wall
Or, email Greg Fosse at:
2009 06 17
Sitar featured in Firefly video
South African band Firefly has released a new video of their song “Falling Rain” which features prominent use of the sitar.
For more information, visit http://www.zaria.co.za
2009 02 15
Ever wonder what goes into the production of a sitar? Take a look!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0XCH0Y2AHs (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE_VaHU9Rsg (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1QcE7RRjXQ (Part 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-NNuJ6eGwg (Part 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqcewFjYi2Y (Part 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcNMsmDwzCM (Part 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKxsmrvWxBo (Part 7)
This is the from the shop of RA Sitarmaker. Thanks to Lars for uploading these.
2008 09 05
A promising new Calcutta based sitarist, Deepsankar Bhattacharjee:
And we absolutely love the crazy editing and real smoke of this finale! Make sure you watch through till the end:
This is from Deepsankar Bhattacharjee’s website:
I am a young sitarist from Indore gharana where from my father descended the true and direct touch bearer of Jaffer khani Bazz (Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan).
I feel proud when I say that I am son of Pandit Harashankar Bhattacharjee. He is god for me. He told me that “If you love sitar, sitar will loves you. With out sitar you are incomplete”. He is the first person who makes me feel that I am really incomplete without my sitar. He always says keep on thinking, always absorbed with music. I have only dream to fulfill dreams of my parents.
For more information, please visit http://www.deepsankarbhattacharjee.com/.
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Events
- 2008 07 16 :: Rex van der Spuy (sitar) and Anita Katakkar (tabla): An evening of contemporay Indian classical music featuring Rex van der Spuy on sitar and Anita Katakkar on tabla. More...
- 2008 04 25.26 :: Terra do Sangeet, Land of Rhythm: The Toronto Tabla Ensemble will be collaborating with Aline Morales and Maracatu Nunca Antes as well as the infinitely talented Ian de Souza (bass). More...
- 2008 03 29 :: Anwar Khurshid and Ustad Tari Khan: The Sitar School of Toronto is presenting a Sitar concert by Toronto's own sitarist, Anwar Khurshid. The audience will also be privileged by the accompaniment of world class Tabla player Ustad Tari Khan. More...
View all Events. Please send an email to events@sitar.co.za to have your event listed.
Music
- Ravi Shankar Interview: Audio documentary with Ravi Shankar speaking to the BBC's Anita Bhalla.
- A Chairy Tale: A rarely seen Norman McLaren animated film featuring a full soundtrack by Ravi Shankar and Sri Chatur Lal (tabla.)
- Trippy Monkey’s Video Archive: The best archive of sitar and Indian classical music related videos on the internet. Full concerts, documentaries, and rare television broadcasts. Trippy also maintains an Esnips archive of rare recordings.
View the complete Music Archive...
Articles
- Sitar Making In India: Scott Hackleman's detailed and highly readable account of the year he spent in Delhi learning the art of sitar making in Katar Chand's shop.
- Annapurna Devi: Mohan D. Nadkarni accounts his meetings with this enigmatic artist and comments on her legacy.
- Quality Sitar Construction: An informative article on sitar construction methodologies and what you should look for in a good quality instrument.
Learning Resources
- Tabla Lessons: A half hour of basic tabla lesson demonstrations, recorded in Bangalore, June 2003
- Electronic Tanpura Samples: Tampura samples in all keys (C# for sitar)
- Electronic Tabla Samples: A collection of electronic tabla samples, of about 10 minutes each, in a variety of tempos and taals.
View all Learning Resources...
Useful Links
- David and Chandra’s Sitar Forum: The epicenter of the sitar universe and the best place to find accurate, insightful and up-to-date information on all things sitar. This is the place to ask questions about sitar music, learning the sitar, or where to find a teacher. Become a member, spend some time reading the threads, and ask a question! We're there to help.
- Ali Akbar College of Music: A great place for strings, sitars, music, books and the all-important fibreglass cases.
- Tabla.co.za: Information on learning the tabla and an excellent resource for South African Indian musicians. Local events listings and information on local musicians.
- The Buckingham Music Sitar Tutorial: Excellent basic information about learning, maintaining and playing the sitar.
- Sitarplayer.net: Canadian site on learning to play the sitar. Well written with great resources, advice and practical information. This is the place to visit for the "Sargam" font.
- Patrick Moutal’s Indian Music Page: A wonderfully sprawling French site packed with rare recordings, photos, videos and all sorts of fascinating information.
- South Asian Women’s Forum Music Page: A huge collection of detailed articles (with thousands of audio clips) on aspects of Indian classical music. A very good place to visit if you are seeking info on a raga that you are just warming up to.
- The Wikipedia Sitar Entry: Although it ranks high in Google's search ratings... be careful! A lot of the information here is great, but an equal amount is not completely comprehensive, open to debate and often confusing. There's a been a lot of work done on this entry over the last year but it's very far from being an adequate, complete or accurate source of information. Come on, sitar community, we need to make this entry better! Click "edit" and contribute something!
- Radel Tabla and Tanpura Machines: The essential accessory for any sitar player is a tabla machine. Radel's models are superbly built and their customer service is exceptional. They ship worldwide.
- Swar Systems Indian Music Software: Sitar.co.za hasn't demo'd this software yet, but it gets regular complimentary reviews. If you've had a good (or bad) experience using it, let us know! Available for Windows and Macintosh.
- Audacity: Open-source audio recording software for Windows and Macintosh.
- Riyaz Studio: Tabla/Tanpura accompaniment software ideal for sitar practise. Inexpensive and easy to use. If you can't afford or obtain a tabla machine easily, this is an excellent choice.
- Amelia Maciszewski’s sitar videos: Superb instructional videos on basic sitar practise and theory by Amelia Maciszewski. Great if you're just getting into the intstrument and don't have a teacher.
- Deepak Raja’s world of Hindustani Music: A treasure trove of articles on Indian classical music, including rare interviews with many instumentalists.
- The Toronto Gharana: The Toronto Gharana: A website devoted to Indian classical music in Toronto.
- That Which Colors the Mind: 12 minute sample of Steven Baigel's wonderful documentary on sitarist Nikhil Banerjee. (from Stevenbaigel.com)
- Andy’s Music Indian Instruments Page: Rare, vintage and historic instruments. If you're looking for the best, and have the cash to spend, this is a great place to start.
- Trippy Monkey’s Video Archive: The best archive of rare sitar and Indian classical music related videos on the internet. Trippy also maintains an Esnips archive of rare recordings.
- The Sitar Factory: Lots on information on sitar maintenance and repair, as well as interesting info on electric and experimental sitars.
Do you have any favourite sitar or Indian classical music links? Email them to us!