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Raga Todi and all that Jazz by Shankar Jaikishan

In 1968,  musical duo Shankar-Jaikishan released an album called Raga Jazz Style. As the name suggests, keeping up with the era of Flower Power, this album was a beautiful experiment in fusing Indian melodies - ragas with Jazz.

One of the tracks from the album was based on a raga known as Raga Todi.

Shankar-Jaikishan had earlier worked on this raga for a song from their 1956 film called Basant Bahar. The song was Duniya Na Bhaye Mohe, Ab To Bulale in Raga Todi. It was sung by Mohammed Rafi and was picturised on top star of the era: Bharat Bhushan. (You tube video)

I found the Raga Todi Jazz track by Shankar Jaikishanat at a delightful blog named Eastern Eye by Phil. (You can download and check out the track here)

The blog has a wonderful collection of what we often call "eastern-fusion sounds" -  some of Ananda Shankar, some of RD Burman, some of Bappi Lahiri and among many others it also has musicians like Big Jim Sullivan.The blog has a beautiful track from his album Sitar Beat (1968) titled Flower Power. It kind of reminded me of Desh Raga (video of the popular variation).

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Some more info. on Raga Jazz Style

The album was released  by Gramophone Company of India Ltd [ECS- 2377]

The track listing for the album:

"Raga Todi" "Raga Bhairav" "Raga Malkauns" "Raga Kalavanti" "Raga Tilak Kamod" "Raga Miyan Malhav" "Raga Bairagi" "Raga Jaijaivanti" "Raga Mishra Pilu" "Raga Shiranjani" "Raga Bhairvi"

Based on the wiki page for Sitar in Jazz. Names of people who worked on this album:

Ustad Rais Khan (sitar, ), Manohari Singh (sax), John Pereira (trumpet), Lucilla (piano), Leslie Godinho (drums), Eddie Travers (bass), Dilip Naik (electric guitar), Anibal Castro (electric guitar), Suman (flute), Ramakant (tabla), Dattaram (assistant), Sebastian D'Souza (arrangement).

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Location: India

Comments

  1. philDec 16, 2008, 3:52:00 PM

    Many thanks for such kind comments and such an interesting blog , will link you if ok

    Now I am out of hospital will start posting a little more frequently again :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vinayak RazdanDec 18, 2008, 11:32:00 AM

    Hope you are doing great now.
    Love your blog!
    And thanks for the link!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Vinayak RazdanJul 15, 2010, 1:28:00 PM

    Manohari Singh (1931-2010)

    ReplyDelete

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