Artist/s: Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia & Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra
Album: Call Of The Valley (Remastered + 3 Bonus Tracks)
Genre: Indian Classical, Jugalbandi (Duet), Meditative, Easy Listening, World Music
Label/Source: Saregama India Ltd.
Catalog Number: CDNF-150008
Package: Digipak
Recording Year: 1967
CD release Year: 2003
CD Notes: Call Of the Valley is a symphony in Indian Classical Music. The genius of three brilliant artistes and a collaboration of their music that is exquisitely sweet and bewitchingly pleasing to the ear. It paints for us a tonal picture of gorgeous valleys, laden with tall green pine and chinar trees and sun-kissed, snow-clad peaks of the mighty Himalayas. The three instruments that come together to present this euphorious drama are The Santoor, The Flute and the Guitar. The Santoor is a folk instrument typical of the Kashmir Valley and is extremely popular with the masses. It has over a hundred strings and is played with a pair of wooden tongs. The flute is a cylindrical piece made of bamboo with 7 holes arranged in a straight line and is considered to be the most ancient instrument of India. The guitar is of the Hawaiian type and modified to render Indian Classical music in the orthodox, traditional chaste style. The three instruments are used cleverly for describing vividly a story. The guitar and the santoor also play distinct roles in the drams depicted in the music. There are two main characters - A handsome, sturdy, young lad and a charming lass, a peerless beauty that blossoms only in the Kashmir Valley - Head over heels in love with each other. The Guitar and the Santoor play the roles of the hero and heroine, respectively. The guitar with its deep tone, beautiful glides and slurs, and santoor, with its sonorously rich, silvery and trantalising sound are ideally suited to play the main leads. The flute, with an amazing range of nearly three octaves, is effectively used to depict the divinely beautiful nature in its multi-coloured splendour. The credit for conceiving the idea goes to Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. It was developed in the present elaborate musical form with the help and genius of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra.
AMG Review: Shivkumar Sharma, the guitarist Brijbhushan Kabra, and flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia were all aged about 30 when they made Call of the Valley. Shivkumar Sharma, who had made his first solo album in 1960, was responsible for establishing and popularizing the instrument in Hindustani classical circles. Kabra was also having to prove himself because of the guitar's Western and Indian popular music associations Chaurasia's problem was the wide popularity of the bansuri -- a bamboo transverse flute -- and his need to establish himself with the instrument. In 1967, the concept behind this album was as revolutionary as it was traditional. Conceived as a suite, they used their instruments to tell the story of a day in the life of a shepherd in Kashmir using ragas associated with various times of the day to advance the dramatic narrative. If the newcomer buys only one Indian classical recording, it should be Call of the Valley. - By Ken Hunt.
Wildstrings Comments: Well, would you believe back in 1967 an Indian could pickup a guitar and play the orthodox Indian classical on it? Well, that would sound like a dream. But don’t dream it’s just more than a reality. Call Of the Valley is simply a phenomenal and perhaps the greatest experimental Indian Classical album of that time. Coming to the artists, Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra is considered as the Godfather of Indian Slide Guitar and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and Pandit Hariprasad Chauraia are the masters of their instruments i.e. Santoor and Indian Bamboo Flute (Bansuri) respectively and were accompanied by Pandit Manikrao Popatkar on Tabla. This album was originally recorded and released in 1967 by these three extraordinary Indian Classical Musicians which is very haunting, meditative and very pleasing and within the boundaries of Indian Classical and even after 42 years of it’s initial release, it still sounds like charming and you can breath it like a fresh rose. One of my very favorite albums and so is heartily and highly recommended.
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