COMPOSERS: Pandit Jasraj
LABELS: Navras
WORKS: Raga Purvi
PERFORMER: Pandit Jasraj, musicians
CATALOGUE NO: NRCD 0164
One of the great veteran singers of North India, Jasraj is on supple form in this live recording from Mumbai. The main performance of Raga Purvi starts spaciously, the golden, sometimes uncommonly vibrant voice descending into darkness and emerging towards a ringing high register – a world of experience in seven minutes. With the tabla and shadowing violin there is then threequarters of an hour for a well planned and frequently thrilling build-up of pace. In the following shorter piece the excitement goes even further to end in an ecstatic, sustained top note. Robert Maycock