PAKISTAN
Bundo Khan (1880-1955) – Sarangi Nawaz – LKDE 20004 – Released in Pakistan in 1974 (LP)
Originally posted by Tawfiq, who passed away in April 2019, on his great blog oriental-traditional-music.blogspot.com on May 27, 2017.
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Bundo (Bundu) Khan was one of or perhaps the greatest Sarangi player of 20th century. He had a very particular style and played on a very particular Sarangi.
In 2012 we posted a Khan broadcast :
http://oriental-traditional-music.blogspot.de/2012/04/sarangi-legend-ustad-bundu-khan-1880.html
As well as this Khan recording:
http://oriental-traditional-music.blogspot.de/2012/04/ustad-bundu-khan-1880-1955-more.html
The first link includes interesting information on the artist.
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That was great, giving credit to original poster and undertaking the task of preserving his collection
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing and for undertaking this project - I didn't know that Tawfiq had passed away. His blog was a treasure - RIP
ReplyDeleteHi Tim (http://moroccantapestash.blogspot.com/) I hope you're well. Discovering Tawfiq's blog - with so many amazing and ultra-rare shares - was a revelation for me and prompted me to start my own. A true treasure indeed that must be kept alive and cherished amidst an endless ocean of meaningless online garbage.
ReplyDeletethank u for preserving this and offering it
ReplyDeleteIf memory serves, Tawfiq's blog was the first I paid attention to Ustad Bundu Khan. There are several fantastic compilations uploaded by this poster (if memory serves, I believe Compilation 2 is this very album). I think there are 6 compilations, but several (all?) individual tracks on this channel are also found on the ~1 hour compilations:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdYvvjDo4Hj_UmrJSeftUOA/search?query=bundu%20khan
Be sure you are listening to Bundu Khan, not Umrao Bundu Khan. Fine in his own right, but not the master.
I will try to dig up a couple quotes / summaries about the Ustad from a couple books/profiles I've read. It would be hard to call them "flattering" in some details (opium smoking), but I don't really doubt their authenticity.
I also first discovered the maestro's awesome music on Tawfiq's blog. Thank you for the excellent Youtube compilations. Quotes and additional info on the little-know Bundu Khan would be highly appreciated Mason.
ReplyDeleteHere is a couple comments that I made after reading a book by Dr B. R. Deodhar. Unfortunately, the book is on another computer.... So here are my notes:
ReplyDeleteAs for the Bundu Khan. There are some sordid tales, perhaps slightly exaggerated--Bundu Khan first lighting up a cigar [cheroot], then a bidi, then a hookah, then a cigarette. Or of the Brahmin Deodhar, dressed in trousers and a jacket, unknowingly going to meet the Muslim ustad and finding himself in a 3m x 7m room housing a dozen musicians (sarangi and tabla players) trying to smoke opium. Bundu Khan then speaks extemporaneously on tanas, on dhrupad, and on gesture in performance to an enthralled Deodhar. Bundu Khan became an opium addict at a young age and remained one until his death. According to Deodhar, he did caution young musicians away from drugs. Bundu Khan lived til the age of 75 even with this lifestyle.
Deodhar collects biographical information from Bundu Khan's brother-in-law Ustad Chand Khan, son of a court musician Mamman Khan (d. 1940), who taught both Bundu and Chand in sarangi. Bundu Khan would receive patronage from the Maharaja Tukojirao of Indore, living there for over two decades and receiving a pension from the state. This patron of the arts had a man in his employ, Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkande, who was doing theoretical research on ICM, and there was mutual benefit between the two men. Deodhar credits this relationship with helping Bundu Khan in communicating the essence of a raga to others. While being in state service, he would tour widely and use this opportunity to collect information on the old masters and their music. Unsurprisingly, Bundu Khan exhibits an encyclopedic knowledge, but also a humility of readily admitting when he was unfamiliar with a subject.
Also, an amusing anecdote of what would happen if a singer attempted to show off to the ustad. If, in singing the spirally ascending tanas, the singer became out of breath and would terminate the passage prematurely. Bundu Khan would not acknowledge the singer's pause, and instead continue through with the entire passage with many flourishes to a dramatic climax. "Then he would turn to the singer and say, 'This is where the passage ends.'"
Bundu Khan wrote one long essay and had a book manuscript in Urdu. At the time of Deodhar's writing, the book had yet to be published.