Music from the sixties by Ali Akbar Khan and Vilayat Khan with poetry and film music, produced by Pieter de Rooij.
In this episode music by and by two world famous grandmasters of Indian raga, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (1922-2009), player of the sarod, the Indian fretless lute, and sitar player Ustad Vilayat Khan (1928-2004). Program maker Pieter de Rooij turned up two interesting LPs from the sixties in his record collection of these two acclaimed musicians. One, which can be heard in the first half hour, is the 1968 album Flowers of Evil by sarod player Ali Akbar Khan in collaboration with Yvette Mimieux (1942-2022), an American actress. Yvette Mimieux reads a number of poems by the French 19th-century poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), taken from his famous work Les Fleurs du Mal, or The Flowers of Evil, published in 1857. The poems read aloud are subtly surrounded by appropriate raga sounds with the sarod playing of Ali Akbar Khan (and the tabla playing of Mahapurush Misra), resulting in a particularly atmospheric album in which Indian music and French poetry blend wonderfully into unique tone poems.
In the second half hour an LP with the soundtrack of the American-Indian film comedy The Guru from 1969. The music is composed and is also partly played by sitar player Ustad Vilayat Khan. The film’s story is reminiscent of The Beatles’ George Harrison, who took sitar lessons with famed sitar player Ravi Shankar in the 1960s. Similarly, in The Guru, a famous English pop musician named Tom Pickle (played by the actor Michael York) takes lessons on the sitar from an Indian master. The moral of the story is that in order to learn to play Indian raga music really well, the Western pop musician must first fully submit to the demanding teaching system of his Indian guru.
P l a y l i s t
- To A Passer-By
- A Voyage To Cythera
- Murdered Woman
- Episode
Composer: Ali Akbar Khan. Tekst: Charles Baudelaire.
Performers: Ali Akbar Khan, Yvette Mimieux, Mahapurush Misra.
Album: Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du Mal). Label: Philips SBL 7845, P. 1968.
- Tom’s Arrival / The Guru’s House / Carriage Chase
- Jenny’s Theme
- The Haunted Palace: Arrival / The Courtesan’s Ghost / Revels / Murder
Componist: Vilayat Khan. Performer: Vilayat Khan e.a.
Album: The Guru (soundtrack). Label: RCA LSO-1158, C 1969
- Tom’s Boat Song
Composer: Imrat Khan. Text: R. Prawer Jhabvala. Performer: Michael York.
Album: The Guru (soundtrack). Label: RCA LSO 1158, C 1969.
- Jenny’s Theme (2)
- The Pupil And His Master: Rag Bilawal
- Arrival In Benares
- The Begum’s Lament
- Train Journey* Jenny’s Theme (3)
- Tom’s Boat Song (Reprise)
- Concert In The Haunted Palace
Composer: Vilayat Khan. Performer: Vilayat Khan e.a.
Album: The Guru (soundtrack). Label: RCA-LSO 1158, C 1969.
