Shivkumar Sharma & Zakir Hussain, [World Network Vol. 01: India] Raga Puriya Kalyan

Santur is a Persian word, and it means a hundred strains. It is the oldest known string instrument of India. In Sanskrit it is called the shata tantri veena or "a hundred-stringed lute". The word 'veena' was used to describe all stringed instruments where the sound is created by manouvering the taut string of a bow or pinaki. In the Rig Veda there is mention of the pinaki veena, which also happens to be the instrument of Lord Shiv.

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This jaw-dropping performance from October 1990 in Cologne by Shivkumar Sharma is all that you need to understand the deep respect that John McLaughlin and his fellow players showed the santoor maestro during the Saturday Night In Bombay concert [see review]. Watching the video footage from that concert certainly helps the listener appreciate how such an array of sounds can be made with what is essentially a hammer dulcimer, or loosely, a piano without keys. It is therefore, like a piano, also a percussion instrument. There are the clean strikes that do not take too much imagination other than the delivery of the meend can be so fast, and then there's all the other rumbles and squeaks, the relaxed hand of a consummate artist allowing the mezrab to minutely glissando across the surface of the 87 or so strings, hardly making contact with the ever-so-sensitive instrument. But these sounds are not accidental side effects of playing the instrument, like some people consider nylon-stringed guitar squeaks to be. The santoor vocabularly is fully extended to make the journey through the improvisational landscape of the raga form. On this recording, the first piece of two is a dadra or light classical song (essentially a dhun) in a time cycle of six beats (3 + 3) and lasting about a quarter of an hour, whereas the title cut is over 40 minutes. For this, the slow introductory alap is soloed for almost half of the time, building a scene, painting a picture. The raga comprises 4 further sections; jor, jhala, gat in rupaktal and bandish (teental), with Zakir Hussain's ever-wonderful accompaniment coaxing aroha and cushioning avaroha.

The accompanying booklet is more than useful. In addition to telling you something about the players and their instruments, it even has a very informative tutorial on listening to a raga, that survives translation from the author's native German, and pampers the musical listener with notation with which to explain the tonal colouring in this Indian classical form.

In summary, here is another rare opportunity to hear this ancient instrument in the hands of the great Shivkumar Sharma, and it's always a pleasure to hear Zakir Hussain's tabla, plus, the communication between the pair is simply amazing.