More Classical Music of Iran

Musique Folklorique du Monde: Iran
Recorded by Deben Bhattacharya
Musidisc, CV 1115, Made in France

A month after I wrote about classical music of Iran (see previous post), I found another album dedicated to this country. It wasn't precisely a thrift store that yielded this record from a series I bought five of that day, but rather a second hand record store. Vinylarchive the store is called to be more precise, back in my old hunting grounds of Nijmegen to which I returned for a few days. I paid 5 Euros for each of the five records, well above my average range of what I spend on records. But it was worth it. It's a really great record store. If I had had more money, and records aren't so goddamn heavy to schlepp across the Atlantic, I would have bought a lot more. The series I spent €25 on is called Musique Folklorique du Monde. Besides the Iranian one (cover above) I also bought volumes featuring music from Ceylon, Bali/Java, Singapore, and Morocco. I knew they would be good because several records from the series were recorded by musicologist Deben Bhattacharya. As a follower of the blog The World's Jukebox I knew Bhattacharya's recordings pretty well. This is from that site "Born in Benares, India in 1921, Deben spent most of his life on the roads of the world, recording in small villages and cities the music of the world’s people, taking pictures and making films to help others understand better the diverse cultures he encountered. When he was not traveling, he made his home in diverse cities of Europe like London, Vienna or Paris, where he ended his well-spent life in 2001, in the Montmartre village-like neighborhood he loved so well." So Iran it is again, the pick of the litter, and again I picked the one track featuring a female vocalist. It's called Ballade, but unlike the Lomax initiated recording from the previous post, the ballad singer remains anonymous. There are no recording data at all to be found on this record. (And neither are there notes on Jukebox site's page dedicated to Rytmes et melodies d'Iran –which turns out to be the very same recordings.)