PRAN NATH, PANDIT - Ragas Of Morning & Night

"At long last, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela reissue this seminal, hugely influential album on their Just Dream imprint, the legendary recording from 1968 India of Pandit Pran Nath titled Ragas Of Morning & Night. The original studio session was produced in New Delhi, February 1968, by Jimi Hendrix associate Alan Douglas, it features recordings of 'Raga Todi' and 'Darbari', which showcase Pran Nath at his prime. Pran Naths exquisite control between microscopically fine degrees of pitch can be easily heard in the former. The first two thirds of the piece is performed slowly and delicately, each sinuous line being given careful weight and consideration. When, in the final few minutes, the pace quickens there is a startling sense of unfolding possibilities, almost an embarrassment of riches after the earlier rigour. The second raga follows a similar structure but the tonal center is entirely different; instead of the plaintive almost keening quality of the morning raga, we hear a calmer, more accepting feeling, as though the singer has graciously acceded to what has occurred that day. This time when the tempo picks up its as if the singer has gotten a second wind late in the day and is suddenly full of joyous energy. The effect of Pran Naths quivering lines and immensely complicated vocal arabesques is liberating enough. When he goes head to head with the tabla player for some intricate sparring, ones jaw tends to drop. Ragas of Morning and Night is a wonderful recording and would serve as a fine introduction both to this musician and to this particular style of singing as well.

'He was a living encyclopedia of the ancient traditional compositions,' La Monte Young once said. 'And he had an extraordinary knowledge of the proper delineation of each raga.' Ragas are connected to certain times of day, seasons and other natural and personal associations, and Pandit Pran Nath insisted on performing them at the appropriate times.A living repository of thousands of obscure ragas, many of which have probably become extinct with his death in 1996, Pran Nath devoted much of his later years to teaching. He numbered La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Jon Hassell among his long time students, who were fascinated by pure intonation and microtones and who were pioneers of Minimalism, and through them his unique phrasing and melodic sensibility have filtered into contemporary composition. Additionally, excellent and detailed liners notes by La Monte Young are included.

For a decade and a half, Pran Nath lived in Young and Zazeelas loft for a good part of each year, and the New York night owls were typically required to rise at 3am each day to prepare tea for their teacher, who slept at the other end of the loft. He would then perform his riaz (practice) and give them a lesson - if he chose to.

He was the head of the household recalls La Monte Young. We were not allowed to have friends. We had to give up everything - rare ly did we even get to vis i t our parents. He was very protective of us and extremely possessive of us. But we got the reward. The reward is, if you make the guru happy, then you get the lessons." - Just Dreams.

Remastered CD edition, reissue from 2017. Published by Prana Nada Music.

Composed By [All Compositions], Arranged By [All Compositions] – Pandit Pran Nath
Engineer [Processed And Sub-mastered By] – Bob Bielecki
Mastered By – Bob Ludwig
Producer – La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela
Producer [Associate Producers] – David Farneth, Jung Hee Choi
Producer [Production Assistance] – Terry Youk
Recorded By [Original Studio Session] – Alan Douglas
Sarangi – Mohammed Ahmed Bane
Tabla – Prem Waleb
Tambura – Lalita Gupta, Sheila Dhar
Voice – Pandit Pran Nath
From the back cover:
A historic recording from the Kirana Archive of Indian Classical Music. Notes enclosed. Original studio session recorded in New Delhi, February 1968 [...].
Mastered [...] at Masterdisk, New York. Cover photo: Moonrise at the Court of Akbar, Fetapursikri.
Cover, package design and booklet © 1986 La Monte Young Marian Zazeela.