BRIJ BHUSHAN KABRA - Call Of The Valley LP

Hindustani classical music also called Śāstriya Saṅgīt is the music of northern India that diverged from the southern Indian Carnatic music around the 12th century. This style of music is based on seven notes with five interspersed half-notes which results in a 12-note scale but unlike Western music there is no based frequency and intertonal gaps also vary. The most common melodic pattern is called a raga although ragas themselves may originate from many sources including religious hymns, folk tunes and even music originating from lands far away. While this traditional style of Indian music has been played for centuries within the confines of the Indian subcontinent amongst its inhabitants, suddenly in the 1960s the entire world was becoming interested in hearing the exotic sounds of instruments such as the sitar, santoor and tabla and Indian sounds were creeping into Western culture.

Once George Harrison added a bit of Indian flavors to The Beatles’ classic song “Norwegian Wood” from the band’s 1965 album “Rubber Soul,” the rest of the world started going gaga over the sounds of the sitar and the raga rock rage took off.

On the Indian continent the hybridization was taking a different form. Three seasoned veterans of Hindustani classical music, Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Brijbhushan Kabra were three of India’s most popular performers during the 60s and after the successful cross-pollinating efforts of The Beatles and beyond decided to collaborate to create an album of traditional Indian music that added elements of Western culture. Together they crafted an album titled CALL OF THE VALLEY which was an instrumental album that narrates the life of an Indian shepherd in Kashmir through only the sounds of the music itself.