Customer Reviews

Gypsies of Rajasthan

5 star:		(6)
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Well to everyone who seems to be interested in this album, this music is purely what you going to find in Rajasthani roots, I am basically from Rajasthan and listening to such a soulful, unadulterated, pure music certainly gives me that feeling of nostalgia which you can only get by actually being to that place.
My father actually had wet eyes when he heard this music.
This music reminds me of what Rajasthan was. The wars, the kingdoms of Marwar, the Palace of Udaipur, great kings like Maharana Pratap, the smell of dust in Haldighati which saw the most gallant warriors dying for the country......
Even if you don't belong to Rajasthan you would not be untouched by the music. I bet if the music does not gives you goosebumps with the stories attached to the music from the gypsies who sing it.

This is an essential CD for anyone who loves Gypsy music ... Ethnically the origins of the gypsies throughout Europe have been traced to Rajasthan. This CD attests to the enormous debt we owe them. In 1999, I saw and heard this group in a live performance, I was hooked! The tabla beat immediately strikes a primordial response ... it gets the body swaying and soon the beat reaches the feet, I get up and find myself improvising dance steps. I fall under its magical spell ...

The unusual instruments which create this spell-binding sound are the tabla, a double headed drum played by both the right and left hands. The dhapari made of multiple strands of skin creating percussion. Khartal which are wooden clappers. Manjira tiny cymbals and gungura which are globe-like bells. Murali which is an ancient flute and the satara and alogoza which are double flutes where one is a drone and the other plays the melody ... these instruments create music similar to bag pipes at times. There are the sounds of a harmonium (half-way between an organ and accordeon) and the murchang, which is the jew's harp. The musicians express a passionate energy for life. They exert exert a joyful exuberance, their feelings are infectious and highly contagious. Words are inadequate to convey how the passionate vibrant music, the earthy raw sounds of traditonal instruments and the natural vocals intimately connect with the heart and soul of the listener. Thank you BEK for this gift. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

The music of this album is everything the reviewers say it is and more...I can never fail to be awed by how something so powerful and propulsive can be so gentle and soulful at the same time...everytime I listen to the litling voices of the Banjaras (gypsies) my eyes well over...it reminds me of the times gone by...bringing back memories I never had...This music rises from the earth and burrows right into your heart...
A must buy!

A gorgeous, compelling exploration of North Indian (Rajasthani) classical and folk traditions, ranging from Muslim prayer calls and the playful bounce of Punjabi traditional music to qawaali chants and more modern ambient modes. A trancey latticework, featuring dozens of performers recruited by Musafir's idea man, percussionist Hameed Khan. I picked this up _after_ hearing the group's subsequent album, "Dhola Maru," and with repeated listens found this disc to be much more rooted in traditional themes. (Although the group claims allegiance or lineage to gypsy or Romani traditions, I guess my musical palatte is too unsophisticated to catch it -- sounds mostly like Indian-Pakistani music to me... At any rate, it sounds great.) Highly recommended.

This album is a must for Gypsy music fans...It is fantastic......

The Music gives you the best depiction of what it sounds like to hear the music in a desert. Very good.