The rare & never realised track here is from a tape that was found with no title by the great late Paul Minns in his attic and goes back to the "Alchemy" sessions (end 1968/beginning 1969), recorded in the Abbey Road studios by Glen Sweeney (hand drums), Paul Minns (oboe), Richard Coff (violin) and Ben Cartland (viola) – the first TEB acoustic line-up.
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| TEB 1968: Minns, Cartland, Sweeney and Coff. |
In a rare occasion (a letter sent to me in 1996) Minns talked about the origin of this track:
"I nearly cried when I
heard this. It was like the return of an old friend. This raga is called
In D and was the nucleus for ragas such as "Area Three" and "Ghetto Raga",
both in the "Alchemy" album. This track should have been on as well as it
was recorded at the start of that session but Cartland announced after
two tracks that he wanted to play keyboards instead the viola. As this
was totally unexpected and unacceptable he quit. He tended to be
volatile and very hippy. The replacement was Mel Davis on cello who
excelled and who I now realise was an inspired player and the best I
have ever played with. His slide bagpipes (rubber inner tubes) on "Dragon
Lines" was marvellous. The session at Abbey Road went like a dream and
took over under a week."
Just as Minns would have wanted, I've decided to call the track just "Raga In D", and it really emanates the fascinating mystery of the "Alchemy" recordings – an overall atmosphere that has miraculously been preserved for all these years, offers us an extraordinarily beautiful out-take, played live by harmonious musicians, determined in creating a well thought out sound project rooted in the classic Indian tradition.
So, the 5 Third Ear Band fans cant' be wrong! This is the purest distillation of the TEBand's music!
Download, listen & be touched by the raga at http://rapidshare.com/files/427945468/Raga_in_D.mp3
no©2010 Luca Ferrari
