Raga Todi - Bhimsen Joshi

Bhimsen Joshi - Vocal
Mahapurush Mishra - Tabla

Raga Todi

Recorded on 21th December 1986 in Srirampur, West-Bengal, by Günter Wick

Produced by Günter Wick

From Wikipedia:
Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi ( 4 February 1922 – 24 January 2011) was an Indian vocalist from Karnataka, in the Hindustani classical tradition. He is known for the khayal form of singing, as well as for his popular renditions of devotional music (bhajans and abhangs). Bhimsen Joshi belongs to the Kirana gharana tradition of Hindustani Classical Music. Pt. Joshi is noted for his concerts, and between 1964 to 1982 Joshi toured Afghanistan, Italy, France, Canada and USA. He was the first musician from India whose concerts were advertised through posters in New York city, United States. Bhimsen Joshi was instrumental in organising the Sawai Gandharva Music Festival annually, as homage to his guru, Pandit Sawai Gandharva.
In 1998, he was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour conferred by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and
Bhimsen Joshi was born on 4 February 1922 in a Kannada Deshastha Madhva Brahmin family to Gururajrao Joshi and Godavaribai at Gadag in Dharwad district of Karnataka. His father, Gururaj Joshi, was a school teacher. Bhimsen was the eldest among 16 siblings. He lost his mother at a young age and was raised by his stepmother.
As a child, Bhimsen was fascinated with music and musical instruments like the harmonium and tanpura and would often follow processions accompanied by music bands. This exercise often tired him and he would curl up somewhere and sleep, forcing his parents to go to the police after efforts to trace him failed. Fed up, his father Gururajacharya Joshi came up with the solution, writing "son of teacher Joshi" on Bhimsen's shirts. This worked and those who found the boy sleeping would safely deposit him back to his house.
His first music teacher was Channappa of Kurtakoti, who had trained with the veteran singer Inayat Khan. After learning Ragas Bhairav and Bhimpalasi, the one and only unique vigorous style of rendering he developed along with advanced trainings by other teachers is attributed to the basic training he received from Channappa. Bhimsen Joshi next went to Pandit Shyamacharya Joshi, who hailed from Bagalkot and was a priest and classical singer. Pandit Shyamacharya taught him to sing as well as play the harmonium. Shamacharya Joshi was a descendant of Great Haridasa Shree Mahipati Dasaru. As revealed by Shyamacharya Joshi himself when he was alive, it was a turning point in Bhimsen Joshi's life that Shyamacharya Joshi went to Bombay for recording his songs by HMV where Shree Bhimsen Joshi also accompanied him and due to ill health Shyamacharya Joshi returned to Bagalkot after recording few songs and asked Bhimsen Joshi to render rest of the songs which Bhimsen Joshi did and this proved to be a major breakthrough for Bhimsen Joshi in the initial stage of his career.
Joshi heard a recording of Abdul Karim Khan's Thumri "Piya Bin Nahi Aavat Chain" in Raga Jhinjhoti when he was a child, which inspired him to become a musician. During this time, he also heard Pandit Sawai Gandharva at a performance in Kundgol. In 1933, the 11-year-old Joshi left Dharwad for Bijapur to find a master and learn music. With the help of money lent by his co-passengers in the train, Bhimsen reached Dharwad first and later went to Pune. Later he moved to Gwalior and got into Madhava Music School, a school run by Maharajas of Gwalior, with the help of famous sarod player Hafiz Ali Khan. He traveled for three years around North India, including in Delhi, Kolkata, Gwalior, Lucknow and Rampur, trying to find a good guru. He met Ustad Mushtaq Husain Khan of Rampur Gharana and stayed for more than one year. Eventually, his father succeeded in tracking him down in Jalandar and brought young Bhimsen back home.
In 1936, Sawai Gandharva, a native of Dharwad, agreed to be his guru. Joshi stayed at his house in the guru-shishya (teacher-student) tradition. Joshi continued his training with Sawai Gandharva.
Pt. Bhimsen Joshi first performed live in 1941 at the age of 19. His debut album, containing a few devotional songs in Marathi and Hindi, was released by HMV the next year in 1942. Later Joshi moved to Mumbai in 1943 and worked as a radio artist. His performance at a concert in 1946 to celebrate his guru Sawai Gandharva's 60th birthday won him accolades both from the audience and his guru. In 1984, he received his 1st Platinum Disc,being the first Hindustani Vocalist to receive the award.