Raga Bageshree Part 1

Bageshree is a studio album of North Indian classical music released in 1995 under the Tiptoe label. The recording features a solo performance by sitarist Subroto Roy Chowdhury and centers on Raga Bageshree, a late-evening raga associated with the Kafi thaat. The album was issued on compact disc as part of Tiptoe’s catalog of Indian classical releases.

The album opens with Raga Bageshree Part 1, a 14-minute, 47-second alap-jor-jhala exploration of the raga. Roy Chowdhury performs the composition on sitar without accompaniment in this segment. The track emphasizes the raga’s characteristic phrases, including the use of komal gandhar (flat third) and shuddha nishad (natural seventh), while adhering to the slow, meditative tempo typical of alap presentations. The recording captures the instrument’s resonant overtones and the artist’s use of meend (glissando) and gamak (ornamentation) techniques.

Production details beyond the primary track remain undocumented in available sources. The album’s liner notes, if included, are not widely referenced, and no additional musicians or session dates are confirmed. The release date of 1995 aligns with Roy Chowdhury’s active period as a performer and educator in the Imdadkhani gharana, a lineage of sitar players founded by Ustad Imdad Khan. His interpretations of Raga Bageshree reflect the gharana’s emphasis on clarity of note articulation and systematic raga development.

The Tiptoe label, based in India, specialized in classical and semi-classical music during the 1990s. The album’s distribution scope and subsequent reissues, if any, are not verified. Bageshree serves as a representative example of Roy Chowdhury’s discography, which includes both solo recordings and collaborative works with tabla accompanists.