John Mayer: 4 pieces from 'Calcutta-Nagar'

NB: THESE PIECES ARE BY THE ANGLO-INDIAN COMPOSER JOHN MAYER, NOT THE POP SINGER OF THAT NAME!
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5 - Naya Bazaar; 10 - Girja (St. John's Church); 13 - Kali Mandir; 14 - Hooghley Nadi.
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John Mayer (1930-2004) was a Calcutta-born composer who wrote and performed music that fused Indian and European idioms. He is particularly remembered today as for his Indo-Jazz Fusions bands. He died after a road accident.
For more information on his life, see:
http://www.johnmayercomposer.co.uk/biography.html
'Calcutta Nagar', premiered in London in 1993, is a set of 18 short pieces, some only a few bars long, in which Mayer describes the atmosphere of various locations in his birth-city. I first encountered the work in a broadcast of 'Hooghley Nadi' by a competitor in the piano finals of the British 'Young Musician of the Year' competition some years ago. I have selected four pieces to give a flavour of the work, which is published by Simrock.
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Played by Phillip Sear
http://www.psear.co.uk

Category:

Music

Tags:

• piano
• classical
• british
• indian

[roshanravi]

Awesome!

It's official, I am a fan :)

[PSearPianist]

I am glad you found and liked them!

[takeitupthesitar]

Thank you very much for playing these lovely short pieces. My father would have been delighted. Jonathan Mayer. By the way you might be interested in a release through my label (First Hand Records) of the complete HMV stereo recordings of Shura Cherkassky and more John Mayer later this year.

[PSearPianist]

Thank you Jonathan, I feel honoured by your comment and hope your father would not have minded me doing just a selection. Re Cherkassky, I once saw him play live at the South Bank - I recall be played some Messiaen!

[samalex79]

Amazingly well done evocations.

[PSearPianist]

Thank you very much!

[PSearPianist]

Thanks - it's just a shame the piano can't bend notes like a sitar!

[PSearPianist]

Thank you - the set deserves to be better-known.

[654321654321]

very interesting music,

sometimes sounds a little "enigmatic".

It is great to have the chance to listen indian-influenced music played on the piano, thanks.

[GetMeThere1]

Very evocative. Great! Thanks for posting these.