Return of the golden oldies

KOLKATA: Are you unhappy with jibonmukhi gaan and Bangla rock songs blaring from puja pandals and miss the soulful numbers that personified the golden era of Bengali music? If yes, there's reason to cheer. Music companies have decided to bring out traditional Bengali music CDs this puja.
Sa Re Ga Ma is releasing an album, Agomoni, featuring famous Agomoni and Bijoya songs that have been sung since the 1920s."This CD contains tracks sung by greats like Gyan Gosai, Kamala Jharia, Manta Babu and Anup Kumar," said spokesperson Amal Banerjee. The album
Puratani Gaan includes Nidhu Babur Toppa and songs of Gohor Jaan, sung by Ram Kumar Chattopadhyay.
A CD called Gems from Bengal will contain old favourites by the likes of Jaganmoy Mitra, Dhananjoy Bhattacharjee, S D Burman, Lata Mangeshkar, Hemanta Mukherjee, Sanat Singha and Sandhya Mukherjee. "There will be popular songs from Anurodher Ashor, which date back to 1951. There are 40 songs in all," Banerjee said.
The album called Parampara will have collectors' items from 1934-52 with songs by Pankaj Mullick, Sati Devi, Asit Baran, Firoza Begum and Geeta Dutt.
Bhavna, known for its Rabindrasangeet releases, has roped in actor Soumitro Chattopadhyay to recite Tagore poems from Lipika and poems by Sukanto Bhattacharya.
In Nana Range Rabindranath, Raga Music is bringing out a Rabindrasangeet collection sung by doyens such as Suchitra Mitra, Kanika Bandopadhyay, Debabrata Biswas, Firoza Begum and Hemanta Mukherjee. An album of adhunik songs by Asha Bhonsle will be released just after the pujas.
"We realised that the audience is once again demanding special puja releases of Bengali modern songs and Rabindrasangeet. Our releases, Om Tat Sat, Emon Madhur Lagan, and the audio-drama CD by Jagannath and Urmimala Basu are aimed at meeting this demand," said Swarup Pal of Music2000.
Asha Audio is already making waves with its two Bengali modern song albums by Asha Bhonsle and Kumar Sanu.