The 'singer's singer' Bettye LaVette has fans in Pharrell Williams, Keith Richards and Barack Obama. She's been in the business a long time: in 1962 she recorded her first single at the age of sixteen and in 2020 she released a new album Blackbirds which honours the Black female rhythm and blues singers who came before. No matter whose song she’s interpreting (be it John Prine, Fiona Apple, Nina Simone or Bob Dylan) she infuses it with personal triumph and tragedy and makes it sound like it was written for her voice.
The history of electronic music has usually been dominated by the West; from Stockhausen in Cologne, to house music in Chicago. But a chance finding of a box of old reel-to-reel tapes at a design school in Ahmedabad reveals that Indian students in the late 60s and early 70s were producing experimental, electronic music that was far ahead of its time. UK artist and musician Paul Purgas tells us the story of finding the tapes, India’s first Moog synthesiser (brought over by John Cage collaborator David Tudor) and what the electronic music scene in India is like today.
Paul Purgas' documentary Electronic India is available now on BBC Radio 3.
More Information
Music at the beginning of the program
Track title: Wish You Were Here
Artist: Bettye LaVette
Composer: D Gilmour, R Waters
Album title: Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook
Label: Anti-
Music in the Bettye LaVette interview
Track title: Strange Fruit
Artist: Bettye LaVette
Composer: L Allen
Album title: Blackbirds
Label: Verve
Track title: My Man - He's A Lovin' Man
Artist: Bettye LaVette (credited as Betty Lavett)
Composer: J Bennett, J Matthews
Album title: Blackbirds
Label: Verve
Track title: Mama, You Been On My Mind
Artist: Bettye LaVette
Composer: B Dylan
Album title: Things Have Changed
Label: Verve
Music in the Paul Purgas interview
Track title: Gitaben's Composition
Artist: Gita Sarabhai
Composer: G Sarabhai
National Institute of Design recording, supplied by Paul Purgas
Track title: Dance Music
Artist: SC Sharma
Composer: SC Sharma
National Institute of Design recording, supplied by Paul Purgas
Track title: Space Liner 2001
Artist: Jinraj Joshipura
Composer: J Joshipura
National Institute of Design recording, supplied by Paul Purgas
Track title: Raga Bhairav
Artist: Charanjit Singh
Composer: C Singh
Album: Synthesizing - 10 Ragas to a Disco Beat
Label: The Gramophone Company Of India Ltd.
Track title: Raga Megh Malhar
Artist: Charanjit Singh
Composer: C Singh
Album: Synthesizing - 10 Ragas to a Disco Beat
Label: The Gramophone Company Of India Ltd.
The documentary Electronic India is a Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3, produced by Alannah Chance. Our thanks to them for allowing us to play a bit of it in our program.
Producers Ellie Parnell and Penny Lomax
Sound engineer Andrei Shabunov