Aftab Datta

Originally born in Lahore in 1976 I am currently living in Washington DC with my wife Yulia, two daughters Yasmin and Anika, and dog Akira. I have a BS/MS in Chemistry and an MBA, and currently work at the Department of Education. But my real passion is classical Indian/Pakistani music. I spend a lot of my time tirelessly studying and listening to variations of raags.  
 
Music has always been a large part of my life, but when I was 14 years old I heard Ravi Kitchlu’s Bihag. Since then, I have been an avid listener and collector of Hindustani classical music and do my best to promote and support artists, digitize old music to reintroduce recordings to the public, and honor masters of the past.  
 
I am also a listener to Gamelan, W. Africa folk, ancient music of Greece/Rome/Egypt/Middle East, and hardcore punk. Other interests are ancient European & Asian history, comparative/historical linguistics, and ancient scripts.

My social media links:

Aftab Datta

31 thoughts on “Aftab Datta”

  1. Dear Aftab Datta,
    Being so young,yet already you have done great service to music.Finally I know what real love of music is – to generously share like you do the many many wonderful renditions. May God bless you and your family and may you keep doing what you do.
    Prashanti

    Reply

  2. Dr Ishwarchandra Ramchandra Karkare is one of the most popular hindustani classical musician [singer] from GWALIOR madhya pradesh, India. his various raags like bhairav, bhairav bahar, lalit, bihag, malkauns, darbari kanhara, basant, suha , bairagi bhairav , bageshri are already available on internet, in wma,wav,mp3 etc formats,plz select one or two best performance like “”Tappa sindhura kaafi”” , “”bhairav”” , “”Bageshri”” , and “” Suha “”. if possible add this artist in vocalist list of ur website.

    thanks.

    Reply

  4. Dear Aftab,

    Thanks for uploading so many clips of beautiful music. I have a question about one of them: Raag Aiman by Sadiq Ali Mando & Mumtaz Sabzali. Before this recording I’d never heard of banjo being used to play Hindustani music, though it wouldn’t be surprising if this is not the only instance, given how good Sabzali’s banjo sounds. I’m unable to find any information about Mumtaz Sabzali — do you have any idea when this was recorded, for instance? Do you know of any others who play Hindustani music on the banjo?

    Many thanks,

    Murali

    Reply

  5. dear aftab sir,
    i have no words to thanks you for providing such a good lot of rare recordings of masters of classical music.
    both the country have the same lineage of classical music hence i love artists from both countries.
    as well as the hockey tradition is also same , i love to watch Hockey match between our two countries , its also like classic things as of classical music.

    anyway i am attaching a photo of dr. Ishwarchandra R. Karkare (Gwalior gharana) he lives in the famous city of GWALIOR. He got training from Gwalior Gharana artists like Pt. Pandurang rao Sitaram Umdekar and Pt. Gangadhar rao Bhagwat.

    I have more recordings of Dr. Ishwarchandra R. Karkare , presently you can put raag Bhairav recording on your website.

    Neelesh
    Gwalior

    Reply

    1. Neelesh:
      Thank you for all the recordings. I will upload them on mediafire and post in guestbook. Beautiful Bhairav and Behag. Very enjoyable.
      Thank you!

      Reply

  6. thanks sir,
    you are doing great job by maintaining and updating the website, its really nice to see that still there are few good men left who cares old traditions.
    regards

    Reply

  7. Hello Aftab,

    Nice to see your website. I am also Washington DC based and know Shubha, Brian and the music community well. Hope to meet you someday soon.

    Warm regards,
    Monir Hossain

    Reply

  9. Have a some ghulam hassan shaggan tracks like charukeshi(13.04 MB),deshkar(13.23 MB),lalit(24.73 MB),puriyadhnashree(26.05 MB) and a lot of chote gulam ali khan and masurji(various versions).
    Let me know if anyone is interested in this music and i will share 🙂

    Reply

    2. Dear John, I would also be very interested in the Darbari of Latafat Hussain Khan, but unfortunately the link is set to private. Axel

      Reply
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