Noora: A Golden Voice, and: Wah Rangiya: Passionate Punjab, and: Bol Ni Chakkiye: The Singing Wheel of Life (review)

Given the recent surge of globalized Punjabi pop music (witness Jay-Z's 2003 collaboration with Punjabi MC on the remixed track "Mundian To Bach Ke," and Rabbi Shergill's "Bullah Ki Jaana" as the first video shown on MTV Desi), there has been a corresponding increase of interest in traditional Punjabi music from both academic and commercial perspectives. Unfortunately, ethnomusicological sources focusing on the rich and spirited folk music of the Punjab region continue to be limited. Although Alkia Pande's book, Folk Music and Musical Instruments of Punjab: From Mustard Fields to Disco Lights (2000), is a colorful and handy reference, it does not fill the urgent need for ethnographically grounded scholarship. Perhaps the most relevant and useful text in that regard, and one that offers a critical background to the first disc reviewed here, is The Female Voice in Sufi Ritual: Devotional Practices in Pakistan and India by Shemeem Abbas (2003). In terms of recordings, resources are similarly small in number and, while the Gramophone Company of India's 5-disc set, 50 Glorious Years of Punjabi Music, offers a generous collection of classic recordings, the majority of its tracks are commercial in nature, with abundant filmi orchestration and studio polish. In order to complement the wealth of materials on popular bhangra music in the South Asian diaspora, more research and documentation of traditional Punjabi music in India and Pakistan is sorely needed.

Beat of India's release of a three-disc series, Gudti Punjab Di, makes a welcome addition to the body of available recordings of traditional Punjabi music. The New Delhi-based organization quickly has built an impressive collection of recordings from across North India and targets "the global listener" with its CDs, DVDs, and downloads from their website (www.beatof-india.com). With recordings of rasiya, kajri, hori, and birha already in their catalog, Beat of India focuses on the traditional songs of Punjab with these three discs.

The first volume of the collection, Noora: A Golden Voice, features the rich vocals of Swarn Noora, daughter of the Sufiyana Qalam singer, Bibi Nooran. Swarn Noora began to perform in public after her mother's death guided by her husband, a qawwali singer at the local All-India Radio station in Jalandhar. These recordings also feature her son, Dilbahar, on harmonium and vocals, with dholak and tabla percussion filling out the ensemble. The opening track, "Bahana Tere Tak Len De," gives the listener a good sense of Swarn Noora's powerful, open-throated vocal style as well as the formal conventions of this music: a brief introduction in free rhythm followed by verse, refrain, and instrumental sections set to a vigorous keherwa tala. Central to Punjabi folk singing are the stories of unrequited love, and this disc contains songs about two legendary couples, Heer-Ranjha ("Mera Ranjha Palle De Vich Pa De") and Sohni-Mahiwal ("Kaccha Vekh Na Leya"). The final two tracks directly evoke an inclusive spirituality typical of the Sufi mysticism from this region of South Asia and, unlike the earlier pieces, these two feature much more of the male vocalists singing collectively. As the disc comes to a close, Swarn Noora's magnificent voice has disappeared into the background, though fortunately for us it returns on the second disc in this collection.

Volume two, Wah Rangiya: Passionate Punjab, features two more tracks by Swarn Noora and three by her son, Dilbahar. The disc opens, however, with...