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Mohammed Rafi recorded over 26,000 songs during his lifetime and became the singing voice of such film stars as Shammi Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar. His death in 1980 promoted an outpouring of grief amongst Indians around the world
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Rafi resurrected
28/ 5/2008
IN celebration of Mohammad Rafi, the mesmerising voice that became the sound of Bollywood's golden era in the 50's, 60's and 70's, the charismatic singer Sonu Niigaam, the voice of Indian cinema today, has teamed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in a unique collaboration performing 18 of the greatest Rafi songs of all time.
On Friday 20 June the CD of this unique album of Rafi songs exclusively arranged for the CBSO and produced by India’s leading record company Saregama will be released across the globe.
A national tour will follow, featuring three of the UK's most exclusive live performance venues: the acoustically perfect Symphony Hall Birmingham; Manchester's legendary rock venue the Apollo Theatre; and the architecturally stunning London Coliseum, home of English National Opera.
Tim Pottier, Artist Producer and former CBSO librarian, championed this project and started work on the music in late 2005, listening to hundreds of Rafi recordings in search of material that would work when played live on stage by a symphony orchestra. Tim carefully selected the 18 songs that will now feature on the album with Sonu and on the tour.
"Recording facilities in Mumbai are amongst the best in the world so we had state of the art equipment to work with", saidTim.
Most of the percussionists he worked with had played on original Rafi recordings.
He said: "It was quite remarkable, we would be recording a conga track and another percussionist would stop and say, ‘There aren't any congas on the original', at which point the conga player would answer back, 'yes there were, I know because I was the one that played them.’ They had all known Rafi personally".
India's most iconic contemporary vocalist, Sonu Niigaam, equally impressed him: "Rafi’s music is so ingrained in him, I doubt whether anyone knows this music better than Sonu".
Tour dates:
Tuesday 15 July, 19:45 Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 17 July, 19:15 Manchester Apollo
Sunday 20 July, 19:00 Coliseum, London
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