My mother, India’s forgotten disco diva
Debayan Sen discovered that his mother Rupa’s long-lost record Disco Jazz, which flopped when it was first released in India, had become an underground global hit after 30 years.
In 2014, Debayan Sen was cleaning the family attic in Kolkata when he made an unexpected discovery: a dusty, old vinyl record called Disco Jazz. What astonished him was that his mother Rupa was on the cover. Debayan had no idea his very traditional Indian mother had even had a music career. Not only would that album reveal Rupa’s secret disco past but also an underground fanbase of millions worldwide.
Zero Freitas in Brazil has amassed what's thought to be the world's largest privately owned vinyl record collection - with over six million copies. He’s been painstakingly cataloguing them for over a decade and also helps people track down old, forgotten tunes. (This is a shorter version of an interview first broadcast in 2015)
Jimmy Rugami is known as the vinyl king of Nairobi's Kenyatta market. He's travelled across east Africa collecting music in his little car, sometimes facing bandits and unfriendly border officials. (This is a shorter version of an interview first broadcast in 2018)
Picture: Rupa Biswas Sen holding a copy of her record Disco Jazz
Credit: Courtesy Rupa Biswas Sen
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- Tue 22 Jun 2021 11:06GMTÂ鶹ԼÅÄ World Service
- Tue 22 Jun 2021 17:06GMTÂ鶹ԼÅÄ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Wed 23 Jun 2021 02:06GMTÂ鶹ԼÅÄ World Service
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