MUMBAI: 2009 Grammy-nominated artiste Pt. Debashish Bhattacharya’s album Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar Odyssey… has been released in India by IndiaBeat and is being distributed exclusively by EMI Virgin The album was nominated for a Grammy at the 51st Grammy Awards in the category of Best traditional world music album….
Globally released by World Music Network (www.worldmusic.net) Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide-Guitar Odyssey is a musical journey through the centuries of guitar playing in India. Using three unique guitars that BBC award winner Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya designed himself, each beautiful raga explores influences ranging from Gypsy to Sufi with deep sensitivity and free-flowing movement between past and present, tradition and innovation.
Played on three slide-guitars designed by Debashish, Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide-Guitar Odyssey is an album of Indian raga music, interpreted in a way that is accessible both to the Indian and western listener, touching on the blues, jazz, flamenco and Hawaiian music. His home city, Calcutta (now Kolkata), has for centuries been a centre of artistic excellence and this has strongly influenced Debashish’s development. This, together with his own inspirations drawn from performing and collaborating all over the world, plus elements of Sufism and the origins of the Romani of Hindustan, have resulted in a beautiful and dynamic album.
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Debashish grew up in a musical family, accompanying his parents, both singers, on tabla, guitar or tambura In the late 1920s, the legendary Hawaiian musician, Tao Moe, visited Calcutta, bringing with him a steel guitar and starting a trend for the instrument. Somehow a steel guitar found its way into the Bhattacharya household and Debashish started to play it As his musical career continued he developed his own style of slide guitar playing, adding resonating and drone strings He studied with Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra, who introduced the slide guitar into Indian classical music, and later with vocalist Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty who expanded his knowledge of Raga music. In 2003, aged 40, he was himself made a Pandit (master).
Debashish Bhattacharya is one of the leading slide guitar players of our time – perhaps ‘THE’ leading slide guitarist of our time.His fans are not only to be found in India, but he is admired and revered by the best of the slide guitarists in the west. And I might add, by guitarists like myself who play ‘normal’ guitar. His new CD is a further development of his inimitable style, and reveals an affection for other cultures and their natural expression in music. Through his inate talent, he is able to perfectly integrate his natural ‘North Indian’ style of classical slide guitar, whether with the Sufi traditions, or the great musicians from the world of Gypsy music, into a complete and lucid flow of beauty. I speak from direct experience with the great Debashish, since his performance on my latest recording demonstrates his truly global love and affection for all music. Wonderful!.. – John McLaughlin
