Debashish Bhattacharya - BBC Radio 3 Award Winner

Pandit (master) Debashish Bhattacharya is one of the world’s most remarkable slide guitarists and this album represents the culmination of a lifetime of intensive study, performance and innovation. All the guitars heard on 3: Calcutta Slide-Guitar are unique instruments designed by Debashish himself, a Trinity of Guitars – Chaturangui, Gandharvi and Anandi – representing three generations of instruments, while also continuing a thousand-year tradition of music. 3: Calcutta Slide-Guitar dazzles the listener with hypnotic patterns and stunning music shaped from Debashish’s original three-finger picking technique.

Born into a musical family on 12 January 1963, in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, Debashish Bhattacharya learnt to sing before he could talk. At the age of 3, he started playing the Hawaiian lap steel guitar, giving his first major concert on All India Radio at 4. The first slide guitarist to receive the President of India Award in 1984 he was made a Pandit (master) at 40. Since then he has been established as one of the world’s most outstanding slide guitarists by tours of inspirational live concerts and bestselling albums, including the breathtaking collaboration with slide guitarist Bob Brozman, Mahima (‘truly groundbreaking’ MOJO ‘beautiful and inspired’ Daily Telegraph).

A designer, as well as a virtuoso, Debashish has designed nineteen slide guitars since he began experimenting in his twenties, and the three guitars heard on this album are all his individual designs. ‘Aanandam’ (‘Joy’) opens the album with Debashish performing on ‘Anandi’, a slide ukulele that he designed which produces a surprisingly direct, clear tone. Raga Tilak Kamod is an evening raga played on the fourteen-stringed Ghandarvi, whose name derives from Gandharva loka, the celestial realm of music. Composed of two parts, the second – ‘Nata Raaj’ (‘Dance Of Shiva’) – unites the traditions of Hindustani (North) and Karnatic (South) Indian tradition using a Khani rhythm pattern (swinging tintal).

Chaturangui – a twenty-two-string guitar with four additional tones – completes the Guitar Trinity and is featured in Raga Basant Mukhari. In the first section, ‘Usha’, Sutapa Bhattacharya plays the background drone of the tambura whilst Debashish delicately introduces each note of the raga. In the second part, ‘Prabha’, Debashish performs with tabla accompaniment from Subhasis Bhattacharjee. The final section, ‘Maha Shakti’ (‘Beyond The Sun’) is performed at a fast tempo in tintal, a sixteen-beat cycle, displaying fantastic improvisation between the guitar and tablas.

3: Calcutta Slide-Guitar demonstrates the talents of one of the world’s most outstanding slide guitarists. On this album, Debashish Bhattacharya, an exceptional musician and design innovator, brings together a thousand-year tradition of Indian music and spirituality with his Trinity of Guitars.

Visit Debashish Bhattacharya's website at www.debashishbhattacharya.com

Other albums released by Debashish Bhattacharya

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