Customer Reviews

Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar Odyssey

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Our perceptions of Indian classical music may have hardly moved on since the Beatles absorbed Ravi Shankar's tingling sitar in the 1960s, but these superb releases from younger artists show how ancient forms are evolving as India emerges as an economic superpower.
Master of the Indian slide-guitar Debashish Bhattacharya adapts the swooning tones of an instrument imported from Hawaii in the 1920s to the open spaces of the traditional raga. The eclectic influences - from Arab-Andalusian to country and western - put one in mind of a Calcutta Ry Cooder.
There are few guitarists who can claim to have created a style quite as individual as that of Debashish Bhattacharya.
He's not just a composer and virtuoso instrumentalist, but has also transformed Indian music by designing his own slide guitars, specially constructed to match the intricacies of Indian classical music.
Like a sitar player, he is backed by tabla and the tinkling sonic wash of the tamboura, but there the similarity ends.
His instrumentals include slow, drifting ragas, based around single-string improvisation, along with the Roma-inspired, gloriously upbeat "Gypsy Anandi", which mixes an Indian melody with western-influenced rhythms - plus echoes of the Hawaiian guitar, which became popular in India back in the 1920s.
There is a surprising emphasis on slower, thoughtful pieces, but the furious, controlled improvisation on the exhilarating "Aviskaar" is a reminder that he is one of India's master musicians.
The album meanwhile, builds into a succession of incendiary dialogues between two instruments long thought incompatible: the north Indian sitar and the south Indian veena. The fact that a woman plays the older, deeper-toned veena brings an interesting slant to the duo's dazzling empathic chemistry.
India isn't perhaps the place you'd look for a guitar talent. But Kolkata's Debashish Bhattacharya is one, and this solo album features music personally connected to him, often reflecting his city's artistic, multicultural aspects.
Favourites are the calm, still pieces such as a moving homage to the holy Ganges "Ganga Kinare", "Rasika", the wonderfully twangy "Kolkata to Kanyakumari" and the fusion feel of the opening Sufi Bhaktiand Hindi/ Muslim ("Sufi Bhakti").
He plays slide guitar, an instrument introduced to the city by legendary Hawaiian guitarist Tau Moe in the 1920s but Indianised by adding resonating strings and drone strings.
A 'must' have album.

I've been listening to this CD for a few months now, and I keep learning new things. Pandit Debashish has made another masterpiece here. He has made his music accessible to ears unfamiliar with Hindustani music without losing any of the depth and richness that makes that music so magnficent for those already familiar. In this album, Debashish is at once universal and deeply personal as he tells musical stories of his much-beloved home of Kolkata. The pieces are shorter than traditional ragas, and they mix freely in other styles of music, as if to say "there are no walls in music."

The other thing that makes this record so deeply personal is that Debashish has his brother Subhashis with him as a full musical equal on this record. No mere accompanist, Subhashis is a full creator along with his brother. The cover photograph of this album truly captures the joy the brothers feel creating music together, and the joy one feels listening to them.


Once again, Debashish plays his Trinity of Guitars, and brings out new flavors in each instrument. The chaturangui mixes tonalities from many different Hindustani instruments and brings them to the listener's ear in startling new ways. The Gandharvi calls forth the very primal forces of the cosmos, Lord Shiva's dance of creation and destruction. The sweet, innocent Anandi applies balm to the world's wounds and reminds jaded adults that our children will renew the world once again.

Debashish has been one of the world's great musicians for some time now. He keeps getting better. This record is the evidence.

I saw this guy in Kent at a local high school performance hall in Washington State a while ago. He is a musical master as is his tabla playing brother and I do me brillant. Even more amazing is that only 40 people showed up to see him at $20 bucks no less. There should have been 4000! Either the advertising sucked or our musical tastes have been degraded so far down the totem pole with Rap and American Idol that people don't even recognise a true artist. Even the Indian community didn't come out to see him.....pathetic.
Ry Cooder and numerous other guitar giants have all praised him and recorded with him. Be that as it may, if you want some serious 'soul' music buy this guys CD.

I bought this after reading about Artist. His guitar work is on par if not better than John McLaughlins' work.. Buy this and feel safe in your purchase.

I have been listening to world music many years and enjoy indian slide guitar. But the compositions and presentations on this CD are way.... bad. There are so many repetitious riffs that sound like someone in an altered state 'thinking' their music is 'really Jamming' but this is not that. I recommend using this one as a drink coaster . . . buyer beware.