Sunday, September 22, 2013
DEBASHISH BHATTACHARYA ( born
12 January 1963) is an Indian classical musician who plays the lap slide
guitar.
Bhattacharya was born into a musical family in Kolkata, it
became apparent that Bhattacharya was skilled at a young age. His parents, both
traditional Indian vocalists, gave him a basic understanding of music and he
first began strumming a guitar at age three, when his father gave him a
full-size Hawaiian lap steel guitar. He made his debut at the age of four
on All India Radio, in Calcutta.
At the age of nine, he left his parents for ten years to study
under the pioneer of Indian slide-guitar Brij Bhushan Kabra. At age
twenty, he was awarded the President of India Award for winning the National
Music competition of All India Radio.
His originality as a musician has earned him global admiration,
and he has performed on networks all over the world. He has attracted attention
to the slide guitar and Indian classical music within India and globally. Today
he has more than 2000 students in India and other countries, and thousands of
musicians, music directors, teachers, and followers who have been led to the
new language of old traditional Indian music of Debashish. He invented his own
slide-guitars, unique to his compositions, which he calls the "Trinity of
Guitars". These hollow neck instruments are the 24-string chaturangui,
the 14 string gandharvi and the anandi, a
4-string lap steel ukulele. He opened a new Universal School of Music
in Kolkata, India, where he teaches students from all over the world the
principle universal form of Indian music and special course of Guitar. The
school is a non-profit organisation, works for restoring music, musician and
traditional art. His most popular albums are: Mahima with Bob
Brozman, and Calcutta Slide-Guitar, Vol. 3. Both of these albums
are on Riverboat records and ranked in the top 10 of the Billboard World
Music Charts.
He was nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award in the category
of Best Traditional World Music Album for his album Calcutta
Chronicles.
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