Debashish Bhattacharya's Odyssey of Slide Guitar Ragas... from Dusk till Dawn!

Debashish Bhattacharya, an inspiration to the global contemporary musical scenario, is an Indian Classical Musician who has mastered the chords of the Slide Guitar. Born into a musical family from Kolkata in 1963, Debashish fell in love with guitar at the age of 3 years itself. The development of his musical abilities in the forthcoming years resulted in the creation of symphonies that greatly enriched the harmonious heritage of Indian classical music. At the age of 15 years, he fashioned his very first guitar called Chauturangui. Alongwith Chauturangui, two other slide guitars Gandharvi and Anandi also called the “Trinity of Guitars”, that have been recognized as his patents, have now become popular instruments amongst other musicians as well. He was the recipient of the BBC Planet Award in 2007 and was also nominated for the Grammy in 2009 for his album Calcutta Chronicles. Debashish runs the Universal School of Music in Kolkatta, where he teaches music to students from all over the world.

The originality that Debashish brings to his harmonies through his innovative instruments has earned him worldwide admiration. Coming from the legacy of Gurus like Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra and Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty, he has managed to achieve his own position in this genre. His harmonies bring about a sense of nostalgia like a fusion of the symphonies of the past and the present, thus, reminding different people of different melodies of either musical masters of the past or the popular artists of the contemporary world or often also both.

Describing his love for the music of the Slide guitar he describes its beauty and his attraction for this instrument by saying that, “The Slide Guitar makes beautiful copy of voice itself… The melody can go into any direction any side…!”

Those words surely stand true for his amazing music. We wish him all the luck for all his musical endeavors.

Do cherish his harmonies in our short video here on Bollyoz.com!