A lot can happen over coffee. And sipping the drink while chatting with legendary classical slide guitarist Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, makes it a real treat. In Bangalore, with his new world music band The Calcutta Chronicles, the pioneer of the Hindustani slide guitar, BBC award winner and Grammy nominee, shares his journey, personal experiences and narrates stories from the Calcutta Chronicles.
Being part of a legacy with an illustrious musical lineage that goes back eight generations, the prodigy says: “The more gifts you have, the more responsibility you get. So the journey becomes more challenging with time. My ancestors used to be gurus in the courts of kings. Since then, I have seen the world change very fast and it’s scary in a way to wonder what will happen to the next generation. Will there be a listener for classical music?”
He further points out that there is hardly any community left for classical music. “I don’t believe in Hindustani and Carnatic differentiations. On the bright side, fusion is another good thing that is happening with classical music. But it needs foundation and training. Children cannot find enough vision to stick to one thing for a long time. On the whole, Indian classical music is evolving and I’m going with the flow though I don’t know which direction it is headed.”
Having started his illustrious career at the age of four, 51-year-old Debashish has being playing the slide guitar for over 30 years. He adapted and modified it to create three uniquely expressive instruments — the Chaturangui, Gandharvi and Anandi. “I have been chosen to create something for the music world. At points in my life when I needed ideas, someone ignited a spark in me. Creating a new Hindustani classical guitar and genre was not the initial plan.
Later, I saw it as an essential work to play Indian classical raga music. That is what led to the creation of three guitars that look similar but are different sonically from one another.”
He proudly says that when he started, there were hardly a handful of slide guitarists. “Today there are over 15,000 slide guitar players in India. I am hosting the biggest slide guitar festival and competition in Asia in January at the India International guitar festival to commemorate this success.”
On what inspired his band — the Calcutta Chronicles comprising Debashish on slide guitars, Subhasis Bhattacharjee on tabla and percussion, Nishad Pandey on electric guitar and Anandi Bhattacharya on vocals, he says: “When I looked back at my journey of music and my city, it displayed a great musical lineage from all genres. The first Hawaiian slide guitar band in India also came to the shores of Calcutta during World War II. The Calcutta Chronicles is the synopsis of everything Kolkata is musically. It is inspired by Indian classical sounds but has hints of all genres. I would call it the modern urbanised contemporary form of Indian classical music.”
