Debashish Bhattacharya, slide guitarist from India
December 7, 2009 11:10 PM   Subscribe

Have you heard the Indian slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya? He's really very very very very good.

Here's the Debashish Bhattacharya official site, and the Wiki page.

See also: nickyskye's excellent post from June 2009 on Indian slide guitarist Van Shipley.
posted by flapjax at midnite (27 comments total) 49 users marked this as a favorite
 
Beautiful! I think I'm going to get some of his music. Thanks for the post.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 11:24 PM on December 7, 2009


Extraordinary!
posted by darkstar at 11:39 PM on December 7, 2009


really good.
posted by vronsky at 12:04 AM on December 8, 2009


His album Calcutta Slide Guitar #3 has been in heavy rotation here at chez Palmcorder ever since we got it last year. I love this stuff. Thanks for the post!
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:05 AM on December 8, 2009


So beautiful. Thank you.
posted by spacelux at 1:52 AM on December 8, 2009


This is good. Thank you.
posted by adamvasco at 2:21 AM on December 8, 2009


I had the tremendous pleasure of recording mohan veena-ist Anand Sundaram for a local community radio show a couple of weeks ago - Evidence here.
posted by Grangousier at 2:40 AM on December 8, 2009 [1 favorite]


This is one of those very irritating Metafilter posts where the only thing I can snark about is the lack of things to snark about.
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:56 AM on December 8, 2009


Have you heard the Indian slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya?

Why yes, I have! Highly recommended!
posted by Wolof at 5:31 AM on December 8, 2009


I'd have thought you would've, Wolof!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:45 AM on December 8, 2009


Very nice.
posted by toastchee at 5:46 AM on December 8, 2009


I saw him at the Lotus Festival a few years ago and promptly bought a number of his CDs. Just incredible live.
posted by noahpoah at 6:36 AM on December 8, 2009


I believe this requires a hooka for full appreciation.
posted by cleancut at 6:48 AM on December 8, 2009 [1 favorite]


I'm glad you mentioned the slide player, because I wouldn't have noticed him next to that awesome tabla playing.
posted by Midnight Rambler at 7:46 AM on December 8, 2009 [1 favorite]


Reminds me a little of Ry Cooder & Mohan Vishwa Bhatt: A Meeting by the River.

"Bhatt is an iconoclastic character himself. He plays a modified box he calls the mohan vina that is a hybrid of a classical Indian instrument and slide guitar"
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:14 AM on December 8, 2009


I believe this requires a hooka for full appreciation

Also beef vindaloo, garlic naan, basmati rice and a Kingfisher in a tall frosted glass... but I'll start with some papadum, please.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:15 AM on December 8, 2009 [1 favorite]


Also beef vindaloo

You just made baby Krishna cry.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:17 AM on December 8, 2009 [3 favorites]


He came to London last year and did a free performance in the foyer of the Baribican Centre. A musician friend of mine had been in contact with Bhattacharya, built his own slide guitar and was somehow involved in organising Bhattacharya's trip to London. So my SO and I were dragged persuaded to come along and sit on the foyer floor with about sixty other people, listening to some of the best live music I've ever heard. The slide guitar is an amazing instrument (I was lucky to hear my friend playing with his during various stages of its completion, and again after he'd had it complete for several months) and I haven't heard the tabla played much, so I was blown away by how good they sounded. As a bonus, the tabla player had a solo at one point which he went for with one of the biggest and most joyful grins I've ever seen!
posted by metaBugs at 8:40 AM on December 8, 2009 [1 favorite]


Just saw him live two months ago and was also blown away. The astounding tabla player is his brother, incidentally.
posted by newmoistness at 8:44 AM on December 8, 2009


I love Raga and I love slide guitar, and I am loving this.
posted by tybeet at 1:21 PM on December 8, 2009


Is it really bad that the tabla percussion instrument immediately reminds me of Tool?

Very cool though.
posted by Harry at 2:45 PM on December 8, 2009


Is it really bad that the tabla percussion instrument immediately reminds me of Tool ?

Heh. No more bad than, say, someone who's immediately reminded of Within You Without You because that's the first place they heard the tabla. With any luck, though, from now you'll begin a musical journey that will widen your aural horizons, and ultimately the tabla will take its rightful place within your mind as the great instrument that it is, with a very long and rich history as an integral part of one of the world's most amazing and diverse musical traditions, and not merely as an exotic sound effect, not especially well-played, from a contemporary rock band.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:12 PM on December 8, 2009


George Thorogood he ain't.
posted by raider at 4:55 PM on December 8, 2009


Very nice. First time I heard slide played this way was Harry Manx... And this is real real nice. Thanks!
posted by sea at 5:03 PM on December 8, 2009


Man, after reading the earlier post Detainee 063 and then the screenplay for "Brothers", this is exactly what I needed to find my way back to calmness and peace. Thanks!
posted by snsranch at 5:51 PM on December 8, 2009


Lucky that flapjax didn't do a bluegrass post, then.

Apparently, that's what Detainee 063 would've been subjected to - the goons tried blasting detainees with things like hiphop or hair metal to annoy them & keep them awake, but in the end it turned out that it was bluegrass that really sent them right up the wall - the twangy banjo hitting some kind of musical achillles heel that people accustomed to middle eastern music just cannot bear.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:55 PM on December 8, 2009


Wow. This is what I come to Metafilter for - stuff I would never in a million years have heard of or found out about on my own, and which is fabulously cool and amazing. Thank you!
posted by po at 4:47 AM on December 9, 2009


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