Pandit (master) Debashish Bhattacharya is one of the world’s most remarkable slide guitarists and this album represents the culmination of a lifetime of intensive study, performance and innovation. All the guitars heard on 3: Calcutta Slide-Guitar are unique instruments designed by Debashish himself, a Trinity of Guitars – Chaturangui, Gandharvi and Anandi – representing three generations of instruments, while also continuing a thousand-year tradition of music. 3: Calcutta Slide-Guitar dazzles the listener with hypnotic patterns and stunning music shaped from Debashish’s original three-finger picking technique.
Born into a musical family on 12 January 1963, in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, Debashish Bhattacharya learnt to sing before he could talk. At the age of 3, he started playing the Hawaiian lap steel guitar, giving his first major concert on All India Radio at 4. The first slide guitarist to receive the President of India Award in 1984 he was made a Pandit (master) at 40. Since then he has been established as one of the world’s most outstanding slide guitarists by tours of inspirational live concerts and bestselling albums, including the breathtaking collaboration with slide guitarist Bob Brozman, Mahima (‘truly groundbreaking’ MOJO ‘beautiful and inspired’ Daily Telegraph).