The Debashish Bhattacharya Trio in Topanga Canyon
September 29 @ 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
The Debashish Bhattacharya Trio in Topanga Canyon! Join us for a mesmerizing evening of pure Indian classical music at Corazón Performing Arts. Don’t miss out on this unforgettable live performance in an intimate eclectic space!
The Debashish Bhattacharya Trio
presents
Legacy: The music of pioneering Indian recording artists
The Trio
Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya is an award-winning artist known worldwide as the unrivaled master of Hindustani slide guitar. A product of the demanding tradition of the ancient guru-student training system, he has received numerous international awards and accolades, including two Grammy nominations, Billboard Top 10, and the BBC Planet Award.
Rounding out the Trio are Debashish’s daughter Anandi, a gifted vocalist and a rising star in her own right, and Debashish’s younger brother Subhasis, who is recognized as one of the greatest percussionists of his generation.
The Legacy
The concert program for the Fall of 2024 consists of a unique tribute to the pioneering Indian recording artists of the early 1900s. In those days, small shellac disks captured succinct renditions of Hindustani classical ragas and popular songs, creating a sensation among the wider populace. Indeed, this golden era saw the rise of the first celebrity musicians; household names of the time.
As a direct descendant of this illustrious past, both spiritually and in terms of training, Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya has created a program that links this legacy to the present and forges a path to the future with new compositions.
The Performance
The Ensemble will recreate the spirit and character of those early recordings. Dressed in the fashion of the period, they will transport us to those early days, when a family might have huddled around a radio to hear their favorite stars in, say, 1915.
Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya has not only been recognized as the globe’s finest slide guitarist, he is also an innovator and inventor. Indeed, a major highlight of the performance will be the ornate stringed instruments of Debashish’s own creation, each of which are manufactured and sold by his company Trideb International Guitars. These include the Chaturangui (Chatur = 4, ang = color,“gui” from guitar), a 26-string slide guitar; Pushpa Veena (Pushpa = “flower” Veena = “stringed instrument”), a 25-string hybrid of the Rabab sarod and slide guitar, and more.
With lilting, elegant vocal lines, labrynthine slide guitar, driving complex rhythms of tabla, and the luminous sparkle of the Swarmandal, the evening will feature various combinations of members and instruments: the full ensemble, duets, and solo pieces. On full display in each work will be the combination of virtuosity, finely filigreed ornamentation, and emotional expression that makes Hindustani music so appealing.