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Debashish Bhattacharya's MODERN INDIA is a ground-breaking World Music band, featuring India's master slide guitarist in a contemporary group setting with acoustic guitar, bass, tabla, drums and the extraordinary vocals of his teenage daughter Anandi. Debashish's unique arrangements modernize classical melodies and rhythms with multiple levels of percussion and lightning-fast group unison solos. Debashish will be joined by his brother Subhasis on tabla, his daughter Anandi on vocals, and three American musicians, including drummer Jeff Sipe.
Kolkata, India’s Debashish Bhattacharya started learning Indian music from his parents before he learned the alphabet. In his childhood he mastered many Indian classical instrumental styles as well as vocal music from different musical teachers in Calcutta. He became a disciple and student of Brij Bhushan Khabra, the father of Indian classical guitar, for 10 years, and also trained under Ajoy Chakraborty, the eminent Indian vocalist. He has also studied with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.
As a performer, Debashish gave his first guitar recital at the age of four on the All India Radio, and in a public concert. In his twenties, he evolved a unique style of playing guitar, synthesizing selected features of various other instruments such as the Veena, Sitar, Sarod and Kannur. In 1984, he was awarded the President of India award at the age of 21.
Debashish developed his innovative Hindustani slide guitar after years of research and experience. It consists of a Hofner acoustic F hole guitar, with a total of 22 strings. He added a platform of wood running the length of the guitar's neck, mounted with 17 tuning gears. This piece of wood extends the width of the neck, making room for twelve sympathetic strings, and five supporting strings for additional versatility. Above the 5 normal (sliding melody) strings, there is a pair of ckikari strings, as on a sitar. One of Debashish's innovations was to move them to the treble side of the guitar, which enables far more complex playing, since their rhythmic drones can be played by the fingers, over other melodies simultaneously. Debashish plays this guitar while sitting cross legged, with the guitar held on the lap and played with a small steel bar, metal picks and a celluloid thumb pick.
Debashish is perhaps the greatest slide guitarist in India. He has, both through creating the actual design of the instrument, and through his incredible talent and discipline, elevated the Hindustani slide guitar to be the highest evolution of slide guitar anywhere. Though he is often compared to V.M. Bhatt, there is little basis for comparison, because Debashish's music has far greater musical range, physical dexterity, and emotional depth. To develop his playing, he has undergone decades of disciplined study of Indian vocal technique combined with his instrumental work. Debashish can sing perfectly in parallel with every blindingly fast melody he plays. Possessed of a very open musical mind, Debashish is eager and more than qualified to collaborate and truly blend with musicians from any other country.
Subhasis is a leader of his generation of Indian percussionists. As the younger brother of Debashish, Subhasis grew up steeped in the deep musical background of the Bhattacharya family, learning melody and rhythm from infancy. His father Sri Sunil Bhattacharya taught him tabla and his mother, vocalist Smt. Manjushree Bhattacharya worked with him melodically when he was a toddler.
He started to make his presence felt in the music scene from childhood as a promising tabla player trained by teachers Sri Prabir Bhattacharya and Pt. Shyamal Bose. Now, he is considered to be a master player, and he continues to study with Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, the senior tabla maestro. He has regularly performed in every major Indian music festival, and has recorded four albums with Debashish and seven albums with Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty.
Subhasis first toured outside of India in 1996 with Debashish and Bob Brozman. His skill and flexibility as percussionist on several instruments, rhythm arranger, and vocalist have since been heard on subsequent overseas tours in the USA, Canada, South Africa, Greece, Kuwait, Bangladesh, and Nepal. A leading studio musician in India, he has begun creating and leading large percussion ensembles, and his arranging skills are essential to the music on this album, as an equal participant in its creation. With meticulously tuned hand drums, he played intricate rhythms, plus melodic parts inside the rhythm section. Creating percussion landscapes by playing several instruments on multiple tracks gave Subhashis a sense of liberty, yielding one creative explosion after another.
Anandi Bhattacharya is a child prodigy in a family filled with illustrious musicians and singers. Her father, slide guitar master Debashish Bhattacharya, has been her constant guide, teaching her to hone her skills in understanding music. She inherited the golden voice of her grandmother, whose music grew and was nurtured within the family. Sukanya started training under her aunt Sutapa Bhattacharya at the age of three. She gave her first radio performance at the age of four.
She began training under Vidushi Shubhra Guha at the age of twelve. Her singing is a mixed style of Agra, Patiala and Maihar schooling. Though she is a young singer, born in 1996, she has already been attempting songs from various genres of Indian music, Bollywood music, and popular western numbers. Yet she dreams of imbuing the cultural ethos of India in her presentation of music. She has already started touring with her father and has presented an experimental programme on Tagore’s songs and raga music inter-phase. Her tone and timbre, and her intellect, portend a bright future for this precocious young singer.
Jeff Sipe, AKA The Apartment Q-258 was born in Berlin, Germany in 1959. Jeff's family moved frequently in his youth while his father worked for the United States government. After a short stint in the D.C. area, Jeff's family moved back to Germany. This is where Jeff learned to play drums while in junior high. In 1975, Jeff's first stepping stone was attending the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music.
After two years of hard work Jeff's dream finally came true when he was accepted to Berklee in 1977. While at Berklee, Jeff studied under Bob Kaufman and Bill Norine, he attended clinics given by Alan Dawson and was mentored by Lee Venters. Jeff was lucky enough to attend Berklee with an impressive cast of musicians like Branford Marsalis, Bill Frisell, Mike Stern and Jeff Watts, just to name a few. Jeff actually played in a wedding band with Victor Bailey and started his first fusion band with Steve Vai and Baron Brown. This experience turned Jeff on to a wide open world of music and gave him valuable tools that he still carries with him today.
Jeff has also played with, toured with and or recorded with:
Bela Fleck, Phil Lesh, the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Mike Stern, Howard Levy, Neal Young, Stephen Stills, Percy Sledge, Felix Cavileri, Trey Anistasio Band, Sam Bush, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Joan Osborn, Jazz is Dead, Paul McCandles, Mike Kang, Leftover Salmon, Keller Williams, Hellborg Lane Sipe, Greg Osby, Ike Stubblefield, Bruce Hampton, George Porter, Eugene Chadbourne, The Zambiland Orchestra, Grease Factor, The Pisgah Pickers, Paul Hanson, Project Z, Jimmy Herring Band, Jeff Coffin & The Mu ftet, The Apartment Projects, Craig Erickson, T Lavitz, Jeff Sipe Trio, Shannon Whitworth, Debashish Batacharya, Dan Wall, Taj Mahal, Waylon Jennings, Dell Mc Coury, Lucinda Williams, Art Lande, Shane Theriot, WZ, the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Adam Nitti, and many many more!
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2014
October 4 Herrick Chapel, Occidental College, Los Angeles CA (Debashish and Subhasis only)
October 10-12 Richmond Folk Festival, Richmond VA (Debashish, Subhasis and Anandi)
October 18 LEAF (Lake Eden Arts Festival), Black Mt. NC (Modern India with muralist Molly Rose Freeman)
MODERN INDIA released its debut CD in Spring 2013. They will be making their 2nd American tour in September and October 2014. Debashish, Subhasis and Anandi Bhattacharya live in Kolkata, India. They will be joined by three American musicians, including drummer Jeff Sipe from Asheville NC.
Herschel Freeman Agency, Inc. has established a reputation for finding innovative, traditional musicians from throughout North America and around the world.
Our roster encompasses established and emerging artists from India, Ireland, Hawaii, Guinea, France, Cuba, Italy, Scotland, Japan, Germany, Sweden and England, and an array of musicians from Canada and the United States.
