{"id":139537,"date":"2023-06-06T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=139537"},"modified":"2023-06-06T18:22:38","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T01:22:38","slug":"evocative-music-from-a-unique-instrument-on-debashish-bhattacharyas-the-sound-of-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/evocative-music-from-a-unique-instrument-on-debashish-bhattacharyas-the-sound-of-the-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Evocative Music from a Unique Instrument on Debashish Bhattacharya\u2019s \u2018The Sound of the Soul\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Debashish-Bhattacharya-The-Sound-of-the-Soul.jpg?ssl=1\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"931\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Debashish-Bhattacharya-The-Sound-of-the-Soul.jpg?resize=1024%2C931&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Cover artwork for the album 'The Sound of the Soul' by Debashish Bhattacharya\" class=\"wp-image-139539\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Debashish-Bhattacharya-The-Sound-of-the-Soul.jpg?resize=1024%2C931&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Debashish-Bhattacharya-The-Sound-of-the-Soul.jpg?resize=300%2C273&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Debashish-Bhattacharya-The-Sound-of-the-Soul.jpg?resize=768%2C698&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Debashish-Bhattacharya-The-Sound-of-the-Soul.jpg?resize=600%2C546&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Debashish-Bhattacharya-The-Sound-of-the-Soul.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><strong>Debashish Bhattacharya<\/strong><br><strong><em>The Sound of the Soul&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><br>(Abstract Logix)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>At just two years old, Debashish Bhattacharya attended his first concert\u2014by sarod master Ali Akbar Khan\u2014and started down a path of imagining Indian classical music played on Western instruments. Years later, he and Khan had what Bhattacharya described as a decade-long \u201cguru and disciple relationship\u201d in which Bhattacharya would stay with Khan for a month and study with the master. Of course there\u2019s a world of difference between a sarod and a six-string, but Bhattacharya still absorbed Kahn\u2019s teachings and he remains devoted to Khan\u2019s memory, recording<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3oKXt20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> <em>The Sound of the Soul <\/em><\/a>as a tribute to his mentor\u2019s centenary.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like Khan, who violinist Yehudi Menuhin called \u201cthe greatest musician in the world,\u201d Bhattacharya plays with equal parts passion and precision, deeply rooted in Hindustani improvisation and tradition. But unlike his teacher, Bhattacharya has spent a lifetime translating that mix onto an instrument of his own making, the <em>chaturangui<\/em>, a hollow-necked six string that has two drone strings on the bass side, two rhythm strings on the treble side, and 14 sympathetic strings alongside the neck. Played with a metal bar, the <em>chaturangui<\/em> encompasses a wide range of tones, lighter than a sarod, darker than a Weissenborn, and perfect for the dynamism of these four tracks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5azXWuW5Py4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The album\u2019s centerpiece, \u201cTo His Lotus Feet,\u201d is stunningly beautiful, a 39-minute meditation on the lessons between master and disciple. It starts slowly enough, with Bhattacharya playing a low, liquid flow of notes that build gradually from one phrase to the next, one ornament after another, in a conversation that keeps growing deeper, more resonant, more powerful. Then, at the 15:00 mark, he\u2019s joined by Swapan Chaudhuri (tabla) and the drama really begins, its improvisations turning more adventurous, more far-ranging, reaching a crescendo at the 38:00 mark before quietly dying back to the last echoes of memory, gratitude, and devotion. Astonishing!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For reviews of more new recordings, visit\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/albumreviews\" target=\"_blank\">acousticguitar.com\/albumreviews<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bhattacharya plays his self-designed chaturangui with equal parts passion and precision on this tribute to his mentor, Ali Akbar Khan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":139538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Bhattacharya plays his self-designed chaturangui with equal parts passion and precision on this tribute to his mentor, Ali Akbar Khan","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[885],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1568],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Debashish-Bhattacharya.jpg?fit=750%2C415&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1568,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"kenny-berkowitz","display_name":"Kenny Berkowitz","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Kenny-Berkowitz-Photo_web.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Kenny-Berkowitz-Photo_web.jpg"},"user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139537"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139537"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140084,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139537\/revisions\/140084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139537"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=139537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}