Debashish Bhattacharya is one of those rare artists whose talent transcends continents and cultures. One of the most respected slide guitarists in the world, he has collaborated with many Western guitar greats, such as John McLaughlin, Derek Trucks and Jerry Douglas. But the foundation of his sound is Indian classical music. Now, with his new album, The Sound Of The Soul, Debashish has come full circle to pay tribute to the music that first inspired him to pick up the guitar at the tender age of two. We meet him to discuss the enduring influence of the music of master sarod player Ali Akbar Khan and learn how slide guitar speaks to all of us with a voice straight from the soul.
Who was Ali Akbar Khan – and why have you chosen to dedicate your new album, The Sound Of The Soul, to his memory?
“Within Indian classical music, which has maybe 150 to 200 years of development, Ali Akbar Khan is one of the rare gems… he sits in the centre of everybody else. And why so? Because he plays a sarod, a gliding fretless instrument, and he’s the son of the legend of Indian classical music Baba Allauddin Khan, who was also a guru of Ravi Shankar, whom the West knows very well.
“My first experience of [a festival marquee] and the was huge, with 3,000 or 4,000 people inside. On winter nights, people used to come from all over the neighbouring districts and states to the. And if they couldn’t have a place inside they used to sit outside on the grass or even on the main city avenue all night with a quilt, sitting and listening to the music – that was [the custom of ] that generation. So, at two years old, I saw Ustad Ali Akbar Khan play at first-hand – and that image somehow never faded in my mind. As I grew, I heard him on the radio and the more I heard, the more I felt like he and his music [represented] a kind of peace, a kind of joy, an emotional pull… This relationship was pretty one-way till I met him in 1992.
