Mahima: pronounced ‘moheema’, it roughly translates as ‘divine inspiration through artistic creation’.
Raga: The term raga has at least two senses. The common use of the word is as a synonym for a piece of Indian music with improvisation. In another sense, a raga is something that could be described as a particular mode or scale. Indian ragas can consist of scales of five, six or seven notes in ascending and descending order; these scales, which are several thousand years old, actually convey a sense of different times of day through the use of flat and sharp intervals. Within a rich structure of specific notes, phrasing and rhythm, each raga presents the musician with the world’s most complex improvisational possibilities. As Debashish describes, a raga is an abstract painting done on a canvas of time by the colour of pure melodies, painted with a brush of emotions and the movement of pure heart and intellect.
Debashish Bhattacharya: Born in 1963 in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), to a family with a long musical lineage, 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 Kolkata. For ten years, he became a disciple and student of Brij Bhushan Khabra, father of Indian classical guitar, and also trained under Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty, the eminent Indian vocalist. Bhattacharya has also studied with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.
At the age of 4, Debashish gave his first guitar recital at a public concert, broadcast on the All India Radio. In his teens and twenties, he advanced his unique style of playing guitar, and at the age of 21 was awarded the President of India award.
Debashish’s development of new slide guitars sets him apart from other artists, both on the international circuit and among Indian musicians who play Indian music on Western instruments. His Hindustani slide guitar is a completely new instrument: by modifying and adding strings to the Western guitar, Debashish has been able to create uniquely Indian sounds and techniques, which recall other classical Indian instruments such as the veena, sarod, sitar and santoor. These astonishing techniques are innovative both in Indian classical music and among guitarists of every genre worldwide.
Debashish developed his innovative twenty-four-string Hindustani slide guitar after years of research and experience. In addition to the six normal strings of a standard Hawaiian guitar, there are also twelve sympathetic strings, four supporting strings and a pair of chikari strings (high rhythmic drones). One of Debashish’s innovations was to move the chikari strings to the treble side of the guitar. This enables far more complex playing, as these rhythmic drones can be played simultaneously by the fingers over other melodies. Debashish plays lap-style while sitting cross-legged with a small steel bar, metal finger picks and a thumb pick.
These technical innovations, combined with his incredible talent and discipline, render Debashish as one of the greatest slide guitarists ever to have lived, elevating 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: Debashish’s music has greater musical range, physical dexterity, and emotional depth. To develop his playing, he has undergone decades of disciplined study of Indian vocal technique alongside his instrumental work. Debashish can sing perfectly in parallel with every blindingly fast melody he plays. Possessed of a very open musical mind, he is eager and exceedingly qualified to collaborate and truly blend with musicians from any other country.
Bob Brozman initially met Debashish and his younger brother Subhashis in 1996, for the first of two ‘World of Slide’ tours of the USA and Canada. An immediate friendship was obvious from the first note, and they have since played together in India, Canada, South Africa and Hawaii, occasionally with Debashish’s sister, vocalist Sutapa Bhattacharya. Debashish and Bob have also toured with Takashi Hirayasu (Okinawa) and René Lacaille (La Réunion), both of whom have also recorded with Bob for Riverboat Records. Most recently, Debashish has toured Europe and recorded with John McLaughlin and his latest incarnation of Shakti.
Bob Brozman: Bob was born in New York in 1954, and has been involved in music since early childhood. A guitarist since the age of 6, Bob discovered National guitars at 13, and in their unique sound the young Bob found his musical calling. He studied music and ethnomusicology at Washington University, with an emphasis on the earliest roots of Delta blues. Soon after, he also became a respected authority on historical Hawaiian music, publishing articles and amassing a large collection of 78rpm records. He has produced five reissue albums from this collection, documenting the best of Hawaiian music from 1915 to 1935.
Since his first solo album in 1981, Bob’s repertoire of recordings has grown by twenty-six titles to include eleven solo projects and at least a dozen collaborations with international friends, with four of his most recent titles ranking in the Top 10 of Europe’s World Music charts. Bob’s first collaborative project began in 1988, when he rediscovered the legendary 1929 Hawaiian recording artists, the Tau Moe family. Together they recorded a landmark album, Remembering The Songs Of Our Youth, a historic recreation of the family’s genuine Hawaiian music from sixty years earlier. The album was released in 1989 to rave international reviews, including the Library of Congress Select List Award. Bob began production of a feature-length documentary film about the Tau Moe family and their amazing fifty-four-year-long world tour (see ‘Slide Guitar Comes Full Circle’ below).
Bob’s ability to use the guitar as a portable translator of culture, coupled with his empathetic nature through music, culture and language, enables him to establish genuine musical friendships based on respect and love of music. His deep knowledge of musical history and global cultures has led to music work for film and television. He maintains a near-superhuman tour schedule throughout the year, every year. Live performance tours are a vital part of Bob’s activity, in addition to his collaborations. He tours constantly throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa, and in between tours he also produces albums for other artists and continues to generate educational and concert videos.
As well as his rigorous touring and recording schedule, Bob is also an Adjunct Professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, where he lectures on ethnomusicology, and is currently researching string music in Papua New Guinea and the tremendous number of islands around New Guinea and in the western South Pacific Ocean. Through the auspices of the university, Bob will be recording and collaborating with a wide variety of musicians from these interesting locales. He is also working toward the creation of a foundation to help Third World musicians to obtain the musical basics that Western musicians take for granted, such as playable instruments, strings, tuning gears and basic recording equipment. In the United States, he is active as co-founder and co-director of International Guitar Seminars, which hosts students from around the world annually at sites in California, New York, Washington state and Canada.
Bob’s familiarity with diverse world music cultures produces a novel blending of rhythmic and timbral influences, which is unparalleled in today’s musical environment. His rhythmic dexterity resonates with elements of blues, jazz, Gypsy swing, calypso, sega, and even the most modern hip-hop and ska beats. Likewise, his chords and harmonies articulate an acute blend of timbres from Hawaiian, Indian, African, Japanese/Okinawan, Caribbean and American roots-blues. He casually shares historical facts with his audiences, and charms them with his ability to integrate local languages into his show: over the years, Bob has taught himself useful phrases in over thirty languages, which he regularly uses both on stage and off.
Bob has a grasp of several languages but his preferred language is music… which he speaks fluently, around the world. A lifelong study of ethnomusicology and the global migration of musical styles ensures his committed attention and respect to each of the cultures in his repertoire. These traits, combined with his remarkable energy, curiosity and humour, have enabled Bob to produce an abundance of collaborative recordings in the last several years, most notably with artists such as René Lacaille (La Réunion), Takashi Hirayasu (Okinawa), Djeli Moussa Diawara (Guinea), David Grisman (USA), Ledward Kaapana (Hawaii), Cyril Pahinui (Hawaii), Woody Mann (USA) and Jeff Lang (Australia).
The consistent high quality of these well-received projects has established Bob as (according to one reviewer) ‘the man whose musical empathy seems to know no bounds’. As journalist Paul Fisher notes, ‘If music existed in another universe, Bob would be the Planet Earth’s representative for an interplanetary collaboration.’
Subhashis Bhattacharya: Subhashis is a leader of his generation of Indian percussionists. As the younger brother of Debashish, he 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, and was trained by teachers Sri Prabir Bhattacharya and Pt. Shyamal Bose. Now he is considered to be a master player and continues to study with Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, the senior tabla maestro. He has regularly performed in every major Indian music festival, recording four albums with Debashish and seven with Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty.
Subhashis first toured outside India in 1996, with Debashish and Bob. 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.
Sutapa Bhattacharya: Vocalist Sutapa Bhattacharya, the sister of Debashish and Subhashis, has clearly inherited the vocal genes of generations of Bhattacharyas. With a Master’s degree in music, she has spent her life as a vocalist and teacher of music. Capable of singing fluently in India’s ten most well-known languages, she sings most genres of Indian music, from classical and semi-classical to traditional folk songs to film songs, both classic and contemporary. On tours with Debashish and Subhashis, and also with larger overseas touring groups organized by Bob, she has astounded audiences and musicians alike by matching Debashish’s lightning-fast guitar melodies note for note with her voice. Her 2002 release, Jete Jete, placed among the Top 10 Bangla albums of the year, positioning Sutapa foremost among artists in her genre in India.
Playing Guitar with Debashish Bhattacharya: This recording is as much a voyage to the West by Debashish as it is a voyage to the East by me. Debashish’s compositions herein strongly reflect his interest in composing for a Western ear. Indian classical music, often somewhat inaccessible to ‘world music’ ears, does not have chord changes or song structure in the European sense. Mahima, however, contains Indian folk songs and many compositions by Debashish, which lean toward song structure and the possibility of chord changes.
One of the most interesting aspects of creating this music with Debashish was collectively making decisions about how much harmony to apply and choosing which harmonies to add to Debashish’s melodies. Some melodies literally cry out ‘Change chords!’, while others only hint at it, and some melodies ultimately sound more beautiful against the non-changing environment of the root sound of the mode. Some songs could be arranged either way, as a matter of subjective taste.
Having concise songlike compositions on the record was a priority for both of us, as was covering a range of moods, modes and rhythms. The experience of playing with Debashish requires a maximum level of attention, which in turn generates a profound level of respect and love, both toward Debashish himself and for the art of music generally.
Bob Brozman
About the instruments: Debashish uses two special instruments of his own design on this recording. Both are dedicated slide guitars, played on the lap with a steel bar. The first is a twenty-four-string Hindustani slide guitar, known as Chaturangui, built on an archtop guitar body. It has six primary playing strings, tuned to an open D or open D minor tuning, plus four ‘supporting’ strings (giving octave, major seventh, flat seventh, and sixth notes), two chikari strings (high rhythmic drones) and twelve sympathetic strings. These sympathetic strings, with their tone reminiscent of sitar, can be heard ‘firing’ in response to played melody notes. They only respond when everything is perfectly in tune and pitches are played perfectly with the bar. This guitar can be heard on ‘Jibaner Gan’, ‘Sujan Re’ and other songs in the keys of D or D minor.
Debashish’s second guitar, known as Gandharvi, a recent design of his, has twelve primary playing strings – in pairs and octave pairs, like a Western twelve-string guitar – plus two chikari strings. Its basic pitch is E major or E minor, and can be heard on ‘Bana Mali’ and ‘Tagore Street Blues’. It has its own unique ‘crying’ voice, which brings to mind several other traditional Indian instrumental sounds.
Bob uses several instruments on this album – two National Reso-Phonic tricones, a normal one for D and G tunings, and a baritone tricone, with a longer neck, that Bob designed for music in lower tunings. Bob also uses two Bear Creek ‘Weissenborn’-related instruments: a short-neck Kona model, and a seven-string baritone Hawaiian guitar, also designed by Bob. Smaller stringed instruments, including charango and hualaicho (small charango with higher tuning), are heard on ‘Konkani Memories’, and an octave baglama (a tiny bouzouki) appears on ‘Bahu Dur Dur’.
Subhashis employs a full set of tablas and dugis (smaller high-pitched drums, similar to tablas), in addition to several non-Indian percussion pieces, such as bodhrán, riq, djembe, dombek, kanjira, talking drum, claves, shakers and more. He thoroughly enjoyed the liberty of constructing layered percussion ensembles, lending a unique sonic flavour blend to each song.
The making of Mahima: Bob Brozman has always wanted to ensure that his collaborative recordings are imbued with a free-flowing exchange between the musicians, without cultural restriction or imperialism. Total immersion in the project at hand is essential – the artists live, cook and eat together. They learn about each other’s languages and cultures, make jokes using each others’ slang, bestow nicknames, and throughout the process they blur the lines between work and play. They spend late nights talking about life and art, waking each day to dive more deeply into the music. This non-stop immersion produces a strong familial bond, and by the end of each project artists and crew members alike share the joy of having found a true brother or sister from half a world away.
This bond enhances the intensity of the creative environment, and such is the case with Mahima. This is Bob’s fourth project for Riverboat Records. The previous three (Jin Jin and Nankuru Naisa with Takashi Hirayasu, and Digdig with René Lacaille) were all recorded in this manner, in Okinawa, California and La Réunion respectively. Successive projects such as these and others have created a global musical family, spanning from California to Kolkata, La Réunion to Okinawa, and adding other artists from Africa, Australia and Hawaii. All these artists have met, performed together worldwide and begun their own connections, so confirming that indeed music has no borders.
The warm atmosphere for Mahima began immediately upon Debashish and Subhashis’ arrival at the Brozman house in California. Without delay, each artist had several instruments out and rehearsals were under way. The three would compose and rehearse in the mornings; then, as lunchtime approached, Debashish and Bob would find a piece to work on together, while Subhashis and I moved into the adjacent kitchen to prepare the day’s meal from the delicious Indian recipes that Subhashis brought from the Bhattacharyas’ Kolkata home. Subhashis, able to hear the music developing, would step away from a simmering pot to add a vocal rhythm or offer suggestions to the others. The secret to the complex tastes of Indian food is in the meticulous layering of spices, just as the album came together only after the careful consideration of each part, instrument, chord and voicing.
A day spent with the Bhattacharyas is guaranteed to include both laughter and tears, along with amazing musical growth. The unifying spirit of togetherness contributed greatly to the feeling of this recording.
The musicians meet halfway: In interviews, Bob often says that he likes to meet his collaborators not just halfway, but seventy-five per cent of the way toward them. On this recording, Bob took this same approach, yet so did Debashish, leaning as much toward the West as Bob did to the East. Rather than one artist simply embellishing the style of another, the two have created a true hybrid, a spectacular union of guitarists. Mahima is a summit between two world-class musicians who are also gifted with a sense of empathy that enables them to collaborate in a natural-flowing manner at a high level of musicianship.
Both Debashish and Bob combine a lifetime repertoire of original techniques and sounds that few other guitarists can make with an exceptional ability to understand another musician and amazing attention to detail. The result is music rich with improvisation and individual voices, yet coherent as a unified sound. Bob and Debashish each have broad backgrounds in both rhythmic and melodic approaches to music, which allow them to exchange voices and musical functions at will, thereby escaping the conventional concept of ‘rhythm’ and ‘lead’ guitar. Debashish and Bob also possess astonishing timbral diversity in their respective ways of handling the slide, and continually adjust the emotion of the sound through an intimacy with the microscopic zone between fingers and strings.
The two first recorded together in India in 1998, and the making of Mahima has been a highly anticipated project since then. In fact, their bond began long before either man was born. It is a story of uncanny happenstance or destiny…
Slide Guitar Comes Full Circle: The slide guitar developed in many cultures around the world, but there are many deep connections between Hawaiian guitar and Indian music. The earliest known report of anyone playing slide guitar in Hawaii dates from 1876, when Gabriel Davion, an Indian boy kidnapped by Portuguese sailors and brought to Hawaii, is said to have played one on his lap. Of course, there are Indian string instruments using slide that are known to have existed since the eleventh century AD.
However, the normal Western Hawaiian guitar was first introduced to India in 1929, by Bob’s Hawaiian guitar guru, Tau Moe. Tau Moe toured around the world with his family for fifty-seven years before his retirement and subsequent re-discovery by Bob, in 1988.
Tau Moe also lived in Kolkata from 1941 to 1947, at which time he made many influential recordings for HMV India. Tau’s star pupil in India was Garney Nyss, who became India's leading Hawaiian-style recording artist, making many titles for HMV India under the name of The Aloha Boys. In the 1950s, Mr Nyss influenced his student Sri Brij Bhusan Kabra, the first Indian musician to play Indian classical music on the Hawaiian guitar and also an important recording artist.
Sri Brij Bhusan Kabra’s star student, in turn, was Debashish Bhattacharya, who has taken the instrument to new levels. Amazingly, all four generations of this musical chain were still alive in 1998, when Bob and Debashish had the privilege of meeting Mr Nyss and hearing him play in Kolkata. Thus, the connection between Bob and Debashish has even deeper historical and philosophical resonance, both confirming and expanding their deep friendship and musical partnership.
Haley S. Robertson
1 Bahu Dur Dur 5:59
Composition: D. Bhattacharya
Arrangement: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
The brisk, surging tempo of ‘Bahu Dur Dur’ sets us on a journey that spans countries and seas. Sutapa’s ethereal singing and chants describe an artist’s first voyage to a world beyond her own land. She is entranced by new horizons and beholds the global community among humans and the music that rises from human civilization. The chorus – ‘I love you, oh my Earth’ – is the artist’s epiphany as she acknowledges (within these cultures) the universal motherhood that is sustained by Mati, the Earth.
Though all instrumentation is acoustic, ‘Bahu Dur Dur’ alludes musically to the 1960s-era surf music, spy flicks and spaghetti westerns that influenced Bollywood film scores in India.
Bahu dur dur desh periye –
Crossing many far countries
Dur desher-i sur niye –
Receiving lovely tunes from those far lands
Sagor pahad pare –
Across the mountains at the shore of the ocean
Moha manober teere –
In the land of global human community
Jakhon takhon neche geye jai re –
I found the joy of singing and dancing
Bhalobashi tomae preetheeby –
I love you, oh my Earth
Oi akash jekhane eshe –
Where the horizon comes down
Oi mati ar jole meshe –
Touching and kissing the ocean and land
Oi surjer pashe alor deshe –
Around the sun, in the space of light
Sahoje mohakashe neche jaai –
I feel the joy of dancing in this divine space.
Bhalobashi tomae preetheebi –
I love you, oh my Earth
2 Sur-o-Lahari 3:04
Composition: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
Arrangement: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
Based on raga Basant Mukhari and infused with Spanish and Bollywood flavours, ‘Sur-o-Lahari’ displays Debashish’s easy melodic facility over the Indian Ocean 6/8 rhythm parts played by Bob. The title describes a melody (sur) dancing on the wave of rhythm (lahar).
3 Tagore Street Blues 3:43
Composition: B. Brozman
Arrangement: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
A sixteen-bar blues in the Mixolydian mode over a 6/8 rhythm section arranged by Subhashis, ‘Tagore Street Blues’ conveys the wild spontaneity of Kolkata’s outdoor festivals. This piece highlights the contrasting blues styles of the two slide guitarists. Debashish’s vocal style, though very Indian in its virtuosity and ornamentation, can nevertheless be considered blues singing.
4 Maa 5:21
Composition: D. Bhattacharya
Arrangement: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
Echoes of the ancient Indian raga Bhairavi give ‘Maa’ its hauntingly beautiful refrains, while the artists’ delicacy of touch conveys profound, resonant emotion. A song that is at once sublime and passionate, it relates the dialogue between a mother and child, their expression deepened by a bond of love. More broadly, ‘Maa’ describes the bond between mankind and Mother Earth, which no political or regional boundary can divide or change.
Recorded playing together live, Debashish, Bob and Subhashis enjoyed the emotional flow that this composition provides. ‘Maa’ is a good example of blending Western diatonic harmony with Eastern modal melody. The second, third, sixth and seventh intervals of the scale are flat, which both combines European minor with the flat second of Middle Eastern music, and opens up beautiful possibilities for harmonization. At times, the song seems to be in two different keys, yet it is always in the same mode.
5 Digi Digi Dom Dom 5:23
Composition: D. Bhattacharya
Arrangement: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
The origins of ‘Digi Digi Dom Dom’ are as diverse as the city that the song describes. It was Debashish’s daughter Sukanya who one day, at the age of 3, playfully uttered the syllables ‘digi digi dom dom’. Her father took note of the lyrical phrase, and added it to a melody that he had composed to debut his Anandi guitar, the third in his Trinity of Guitars, at the Vancouver Folk Festival. Debashish then asked his good friend Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty, an eminent Indian lyricist, to write lyrics that would describe the richness of their city, Kolkata.
The music that Bob and the Bhattacharyas create together on ‘Digi Digi Dom Dom’ indeed reflects this microcosm and celebration. The song is rooted in a lively 6/8 rhythm, with a spontaneous folkloric ‘street festival’ sound. Debashish and Bob enjoyed blending their slide guitar sounds, thus blurring the differences between Eastern and Western slide playing.
The Bengali people in Kolkata have welcomed foreigners for millennia and, though the spaces in the city are modest, the people nonetheless make the most of their homes, and transform their small rooms into cultural microcosms. ‘Digi Digi Dom Dom’ is an invitation to come and enjoy the warmth and excitement of the people of Kolkata.
Ajob shahar duniyah / Kolkatate ghar amar –
Kolkata is a very unique city, a cultural miniature of the whole world
Kabe ashbe amar chotto ghare –
Come, my guests, join us in our small room
Chotto ghare pabe Tepantarer Maath –
In our small room, you will find all the beauties that exist in nature
Koek footes madbye hobe jugantarer path –
If you stay with me, we will fly across time, as if on the back of Pegasus
Bhalobasha jame here manik hoe –
The love that we have in this small room, in our small hearts…when you arrive, through emotion, that love will take the shape of diamonds and birds.
Atithike sabai baran kare –
We welcome you, with that love, in our home
6 Bana Mali 3:47
Composition: B. Brozman
Arrangement: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
A combination of Bana, the name of Lord Krishna, and Mali as a symbol of African influence, ‘Bana Mali’ offers an African approach to the eastern Indian raga Maru Bihag, which develops into a South Indian Karnatak musical approach with North African 4/4 time and Indian sixteen-beat taalas (Indian cyclic form of rhythm). The sonic contrast between Bob’s baritone National guitar and Debashish’s fourteen-string Gandharvi guitar helps the listener to understand Debashish’s exciting phrases and displacements of time, as they relate to the actual tempo. As the music climaxes, Debashish reaches incredible levels of lyricism and dexterity at a blinding rate of speed, while his brother Subhashis complements his phrases with rhythms that reflect both African and Indian cultures.
7 Jibaner Gan (Song of Life) 4:50
Composition: D. Bhattacharya
Arrangement: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
In Assam, the valley of the northeastern Himalayas, during festivals the communities celebrate with singing and dancing. Girls wear colourful mekhla-chaadar (traditional dress) and kopo phul (orchid flowers), and boys dress with a gamchha (towel) tied around the head and white short raw-silk kurta and dhoti – the traditional costume in the villages of Assam. Tourists come to watch as the people sing and dance to their music, often with the dhol (drums) that hang by ropes from their necks. Debashish composed ‘Jibaner Gan’ (‘Song of Life’) in 1989, when he first met his wife-to-be in her homeland of Assam. It is dedicated to his wife Tripti. Subhashis provides the colourful and compelling percussion ensemble, while Bob plays parallel melodies and harmonies on the seven-string baritone Hawaiian guitar.
8 Sujan Re 7:34
Composition: D. Bhattacharya
Arrangement: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
On the tropical coasts of India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia, where fishing is still a primary occupation, metaphors of the sea occur frequently in the daily life and faith. ‘Sujan Re’ is the song of a newly-wed girl whose young husband has gone to sea and has not returned. As she sings, her sense of invincible young love gives way to a realization of lost hope.
Sujan is a term of endearment (su means ‘good’, jan means ‘person’), and Debashish intended for a second interpretation of the song to be sung by a devotee to her God.
Sujan re seije geila fira aailana –
My dear Sujan, you went away so long ago and you didn’t come back.
Kato kaal thakum boisha mon to manena –
Tell me how long I will wait to see you again.
Diba mishi thakloom boishya patho pane chaia –
Day and night, I’ve been sitting in the doorway, watching the path, waiting for you to come.
Parabashee firlo sabai tomay pailamna –
Those who went to the other place to fish, they all came back – but I didn’t see you.
Seije geila fira aailana –
You went away so long ago and you didn’t come back.
Tomar laigga charlam re ghar charlam apon par –
I left my home for you because I loved you.
Chokher jate bhashe dinga hae kulto pailam na –
My small boat cannot carry me across this vast river of tears, to dry land.
Seije geila fira aailana –
You went away so long ago and you didn’t come back.
9 Konkani Memories 3:03
Composition: D. Bhattacharya
Arrangement: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
The introduction of ‘Konkani Memories’ is based on a Pahadi raga, expressed by Debashish’s melodic playing. The second section of this piece comes from Goa, a part of India that was colonized by Portugal, and experienced the importation of Western song form and simple diatonic harmonies. Konkani culture is a blend of Malabar and Portuguese cultures – life centres around fishing and sailing, and it is a simple lifestyle that is reflected in the music.
The 6/8 feel and the melodies of this piece are very reminiscent of former Portuguese colonies in the Western hemisphere. Debashish is playing the melody on Bob’s 1929 National tricone lap guitar, while Bob plays a National Reso-Phonic tricone, charango and hualaicho, laying down the up-swinging 6/8 groove.
10 Loomba Re Loomba 6:56
Composition: D. Bhattacharya
Arrangement: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
In Rajasthan, the northwestern desert region of India, the camel is a primary means of transportation and thus a revered member of community life. At the village festivals, women gather together to decorate hundreds of camels with the gorbandh, a decoration resembling jewellery, featuring myriad poyo poyo (beads) and other ornaments. Though the work to make these decorations is time-consuming, it is pleasurable, and ‘Loomba Re Loomba’ is the traditional song the women sing to describe this ritual decorating ceremony.
Pal poorani jala nahin –
The old pond has become dry
Hanslo baetho aye –
The swan is coming as it used to come
Preeta poorani karane –
Because it loves the pond, though there is no water
Choona choona kaankar khaye –
It eats the small pebbles from the mud
O… lada loomba loomba loomba, lada loombare loomba
Haan lada loombare badila mharo gorbandho loombalo –
O my loomba, the hanging jewellery strung from the neck of my camel,
The dangling sound of it gives me joy of sight and sound as my camel is walking and moving.
O… Hkanda re sambandhasu kodare mangaya –
I got the shells from the high seas, and strung it in my gorbandh.
Mhari gorbandho poyo poyo re –
Gorbandh full of beads and cowrie shells
Mhari gorbandho guthyo re –
As I made the gorbandh, I feel joy of seeing and hearing the sound.
Gaya re charabata gorbandho guthyo –
I strung the gorbandh with the beads while feeding the cows grass.
Mhari bhaysa re charabata koda poya re badila mharo –
And bulls and buffalos ate grass as I strung the shells
Gorbandho nakhadalo –
The gorbandh, it gives me so much pleasure to it see on my camel’s neck.
The written Hindi script has been provided to WMN for use as a half-tone screen / background artwork, or to be printed alongside the lyrics.
11 Lullabai 3:58
Composition: D. Bhattacharya
Arrangement: D. Bhattacharya & B. Brozman
When home from his long tours, each night Debashish sings his daughter Sukanya to sleep with a lullaby. This one in particular, from the Bhattacharyas’ repertoire of loree/nisukani geet (lullabies), and inspired by raga Mishra Maj Khamaj, is dedicated to all the world’s children who do not have a father or a mother to sing for them. The emotional inspiration for this piece was enhanced as the artists brought the song into being in California as Sukanya celebrated her sixth birthday in Kolkata, on 19 September.
Recorded live long after midnight, this song transpired in a most relaxed, quiet, meditative state, yielding several minutes of silence after the last note faded away. Because the song is not in a strict tempo, it required the artists to breathe together, almost as one.
Appearing on this album are:
Debashish Bhattacharya: Hindustani slide guitars; vocal
Bob Brozman: guitar, charango, Hawaiian guitar
Subhashis Bhattacharya: tabla and percussion; vocal
Sutapa Bhattacharya: vocal
www.bobbrozman.com
www.debashishguitar.com
Special thanks to: Greg Kucharo, David Lindley, George Winston, Dr David Peaslee, Richard Chizek, Tom Austin and Leha Carpenter, Ron Guerrette, Gary Anwyl, Lawrence and Cynthia Bryant, Nana Nasef, Rick Walker, Greg Graber, Trudy Ann Tellis, McGregor Gaines, Don Young, Marie Noerdlinger Gaines, John Pearse, Michele Albeck, Mary Faith Rhoads
Bob Brozman is an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Music, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He uses National Reso-Phonic guitars, Bear Creek Hawaiian guitars, Highlander pick-up and John Pearse strings.
Thanks to: Phil Stanton, Sandra Alayón-Stanton and all at World Music Network
All tracks published by White Spats Music, BMI
Sub-publishing for the world outside the USA by Riverboat UK Music, MCPS
Executive Production: Phil Stanton, Bob Brozman, Haley S. Robertson
Production: Bob Brozman, Daniel Thomas
Chief Engineer: Daniel Thomas
Production Assistants: Haley S. Robertson, Trevor McClain
Recorded and Mixed at Moonrocks Studio, Santa Cruz, CA
Sleeve Notes: Bob Brozman, Haley S. Robertson, Debashish Bhattacharya
Photo Credits: Haley S. Robertson
Design by Undertow, coordinated by Duncan Baker
Also available on Riverboat Records: Takashi Hirayasu and Bob Brozman – Jin Jin (TUGCD1020), Takashi Hirayasu and Bob Brozman – Nankuru Naisa (TUGCD1023), René Lacaille and Bob Brozman – Digdig (TUGCD1025)
Visit www.worldmusic.net to listen to sound samples of all World Music Network and Riverboat Records releases
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