CD Review: MAHIMA
The slide guitar is so closely identified with America's Deep South, it is difficult to credit how well its bottlenecked moan suits the bending notes and firefly flurries of Indian classical music. Top Calcutta guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya's customised 24-string instrument blends the glistening sweep of the sitar with a wiry articulacy all its own. Here he meets Hawaiian guitar-playing musicologist Bob Brozman, who has already made several collaborative albums. While their backgrounds sound almost comically diverse, they kick into this session with an energy and empathy that make it nigh-on impossible at times to work out who is playing what.
In contrast to the lengthy traditional Indian ragas, these numbers are short and tightly structured, with Bhattacharya seeming to take the lead most. He tears into his solos with breathtaking speed and fluency, adding touches of Spanish swagger and a hint of Bollywood, while Brozman's more measured twang speaks of the South Seas, Appalachia and the Indian Ocean islands. But the best numbers have a soulful, almost indefinable bluesiness that seems to stem from nowhere but this beautiful and inspired collaboration.
Bob Brozman - King of the National Guitar
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