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Topic: Calcutta Steel Guitar: Batuk Nandy |
Kay Das
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 14 Oct 2010 10:54 pm |
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In addition to the Bollywood traditions (Van Shipley was the most famous exponent), and steel guitar traditions in the classical Indian ragas and variants ( Debashish Bhattacharya) , there emerged from Calcutta in India, another style of steel guitar playing, a legacy of the great Tau Moe, who introduced the steel guitar there just after World War II. This style of playing is quite distinct and adapted to the compositions of Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Poet Laureate, and a genre named after him called "RabindraSangeet".
I was contacted some while ago by Batuk's son, Nilanjan Nandy, and friend, Kanak Sen, who asked me to introduce some of his work on this forum so that others could get to know a little more of this great steel guitarist.
Batuk Nandy died of a stroke, stricken by grief, a few months after his beloved wife left this Planet; he was in his mid-fifties. Batuk is remembered by his son as a modest man; did not leave much of a following but his steel guitar style was brilliantly accurate in note placement, sensitive in movement, and his tone quite superb. He developed a style quite unsurpassed for the genres of music he loved to play. He used a steel bar he fashioned himself and reportedly made his own steel guitar in a country where steel guitars, or guitars of any kind, were not readily available.
Here are some links:
http://calcuttaglobalchat.net/calcuttablog/gramphone/batuk-nandi/
http://radiodiffusion.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/batuk-nandy/
Here is an example of "Rabindrasangeet". The original lyrics reminisce decorating a boat with leaves, and playing a tune in solitude. I have a CD with his music in this style, called " Diner Seshe". Anyone interested will find details in the links provided.
http://www.4shared.com/account/audio/ubjwuIdF/01_Chinna_Patar_Shajai_Tarani.html
Here is an example of Batuk playing "Bollywood" style
http://www.4shared.com/account/audio/m-LPzzyq/19_Nazrul__Getee.html
Kay |
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Andrea Tazzini
From:
Massa, Italy
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Posted 15 Oct 2010 7:28 am
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thank you for sharing Kay!
In the tune Nazrul Getee the duet between steel and sitar is very interesting and new to my ears!
Andrea |
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James Kerr
From:
Scotland, UK
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Posted 15 Oct 2010 10:30 am
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Kay,
Thank you for sharing this with us. For some time now I have felt I had gone far enough with the Country standards and well known tunes, I need to branch out on my own and the things you post are always an inspiration to me.
Someday I will get it off the ground.
James. |
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Peter Lindelauf
From:
Penticton, BC
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Posted 16 Oct 2010 8:42 am
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Thanks for posting those songs, Kay. Appreciate being introduced to a new player. Made me hike downstairs to find my twice-read copy of Lap Steel Guitar by Andy Volk and the Harry Manx interview, in particular, to look for a very good word I hadn't remembered.
"In Indian music, it's called the <i>meend</i>--how you approach a note. That's something that you study very intently. Do you approach a note from below it, above it, or can you approach it directly from another note or do you have to go through several notes? This kind of thing they've studied a lot and they know a certain approach will give a certain effect: some may sound exciting, some extremely beautiful. They pay a lot of attention to the <i>meend</i>."
Really looking forward to hearing Harry Manx--and a mohan vina--live tonight and certainly interested in learning a lot more about Indian slide guitar. Manx's description of 'circular motion' in playing was also a good insight.
_________________
...but you are the music / while the music lasts (TS Eliot) |
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Kay Das
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Kay Das
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 7 Nov 2010 10:10 am
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Just received this eulogy on Batuk Nandy written by his son Nilanjan, who wishes his father's work to be known better amongst the steel guitarists in the world and feels this forum would be a good way to do that. I reproduce it un-edited.
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Batuk Nandy, the guitar legend, India was born on the 01st of January, 1929, Calcutta in his ancestral house near Wellington Square called “Debendra Bhavan” named after his paternal Grand-father Debendra Nath Nandy, who came to Calcutta from Burdwan in the year 1845.
Batuk Nandy was raised in a family sharing his life with his 4 brothers and 1 sister, Durga who died at a very young age of 25.
Since a child Batuk took no or less interest in things which concerns commerce and things relates to daily life. He was young boy who took much interest in sports, poetry, acting and music. When he was a final year student at Bangabasi College, Calcutta, he took to stage acting and shared stage space with legendary actors like Ahindra Chowdhury, Malina Debi, Nitish Mukherjee, Bipin Gupta, Kamal Mitra and others.
In his youth he used to play football for the Mohunbagan Club and was trained under Md. Ismail. Batuk’s father was quite disappointed with his son, playing football instead of looking after the family business, but only because of Batuk’s mother’s indulgence Batuk could carry out with what he loved the most.
However, fate intervened. Batuk met with an accident along with a serious illness and his physician the legendary medical practitioner and the former Chief Minister of West Bengal Dr. Bidhan Roy announced the end of Batuk’s career as a footballer in Calcutta’s Maidan. It is Dr. Roy who advised to take up Music, especially the Steel Guitar as a hobby during Batuk’s convalescence period which eventually made Batuk, the restless young footballer into the legendary Guitarist Batuk Nandy with more than 60 albums, including 78 R.P.M. / Long Playing Records / Music cassettes and CD’s to his credit. He played the guitar and also contributed Background Music to many Bengali Feature films during the 60’s to the 80’s.
Batuk married his childhood sweet heart Nila on the 08th of May, 1958, and their only son Nilanjan was born in 1963.
Batuk Nandy developed his unique style of Steel Lap Guitar playing, and he specialized in playing Rabindra-sangeet and raised the quality of rendition to great heights.
Many of his students later went on to become professional music arrangers and guitarists who worked in the Bengali Music Industry in the 70’s and 80’s.
Batuk Nandy had formed a music group titled SABS in the 60’s and soon it became one of the hottest bands playing in town. SABS the four letters consisted of ‘S’ for Sujit Nath, ‘A’ for Aniruddha Kaji (son of great poet Kaji Nazrul Islam), ‘B’ for Batuk Nandy and again ‘S’ for Shibnath Nandy. Nationally acclaimed musicians like Manohari Singh on the Saxophone and English Flute with Basu Chakraborty on the Cello (both went on to become the music arrangers for R.D.Burman) accompanied the SABS. Later Manohari Singh and Basu-da both left for Bombay (Mumbai) to eventually join the Film Music Industry. However, as Manohari Singh was a close friend of Batuk Nandy, they kept in touch with each other and on several occasions Batuk Nandy flew to Bombay to join his friend in song-recording sessions, in studios like the Film-centre, Radio Gems and Filmistan Studios.
In the period from 1968 to 1995 Batuk Nandy was probably the only name in Steel Lap Guitar Playing which happened to be the closest to a human voice in terms of playing expression, tone, modulation and left-hand movement.
Though initially Batuk Nandy trained under Dr. P.Chakraborty and also Sujit Nath for some period he also took lessons in Rabindra-sangeet from the legend Debabrata Biswas.
He trained under Garney Nyss in Western Style Playing, specializing in Hawaiian Melodies following the staff notation with Palm harmonics, Diagonals and intricate SLIDE techniques. In the mid 70’s and then again in the 80’s he performed all over France, England, United States, including the Columbia University, New York City and all over Canada. He also performed in Chittagong, Bangladesh in 1985- 1986.
Most of his live recordings are archived by his son Nilanjan.
Batuk Nandy made a custom guitar with the pick-ups that he brought form America himself and pine wood that he got someone to bring for him from Kuala Lumpur way back in the mid seventies. This guitar had a unique mellow tone which he and his guitar maker friend Tanmay (now departed) took more than a year to build. He did not part with this instrument till he breathed his last on the 23rd of September 2001, on the 13th day after his wife Nila passed away in a sudden heart attack on the 10th September 2001.
Batuk Nandy had suffered a cerebral stroke on the 12th of January 2001, which left him completely paralyzed for the next nine months or so that he was alive.
Batuk Nandy introduced his son Nilanjan to the music world and also took him along to most of his performances all over which influenced Nilanjan and helped him take the decision to take up Music as his sole profession.
In his entire musical career Batuk Nandy has shared stage with legends like Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Manna De, Hemanta Mukherjee, Van Shipley, Dilip Kumar, Saira Banu, Uttam Kumar, Biswajeet, Bappi Lahiri and many others.
Batuk Nandy died at the age of 72.
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Kay Das
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 8 May 2012 7:58 pm
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I was contacted today by a friend who remembered the late great Batuk Nandy, so in his memory, I am reviving this thread.
Today is also the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, whose music was examplified on the steel guitar by Batuk.
Kay |
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