Norwich Ragas: Pandit Debasis Chakroborty (Kala Festival 2025)

Pandit Debasis Chakroborty recorded this live set on 19 September 2025 at The Assembly House in Norwich, in the Norwich Ragas: Piano & Slide Guitar Unbound concert of Kala Festival 2025. He plays Indian slide guitar in the Senia-Maihar gharana, which he learned from Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra, the first musician to play raga on the guitar. Ustad Akram Khan of the Ajrada gharana joins him on tabla.

Both ragas on the album come from Kafi thaat. Raga Bageshri belongs to the night hours, and musicians tie it to longing and waiting. Miyan Ki Malhar is the monsoon raga tradition credits to Tansen, built around an oscillating komal Ga and both forms of Ni. Pandit Debasis Chakroborty plays in the gayaki ang, so his bar follows the curves a singer would take through these phrases.

Bageshri fills most of the 57-minute set. A 17-minute alap opens it, Ustad Akram Khan enters for a vilambit gat in teental, and the pair move through a madhyalaya gat to a drut gat. Miyan Ki Malhar follows in shorter form: an alap, a gat in jhaptaal, then a closing gat in teental. The seven tracks went out on streaming platforms on 19 October 2025.