Norwich Ragas: Deepak Shah (Kala Festival 2025)

Deepak Shah is a Mumbai-based pianist who has carried Hindustani ragas onto the grand piano through more than 3,000 concerts over 25 years. His grandfather Shantilal Shah started his training, and film scores for over thirty Bangla, Gujarati, Punjabi and Bhojpuri productions run alongside his concert work. KalaSudha recorded this set on 19 September 2025 at The Assembly House, Norwich, where Shah opened the Kala Festival 2025 evening billed as Norwich Ragas: Piano & Slide Guitar Unbound.

Three connected movements of Raag Yaman form the heart of the album, played in the old instrumental sequence of alap, jod and jhala. The alap unfolds without pulse, the jod sets a slow inner beat, and the jhala drives that beat into fast, ringing repetition. Yaman belongs to the Kalyan thaat and opens the evening hours; its raised fourth, the Teevra Madhyam, gives the raga its wide, expectant sound, and the piano's sustain lets Shah hold phrases a plucked string would have to release.

From Yaman the set moves to Raag Puriya Dhanashree, a twilight raga of the Purvi thaat that joins the frame of Puriya to the colour of Dhanashri and rests on a firm Sa-Pa axis. Shah ends with a Devotional, twelve unhurried minutes that bring the recital to a quiet close.

The Norwich concert paired Shah's piano with the Indian slide guitar of Pandit Debasis Chakroborty, who took the second half of the double bill with Ustad Akram Khan on tabla. KalaSudha released Shah's set on streaming platforms on 19 October 2025.