Pandit Debasis Chakroborty (Live from Purvi Festival 2023)

Pandit Debasis Chakroborty is among India's leading slide guitar players, associated with the Senia-Maihar Gharana. Based in Agra and on the faculty at Mangalayatan University, he has performed at festivals across Southeast Asia, Australia, the USA, and Europe. On slide guitar, he draws phrases that follow the glide and sustain of a vocalist in raga, using the instrument's continuous pitch movement to carry melodic lines that fixed-pitch instruments cannot.

Raag Bageshwari is a late-night raga from the Kafi thaat, built on Komal Gandhar and Komal Nishad. It carries themes of longing and quiet introspection and is performed across vocal and instrumental traditions. The slide guitar suits it: its bends and glides match what the raga's characteristic phrases ask for.

This album captures Chakroborty performing Raag Bageshwari live at Purvi Festival 2023 in Motihari, Bihar. Two sections are presented: Madhya Laya, a medium-tempo development of the raga's melodic material, and Jhala, the fast, pulsed section that closes the performance.