Deben Bhattacharya

about

Deben Bhattacharya (1921-2001) was a Bengali ethnomusicologist, radio and record producer, anthropologist, documentary filmmaker, photographer, translator, poet, lecturer, and folk music consultant. He produced over 100 records, 23 films and published more than a dozen books in his lifetime and much of his work was carried out under the auspices of UNESCO. Bhattacharya was born to an old Bengali Brahmin family that was settled in Benares for over 130 years. As a young man, he was influenced by the work of English poet Lewis Thompson, which prompted him to move to England, where he worked for the BBC as a radio producer. Knowing a lot of Indians in London, he started to record Indian musicians on a Baird tape recorder. When Bhattacharya had the idea to do field recordings in India, he was met with a financial dilemma of needing £80 for the tape recorder, £20 for the transformer, £25 for 20 blank tapes, plus about £60 for a one way boat ticket to Bombay. Sunday Wilson – a producer for the overseas service, commissioned him for six five-minute programmes, which garnered £30.6.0. Weeks after that, the poet Stephen Spender, who had started his new magazine ‘Encounter’, approached Bhattacharya to write an article on Indian poetry and advance him on two further articles. Argo Records also advanced £25 and paid for the Gaumont-British machine, and the tapes against future royalties. He returned with enough material to make four or five records, and one of them was published, called

top songs

albums

Temple Music From Tibet

Paris to Calcutta: Men and Music on the Desert Road

Zingari - Route Of The Gypsies

Music from Thailand: Field Recordings by Deben Bhattacharya, 1973

The Music of Uzbekistan

Dervish Ceremonies

Musik från Bulgarien

India: Religious Chants

Zingari

Folk Songs And Dances Of North India

Music On The Desert Road

Gypsy Music from Hungary (The Deben Bhattacharya Collection)

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