NEW YORK TIMES

   USA 15th April 2005.

   "This is the Sound of Globalization" - by Jon Parelels, New York Times, USA , 15th April 2005.

WOULD that the state of world that state of the world. In the music, boundaries are wide open, curiosity leads to cooperation, memories are long but the lessons of history are positive ones. In the world, well...
 
World music, that haply vague category, encompasses raw field recordings and slick non-Western pop, traditional music and countless twists on traditionalism; the term is also applied to everything from cross-cultural fusions to club music with exotic samples to new-age meditation albums. No matter. The broad rubric holds a wealth major labels have largely lost interesting world music, independents have been busy, while listeners are no longer dependent on the shelf space or classification skills of local record stores.
 
India
 
In the both blues and raga, the notes between and instrument's frets are essential, so perhaps it was inevitable that an Indian musician would take up the slide guitar. On "3: Calcutta Slide-Guitar" (Riverboat), Debashish Bhattacharya plays three instruments designed : a hollow necked four-string slide ukulele, a 14-string slide guitar and a 2 string guitar with sympathetic strings. The structures and rhythms come from North and South India, and in Classic Raga style the music evolves from reflective melody to fast, flamboyant, tabla-driven improvisations. And every so often, there's a hint of deep Delta twang.