Music Background:
My becoming a musician was purely accidental. A cousin brother of mine had bought a Hobner guitar in Calcutta as he was just beginning to learn. I fiddled with the guitar and was fascinated by its strings and the sounds. I also enrolled under the same tutor. Our teacher was Swapan Chatterjee of Bani Chakra Music School. My first public performance was in front of 100,000 people at Netaji Indoor Stadium where I played on the opening ceremony of the Asian Table Tennis Championship. I still remember that I got Rs 10 for playing on one song. Soon after that, my teacher Swapanda started to introduce me to big musicians in Calcutta and I started to play and record at the All India Radio, Calcutta TV and studios. One day I was playing bass guitar at the Soundwing studios when great composer Hemant Kumar entered the studio. The recording engineer Laltuda whispered in his ears “Watch this young talent”. I became more nervous and my hands were sweating. I don’t think I played that well but it was quite an honor to perform in front of a legend. Later, I recorded in many songs composed by Hemant Kumar. When I entered engineering school, I formed my first western band called “Eclipse”. At this time, I learnt western music from Mr. Tutul Ganguly. Our band performed different kinds of songs from Elvis to Pink Floyd. Believe it or not, I played the lead guitar of the famous Wall song at Sanskriti festival at Jadavpur University. It was quite an experience. I have since accompanied many big stars such as Jagjit Singh, Runa Laila, Hoimonti Shukla, Si Tutul, Baby Nazneen, Samina Chowdhury, Suvodeep Mukherjee, Shaheb Chatterjee and Bani Thakur.
In 2017 I composed an album for my wife Madhumita Chatterjee and legendary Bollywood singer Kumar Sanu. In 2020 I am about to release my first New Age album “Stairway to Nirvana” featuring top musicians from India.
Collaborators:
I have worked with several famous Indian and American musicians. I was honored to accompany live on stage Ghazal Badshah Jagjit Singh. It was quite a moment. This was 1991 in Orlando concert. I have worked closely with Ustad Aashish Khan (son of legend Ali Akbar Khan Sahib). I have many friends in the Calcutta music circle including Madhu Mukherjee, Rajeeb Chakraborty and Durbadal and Benu Chatterjee, Sanjoy Das, Partha Paul. In the US I have worked with Joey Sommerville (band musician with Prince), Marty Cheyka and Jeff Jusial (back up for Steely Dan). These days I do recording in my home studio and compose songs for my wife Madhumita and friends. My wife is an accomplished singer and music teacher.
Sample Music:
For more music please visit my wife’s website at madhumitachatterjee.com