Debashish Bhattacharya, Indian slide guitar visionary visits with Rob Weisberg this Saturday night, May 10th, from 6 - 9pm on Transpacific Sound Paradise. Slide guitar has been a part of Indian music since the 1930s when Hawaiian player Tau Moe took the country by storm. But North Indian classical slide guitarist extraordinaire Debashish Bhattacharya, considered one of the country's foremost instrumentalists of any kind, has taken the music to new levels. Tune in Saturday night for a special live performance. (Read more)

Debashish Bhattacharya has invented his own instruments - what he calls the "Guitar Trinity" - to realize his musical visions: The Chaturangui, a 24-string hollow neck guitar, the 14-string Gandharvi, and the Anandi, a 4-string slide Ukulele. He's extended the musical language by collaborating with a range of fellow global guitar renegades from Okinawa to Hawaii. And he shares the love: Bhattacharya wrote the first-ever guide to Indian classical guitar technique and runs a music school in Calcutta, his home town.

Debashish will visit FMU on his way to join several other Indian classical luminaries who will perform at New York's annual All-night concert of Indian Classical Music. This marathon of art-music bliss runs starts at 9pm on Saturday May 10 and continues until 8am Sunday May 11, at Synod Hall at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan. Debashish also has a brilliant new CD, Calcutta Chronicles on Riverboat records.
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Another WFMU 50th Anniversary/Free Music Series show is happening! Lincoln Center's Out of Doors series in collaboration with WFMU brings over The Ex with legendary Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya on August 20th at Damrosch Park (West 62nd and Amsterdam) in NYC! More Ethio legends on the bill as well: singers Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayehu Eshete join the Either/Orchestra, and USA-via-Kenya Benga band Extra Golden kicks it off at 6pm. FREE to the public!! No tickets required. More info, sights and sounds on our blog.