ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio USA

Washington DC, March 27, 2012 (Washington Bangla Radio) Born and raised in Kolkata Anushree Gupta grew up in a joint family amidst lots of love, lots of music and lots of poetry. Her dad was an expert Table player (though he chose to not play professionally) and her mother is a talented singer. Her grandfather has been a major inspiration for Anushree - he used to write beautiful devotional songs that she would sing with him. They spent magical moments together with music.

Read all about Anushree and her songs and listen to her beautiful texture online on WBRi.

Calcutta, Jan 15, 2012 (Washington Bangla Radio) "Dashakarma Bhandar" is a new audio CD released under the label of Purple Music in Kolkata - A WBRi partner whose albums are available for worldwide via our Digital Download service.

The album claims to be the first "breakthrough" album that breaks inter-genre barriers in Bengali music. Noted film-maker Rituporno Ghosh (interview) welcomes the amalgamation of the traditional and contemporary in the album.

There are 13 songs in the album:

·         Two songs by eminent signer Raghav Chatterji (interview)
·         One Atul Prasad arranged as per today’s taste by Mr. Tamal Chakraborty who is a leading arranger in Tollywood Bengali films with Srijit Mukherji's Autograph, Bollywood Hindi film Tum Mile and many others to his credit
·         One Shyama Sangeet.
·         Two Tagore Songs (Rabindra Sangeet)
·         Four original Bengali modern songs.
·         One Folk song
·         One Instrumental
·         And one 80’s disco style remix.Tracklist

Read all about the album and listen to the Bengali songs free online on WBRi.

By Soumitra Talukdar

Editor's Note: You may also remember our first interview with Joy Sarkar around the time of the release of Riingo's Bengali film "Jodi Ekdin" featuring music directed by him available here. We also recently published a musical interview with Lopamudra Mitra where Joy also appears extempore and impromptu posted here.

Calcutta, Aug 25, 2011 (Washington Bangla Radio) We continue our series of musical interview with Soumitra Talukdar chatting up singer-composer and Music Director Joy Sarkar at his residence in an informal setting. Joy talks about his career in music and breaks spontaneously into singing, strumming his guitar, over the course of this video interview !

Joy says, “My father Sudhin Sarkar is a singer and my mother, Kalyani Sarkar never forgot to hum a tune when she made our breakfast. They are the reason why I am doing, what I am doing today. I probably started recognising notes before I learned Bangla letters. It was like colour… the world seemed to be made up of little musical notes that wafted in the air. Music was not just a part of the world that I acknowledged to be mine… it was the world!"

Washington DC, Aug 13, 2011 (Washington Bangla Radio) Salil Chowdhury composed his first protest song as early as in 1943. A few years later he joined IPTA (Indian Peoples Theater Association) and composed numerous songs and along with the IPTA comrades he took his songs to the masses. They travelled through the villages and the cities and his songs became the voice of the masses.

These songs of protest with lyrics and music composed by Salil Chowdhury were very powerful and stimulating indeed and made people aware of the rampant social injustice and oppression that surrounded them. These mass songs became a part of the independence movement He called these songs the 'Songs of consciousness and awakening'

After extensive research for the last 12 years, Gautam Choudhury, the creator of the website www.salilda.com has published this unique collection of 12 of these rare mass songs by Salil Chowdhury. Washington Bangla Radio is privileged to bring you this album in digital download format world-wide.

These 12 songs were composed between 1944 and 1951 and refer to major political events that took place during that period. Reference to most of these songs is available in many IPTA and other publications and quite a few of the senior IPTA members who are still alive can vividly remember these songs. Without their help this recording would not be possible. 

The principle singers include the members of Bharatiya Gananatya Sangha (Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association) of Kolkata with the students of Rabindra Bharati University providing the harmony. Some of the best musicians from Kolkata participated in this recording, which took nearly two years to complete.

The music is arranged by Goutam Ghosh, head of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University who knew Salil Chowdhury quite well and has an excellent understanding of his musical style.

• Click here to listen to free previews online and download Chetonar Gaan - Songs of Conciousness in full audio hi-def MP3 format »

Washington DC, July 29, 2011 (Washington Bangla Radio) In this musical video interview hosted by Soumitra Talukdar, acclaimed Bengali singer Lopamudra Mitra chats about her background, experience and musical career interspersed with songs in her golden voice. She is also joined by her husband Joy Sarkar. We are confident you will find the impromptu performances by two of the brightest stars of Bengali music mesmerizing.