Brij Bhushan Kabra

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Brij Bhushan Kabra (1937 to 2018) was an Indian musician who made the guitar known in Indian classical music. He was born in Jodhpur and studied to become a geologist. During a visit to Kolkata he discovered the Hawaiian lap steel guitar. He persuaded his father to let him learn to play by promising that he would play only classical music. He learned the instrument by copying records and later studied with Ali Akbar Khan. He adapted the guitar with sympathetic strings and drone strings.

Music and breakthrough

Kabra was the first Indian musician to play ragas on the guitar. His album Call of the Valley, recorded with the flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and the santoor player Shivkumar Sharma, was a success. Later came, among others, Exotic Sounds on Guitar, Indian Slide Guitar / Raga Puriya Alap and Jugalbandi, a duet for violin and guitar. In the 1990s he concentrated mainly on teaching, but he continued to perform. In 2005 he received the national Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.

Influence

The sound is that of a guitar that sings: long, gliding notes above a continuous drone. In the 1970s this music found a large audience in hippie culture. In this way Kabra belongs among the Indian musicians who introduced Western pop musicians to raga and drone.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1968Call of the Valley
• 1982Exotic Sounds on Guitar
• 1982Exotic Sounds On Guitar
• 1984Indian Slide Guitar / Raga Puriya Alap
• 1988Jugalbandi - Duet For Violin And Guitar: Raga Bageswari
• 1990Lure of the Desert