Paban Das Baul

Paban Das Baul (born 1961) is a noted Baul singer and musician from India, who also plays a dubki, a small tambourine and sometimes an ektara as an accompaniment. He is known for pioneering traditional Baul music on the international music scene and for establishing a genre of folk-fusion music.[3]

Paban Das Baul
Paban Das Baul at Festival international des cinémas d'Asie de Vesoul 2009
Background information
Birth namePaban Das
Born1961 (age 61–62)
Mohammedpur, Murshidabad district, West Bengal, India[1]
GenresBaul music, folk-fusion
Occupation(s)Singer, composer
Instrument(s)
Years active1970s–present
Labels
[2]

Early life

Born in Mohammedpur, a small village in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal, where his early musical influences were his father, and wandering baul singers.

Career
Mimlu Sen and Paban Das Baul, Baul musicians, at International Asian Movies festival in Vesoul, France

In 1988, Das Baul started collaborating with Sam Mills, a London-born guitarist who had performed with experimental, avant garde group 23 Skidoo between 1979 and 1982. Their collaboration resulted in the acclaimed album Real Sugar (1997), a Peter Gabriel's Real World Records release,[4] it marked one of the first fusions of Bengali music and Western pop music.[5] The album features psychedelic elements to it and has been compared to the work of artists such as George Harrison, Ananda Shankar and The Bombay Royale.[6] He has also collaborated with the London-based State of Bengal and Susheela Raman. In 2005, the Baul tradition was included in the list of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO.[7]

He also performed at the Jaipur Literature Festival[8] and the "Nine Lives" Concert, 2009 in London, of William Dalrymple.[9]

Personal life

He met Mimlu as a concert audience in 1982 in Paris, they later married and lived in Paris for many years. He has taught himself to read, not just Bengali, but Hindi, English and French.

Discography
Solo albums
Collaboration albums

Filmography
  • Nagmoti (1983) (as performer at song "Doriyay Ailo Tufan")
  • Shukno Lanka (2010) (as performer at song "Sundori Komola")
  • Hunger & Love: Tobu O Bhalobasha (2017) (as composer)

Further reading
  • Sen, Mimlu (2009). Baulsphere. Random House. ISBN 978-81-8400-055-9.
  • Sen, Mimlu (2010). The Honey Gatherers: Travels with The Bauls: The Wandering Minstrels of Rural India. Random House. ISBN 978-1-84604-189-1.

References
  1. "Paban Das Baul Biography". Artistdirect.
  2. "Paban Das Baul". Real World Records.
  3. "Rendezvous With Paban Das Baul". Daily Star. Vol. 4, no. 28. Bangladesh. January 7, 2005.
  4. "Paban Das Baul & Sam Mills". Real World Music, US. Archived from the original on 2001-03-05. Retrieved 2010-11-27.
  5. Broughton, Simon; Ellingham, Mark; Trillo, Richard (2000). World Music: Latin and North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific (Volume 2 of World Music). Rough Guides. p. 111. ISBN 1-85828-636-0.
  6. Wiser, Danny (2022). "INDIA/UK: Real Sugar - Paban Das Baul & Sam Mills". 200worldalbums.com. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  7. "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity". UNESCO. September 25, 2005.
  8. "Jaipur Literature Festival". Jaipur Literature Festival.
  9. "Spiritual journey: William Dalrymple makes a comeback to travel writing with his new book". The Telegraph. Calcutta. November 1, 2009. Archived from the original on September 17, 2012.
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