Kali, born in 1926, was among the greatest singers and collectors of the folksongs of Eastern and North-eastern India. While active in the left movement in the 1940's, he started collecting songs that captured the lives and labours of ordinary people. The several hundred songs, some extremely rare, in his collection articulate a wide range of life experiences, including those of rural women, extinct professions, rare musical traditions, and life in Bengal under British rule.
Early in his life Kali realised that folk music is has it's own rules. It often uses a different scale with notes that don't fit well with concert instruments. So he became an expert player of the Dotara and Ectara Lauwyia, traditional instuments and an expert singer of the songs he was collecting.In 1965 he went to England where a meeting with folklorists, Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger saw his career as a performer take off. With a reputation in the U.K. and U.S.A. behind him, he returned to India in the 1970s to teach, collect and, more rarely perform. At that time he produced two disks of songs, an audio-cassette and was the subject of a documentary film.
Kali had a large number of students and admirers. The NCPA (National Centre for the Performing Arts) in Mumbai, Bharat Bhawan and Bhopal have archived parts of his collection.
In 2003 Kali produced "FOLK SONGS OF NORTH-EAST INDIA" a CD of the songs he had collected. The CD showcases the group Lokosarawati led by Kali who was their teacher.
Read more about Kali Dasgupta on the web at http://kalidasgupta.com/
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