Sunil Ganguly

Ganguly was born at Sonamura village in Tripura on 1 January 1938.[4] He moved with his parents to Kolkata in his childhood.

He had a fondness for the Hawaiian guitar from a very early age. At this time his uncle used to take him to various music programs in Kolkata. It was his uncle who bought him a guitar. However, he did not know where to learn this. He used to visit Sri Sujit Nath, one of the fathers of Hawaiian guitar music in Kolkata, at the time. But he used to sit quietly at his classes, not having the money to pay the fees for taking lessons. He has mentioned in his last interview, he got lot of love and affection from Sri Sujit Nath, though he never learnt from him in class.

At the insistence of his relatives he participated in All India Youth Guitar competition which was quite well known at the time, and came first, to his own amazement, by playing 'Kya karoon Sajani, Aye na Balam'. Present at the competition was Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. He was so impressed by the rendition, he went up on the stage and embraced Sunil Ganguly and expressed his amazement at how such a song could be rendered on the Guitar. He then recommended Sunil Ganguly's name to All India Radio / Akashvani with a letter, and this is how Sunil Ganguly started playing on radio.[5]

At this time he trained in Western music under Oscar Jones, a reputed teacher in Calcutta at that time. But this could not satisfy him. He was fond of Indian classical music, and used to attend the music conferences. Many a times he could not afford to buy a ticket, and hence used to listen from the pavements outside.

He later trained under the sitarist Pt. Ajoy Sinha Roy,[6] who himself was a direct disciple of Baba Alauddin Khan. Ganguly, therefore, had a profound knowledge of North Indian Classical music. He developed a style of playing Classical Raga-based dhuns and gats on the Hawaiian guitar, which was his own unique style. He was the first to bring in the 'gayaki' style of playing which was non-existent at the time, and this led to the huge popularity of the instrumentals he rendered on the Hawaiian guitar, be it classical based film songs, ghazals, Tagore songs, Nazrul songs, or other popular songs. He played a wide variety of songs in his career, including Hindi film songs, rare songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Ghazals, by Jagjit Singh, Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Bengali film songs, Tagore songs, Nazrulgeeti, Bengali songs of prominent composers like Satinath Mukhopadhyay, Shyamal Mitra, Hemanta Mukherjee, Bihu songs in Assamese language. It is a popular opinion that his instrumentals are better than the original vocal songs in most cases.

His recording career spanned more than 40 years from 1957, when he cut his first album from HMV. The famous Bengali singer and composer of that era, Sri Satinath Mukhopadhyay played a major role in introducing Sunil Ganguly to HMV. The incident goes : Satinath babu listened Ganguly's rendition of his composition 'Koto nishi gechhe nidhara' sung by Lata Mangeshkar, on Akashbani (radio) and being amazed, called upon Ganguly and inquired how he got to learn this song. Ganguly replied : he did not learn from anybody, it was his own rendition by listening to the song. Satinath babu immediately recognized his talent and decided to introduce Sunil Ganguly to HMV for cutting his first album. That was the beginning and Ganguly did not have to look back after that.[7] Some of his remarkable records include 'Ghazal chedi usne' - an album of instrumentals of ghazals by prominent singers such as Mehdi Hassan, Jagjit Singh, Ghulam Ali,'Ibteda' - an album of compositions by Jagjit Singh,'The Classic Touch','Sentimental Journey','The Golden Collection - All Time Greats, Vol I and II','Swinging hits','More hits','Magic Melody','Instrumental Film Hits','Sunil Ganguly (the name of the album used to be his name)','The Singing Guitar' - with Kazi Aniruddha, 'Encore - Electric Guitar','Renaissance - Tunes of Kazi Nazrul Islam on the guitar (the first album he did on Kazi Nazrul Islam songs)' , 'Khelicho E Biswa Loye - Nazrulgeeti tunes', 'Surer Jharna - instrumental of Bengali hits', 'Tribute to Hemanta Mukherjee - Hemanta Mukherjee songs' etc. Towards the later part of his career, Sunil Ganguly made a few beautiful albums from Concorde records and Sagarika Co. (For ex: 'Ei Sundor Swarnali Sondhay - Bengali hits like 'Jibon Khatar prati patay', 'Bhora thak Smritisudhay -Tagore songs' from Sagarika, 'Instrumental Film Hits - containing hits from Betaab, Agar Tum na Hote' from Concord. HMV and other Cos, released some of his best instrumentals in the form of CD, for ex: 'Nostalgia : Ghazal Chedi Usne, Great Ghazals on guitar', 'Nostalgia : Melodies to caress your Heart 'N' Soul', 'Tumi Rabe Nirobe', 'Instrumentally Yours - Tribute to Manna Dey', 'The Best of Bollywood Instrumentals Ever' from HMV (now Saregama Ltd), 'Yaadein' (containing hits of Kishore Kumar and Md. Rafi), 'Golden greats from Yesteryears' from Sagarika. HMV (Saregama Ltd) has released many of this instrumentals on YouTube, and many of his instrumentals are available for purchase on Saregama site. His instrumentals are available on HMV India(Saregama),[8] Amazon,[9] saavn.com,[10] gaana.com[11] iTunes store,[12] and YouTube.[13]

He was active in giving music classes at his residence, and in doing recordings, until the last day. He took music classes at several institutions in Kolkata like BaniChakra (South Kolkata), Technique Studio (North Kolkata), in addition to the ones at his residence in Garia. Students used to come from far away places to his residence classes, including places like Asansol, Durgapur, Odisha, Tripura. He was revered by his students, and was a strict disciplinarian. His way of teaching was very methodical, using Indian notation system (originally created by Rabindranath Tagore, and used in all his works). He made many number of compositions and dhuns based on various Ragas, and he used these to train his students for number of years before they were allowed to play a song. Ganguly also had a sharp background of Western music, including chords. He was very fond of the Spanish guitar and chords. Whenever he used to teach a song to his students, it used to be complete with interlude music, chords, and some of these interludes (for ex: the sitar piece in the song 'Hum hai mataye koochao Bazaar ki Tarah'or the chords in the song "Pal Pal Dil ke Paas") were quite intricate and high in complexity.The notations that he created for his large number of classical Raga based dhuns, and the songs he played, were very detailed, and intricate, with complex meends and layakaris. He was accompanied on the Tabla by Sri Jashodadulal Mukherjee, in class and recordings for a long 30+ yrs. Mr Mukherjee, has groomed many students, by playing the tabla with them, and guiding them with the finer nuances of Rhythm cycle, and is continuing to do so, having a very detailed knowledge of the dhuns composed by Sri Sunil Ganguly. Sunil Ganguly always created notations for every accompanying musician before playing a song. There has been instances when, in a music program, he has been requested a popular song for which he was unprepared. He quickly created notations of the song and played it with perfection.

He did not encourage performing in the media at any time. According to him, the guitar is to be played like a prayer, to derive true happiness. He was an ardent follower of Swami Vivekananda till his last day. Sunil Ganguly had many disciples, many of whom took the guitar as a profession. The music classes based on his way of teaching are kept going by the creation of Sunil Ganguly Academy of Music, at his residence, run by Sri Aloke Ghosh, one of his disciples.[14][15] Apart from this many of his students like Smt Sonali Nath, Smt Geeta Deb, Sri Shyamal Chowdhury, Sri Amarnath Banik at Agartala, Tripura are continuing to play and teach his style of music to this date.

Remembering Sunil Ganguly on his birthday 1 January 2018.

His Concord Records Label include

• Instrumental Film Hits LP (1984) 04 0001
• Renaissance (Tunes from Najrulgeeti) LP (1984) 04 0001

Cassettes from HMV (RPG Enterprises)

• Ibteda Ever melodious compositions of Jagjit Singh on Electric Hawaaian Guitar (1993) SPHOS 23211
• The Golden Collection – All Time Greats – Sunil Ganguly Vols 1 and 2 (1994) STHV 842607 and 842608
• Khelicho e biswha loye – Songs of Nazrul on Electric Guitar (1991) SPHOS 23129
• Tumi Rabe Nirobe – Tunes of Tagore songs on Electric Guitar (1981) SPHOS 842697
• Surer akashe tumi je go suktara (Tribute to Hemanta Mukhopadhyay) (1991) SPHOS 23137
• Surer Jharna – Bengali instrumentals on Electric Guitar (1992) SPHOS 23156

Cassettes from Sagarika Acoustronics

• Ei sundar swarnali sandhyay – Bengali film songs on Guitar (1996) 31071
• Bhara thak smriti sudhai – Tagore songs on electric Guitar (1996) 31072

Cassettes from Concord Records

• RENAISSANCE – Sunil Ganguly plays melodies of Kazi Nazrul Islam on Electric Guitar (1984) CB 02 03
• FIREWORKS – Instrumental Film Hits (1986) 04004

CDs from HMV (Saregama Ltd) include

• Nostalgia Melodies to caress your Heart 'N' Soul (2001) – CDF 130310
• Nostalgia Melodies to caress your Heart 'N' Soul Ghazal Chhedi Usne, Great Ghazals on Guitar(2001) – CDF 130311

CDs from Sagarika Acoustronics

• Golden Greats of Yesteryears (1996) – C600015
• Yaadein (A tribute to Mohd. Rafi and Kishore Kumar) (1993) – MILS 012

Digital albums

• Melodies Forever -[16]
• Instrumental - Kazi Anirudha and Sunil Ganguly[17]
• Sunil Ganguly - Puja 93 [18]
• Sentimental Journey [19]
• Surer Akashe Tumi Je Go Suktara [20]
• The Classic Touch [21]
• All Time Greats - Sunil Ganguly [22]
• Tumi Rabe Nirabe [23]
• Sunil Ganguly Nazrul Tunes [24]