Indian slide guitar player Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is most well known for creating his own 20-string hybrid guitar, the Mohan Veena, as well as the interesting fusions he performs with it -- including his album, 'A Meeting By The River,' with Ry Cooder, for which the duo won a Grammy in 1994. Bhatt's long list of collaborators also includes Taj Mahal, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, and now Matt Malley, former bass player of the Counting Crows, as well as a student of Bhatt's.Most of the six songs on the duo's first album together, 'Sleepless Nights,' was recorded free form. "More than 90 percent of 'Sleepless Nights' was improvised," Bhatt stated in a press release. "I composed during the recording and performance of the songs. There were no retakes or edits on the Mohan Veena. It was raw; whatever came during the recordings is what was recorded."
A former student of Ravi Shankar, Bhatt was never comfortable with any indication of restrictions on what he could do musically, which led to him innovating the guitar, which he plays on his lap. The boundary between spirit and music is thin in his life, as Malley comments upon.
"When I started listening to Vishwa's records, I realized how deep of a lake he really is, with unbelievable depth and expression coming from his guitar. Then, seeing him live, it took on a whole other meaning. It really feels as if he can sense the audience as a collective and can blow the roof off of his concert halls. His live concerts are a true joy to behold."
'Sleepless Nights' came out on April 13 on World Village Music. Watch a video of VM Bhatt playing his slide guitar after the jump.
