Krishna Bhatt

Krishna Bhatt, nephew of the influential sitar player Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, revives nineteenth-century Hindustani compositions from artists such as Amin Khan, Begum Akhtar, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, and Shobha Gurtu, achieving a style the San Francisco Chronicle lauded for its “clarity and expressive simplicity.” Hailing from a lineage of musicians, poets, and scholars, he received instruction in the Senia school’s traditions from his father, the late sitar player Pandit Shashi Mohan Bhatt. His artistic outlook broadened through tutelage with Ravi Shankar and through spontaneous exchanges with fellow performers including Pandit Nikhil Banerjee and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. From the early 1980s onward he has joined forces with an extensive roster of Indian and Western musicians, among them Terry Riley, the Kronos String Quartet, and tabla master Zakir Hussein, the last of whom joined him on the duo album Kirwani: Essence of a Raag.
~ Craig Harris