Debabrata Biswas (Bangla: দেবব্রত বিশ্বাস Debobroto Bishshash, also spelled as Debebrata Biswas, Debabrata Biswash and various other combinations) (1911.08.21 – 1980.08.18) was a Bengali singer, one of the best-known performers of the songs of Rabindranath Tagore (Rabindrasangeet) or Tagore songs. He was born in 1911 in Barishal and then later came to Kishorgonj of Mymensing district of British colonial undivided Bengal province of India, when King George V was visiting India for the Delhi Durbar, so he was nicknamed George. He was popularly called George Biswas and George-da which means Brother George.
His music, though not always technically pristine, was notable for its exceptional depth of emotional expression verging on the dramatic. His early gramophone recordings of Tagore songs brought out in the early 1940s demonstrate soulful full-throated expression of melody with a strict adherence to the rules and norms of tradition, written and unwritten, which he felt obliged to break in the early 1960s - considered by most to be his heyday up to the year 1969. His renderings in this period show amazing power of voice and modulation, compounded with overt emotional expression of a kind hitherto unpractised by his contemporaries and even himself. His voice at this period ranged at ease within the three octaves and with varied tempos and rhythms and showed greater variety of emotional expression from the thunderous and rumbling to... Read More