Kabir Suman

Suman was born in a Bengali Hindu Brahmin family on 16 March 1949 to Sudhindranath and Uma Chattopadhyay at Cuttack, Odisha. He started his training in classical music at a very young age, under the tutelage of his father. He studied at St. Lawrence High School, Kolkata. He graduated with an honours in English Literature from Jadavpur University and did a diploma in the French language and the German language. Around 1968, while learning Himangshu Dutta compositions, he felt that in spite of their compositional strength, they did not represent the contemporary times, lyrically. Kabir Suman's first studio recording was in 1972. It was released from Hindusthan Records. His second single vinyl record was published in 1973, from the same label. Both these records were commercially unsuccessful. After resigning from All India Radio he joined a clerical post at United Bank of India. Kabir Suman shifted to France temporarily to teach the basics of Indian Classical Music in 1973. It is said in one of his autobiographies, that in France he was first introduced to the songs of Bob Dylan and he claimed Dylan's songs left a great impression and influence on him. In May 1979, Suman returned to Kolkata and he started to work as a teacher of German at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata, and the Max Mueller Bhavan. He started working in the Bengali daily Aajkal as a part-timer, and also contributed to the Desh until 1980. He joined a band called "Samatan". However, this band was unsuccessful and the members broke up very soon. Some members of Samatan and some new members, all in their twenties and thirties joined him to establish a new band called 'Nagarik : Anya Katha Anya Gan'. During this time Suman completed his first song (written in 1975) "E Kemon Akash Dekhale Tumi". He started to practise his voice with the help of electronic tanpura, continued keyboard and guitar playing, and also creating songs with some contemporary incidents. Kabir Suman performed first time as a professional singer in December 1990. He got appreciation from Dr. Barin Roy, Gour Kishor Ghosh, Ashis Chattopadhay etc. Shubhendu Maity helped him by giving him a chance to perform in some concerts. His songs have not impressed the rural people, but urban and suburban people appreciated them very much. He also sang at some political meetings of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). During this time some controversy arose over one of his songs "Anita Dewan". Digital songs Since 2011, Kabir Suman started posting his new songs on his website. During this time his 19th album '63te' was released as compact disc format, which contained some songs that were also published on his website. After that, he started completely releasing his new songs (as mostly audio format, sometimes as video format) through his website. Sometimes he releases some songs also through SoundCloud. All his internet-only songs are only playable, but not downloadable. It does not cost any money for listening those songs. It is first such example for a Bengali musician to release songs only in internet. Beside his self-created songs, he also released some Indian Classical songs and some old songs, created by late Dilip Kumar Roy and others. Present status Although he has not recorded any studio album since 2012 (actually his last recording in a professional recording studio occurred in 2008, since when he has recorded his studio albums entirely at his home), he has recently recorded two soundtrack albums in 2014 and 2016. He is continuing live performance on various stages in Kolkata and various towns in West Bengal as of 2017. He also sometimes performs live in some cities outside West Bengal, including both Indian and foreign cities, even outside of Asia. He also teaches songs in his house on weekends. Despite not being completely physically fit due to some nerve problems, he still performs a three-hour solo live performance, playing electronic keyboard (now simply an acoustic piano). Until recently, he played the guitar. He also sometimes plays melodica and harmonica at his concerts. Since 2013, he took some additional musicians in his concerts for playing additional acoustic guitar and electronic percussion/tabla. == Political activities ==