Krishnendu das aka Babukishan comes from an old and very traditional Baul folklore family His grandfather Guru Shri Nabani Das Baul was a much celebrated singer and poet that was instrumental in bringing the Baul culture to fame with the respected and admired status it enjoys today Nabani Das Baul often collaborated with the writer of India s National Anthem a great poet and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 Rabindranath Tagore In popularizing the music of the Baul Nabani Das Baul opened the doors for his people to the world In keeping with this tradition Babukishan s father Samrat Purna Das Baul a modern popular legend among the Bauls opened up the doors even further by collaborating and jamming in live performances with the top Western and European acts of the 20th century Babu is a music designer singer and author renowned in India for his work in both the recording and film industries He plays a variety of music combining new age and world fusion with traditional folk music in authentic Bengali Baul style Babukishan began his career as a performer by accompanying and studying the arts with his father Purna das Baul He also participated in numerous youth folk festivals traveling to places such as Taiwan Hong Kong Singapore Bangkok Great Britain all of Europe the United States and Canada He played with both the Asian Performing Arts Festival at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Worldwide Youth Festival in Carnegie Hall in New York From this beginning he traveled most of the world from 1980 to 2000 as a composer music instructor musician and singer Babukishan deeply inspired by his Father and Grandfather knew at an early age he too wished to compose and perform He began on the soil of Bengal but clearly he was destined to belong to the world of music His journey started in early childhood when he joined his mother Manju Das and his father Puma Das playing and singing Baul music in global festivals Despite the many world tours Babu also found the time to study Indian philosophy and Folk music at the University of Kolkata where he eventually secured both his BA and Masters degrees So it was that his formal professional career in music began with his family He toured with Bob Dylan s The Band East West tour in 1985 In addition Babukishan has performed with other international artists such as Alice Cooper Rolling Stones Tom Petty Miles Davis Allan Fakir George Harrison Herbie Mann Third World Robbie Robertson Garth Hudson and many others Though the subsequent years Babu put this solid foundation in music to good use by composing and performing in all areas of India s entertainment industry as well as in a variety of venues worldwide Then in keeping with his early dreams of a unique style of his own he turned to the music of the western world that he had become so familiar with in his early years of performance His use of Baul Indian rhythms combined with the Reggae produced his own brand of World Music Babu s New Age Bengali Folk Fusion is the result Babukishan has also worked with top Indian musicians singers and music directors such as R D Burman Ravi Shankar Sultan Khan and Zakir Hussain As a composer Babukishan has written the music for several albums TV serials and films earning a good reputation as one of the most promising composer in the Bollywood Indian cinema music film industry of India In his recordings Babukishan features folk music romantic songs pop songs ghazals Qawwali music new age fusion Sufi music and bhajans devotional spiritual songs He is the first singer and music composer from the rich Baul family tradition to venture into fusion music by combining Baul Sufi music with western music and reggae music Babukishan produced and directed two documentary films about folk music and he wrote a book titled The Bauls of Bengal One of Babukishan s latest projects is the band Birds which he founded It combines new age world music traditional folk and fusion music His album Soulmate Universal Music India creates a unique new generation music worldwide and his latest album Birds soul mind body are based on Baul Sufi music GYPSYINDIA is authentic traditional baul sufi music written composed and all the instruments played by him this album recored at woodstock newyork during his tour on 2004