61st death anniversary of Blind K. C. Dey observed

India: Today is the 61st death anniversary of Blind K. C. Dey.

Krishna Chandra Dey, better known as K. C. Dey, was an Indian music director, music composer, musician, singer, actor, and music teacher born in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He was born on 24 August 1893. He was S.D. Burman’s first musical teacher and mentor. His father’s name was Shibchandra Dey.

In 1906, at the age of fourteen, he lost his eyesight and became completely blind. He worked for various theatre groups and finally went on to work for New Theatres in Kolkata until 1940. He is best remembered for his Kirtan songs.

He was patronized by many elite families of Calcutta at that time. He often sang in Jalsa of Rajbari of Sovabazar, Mitra House of Beadon Street and many others. K. C. Dey recorded around 600 songs, mostly in Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and 8 Naats (Muslim religious songs).

Dey sang and composed music for movies from 1932 until 1946. He also acted in movies in the same period. Dey used to travel from Calcutta to Bombay (now Mumbai) to take part in movies. In 1942 he moved to Bombay. Dey quit movies in 1946 after the quality of both his music and singing started going down.

The blind singer died in Kolkata on 28 November 1962. Playback singer Manna Dey was his nephew.