Sanjay Mishra.

No matter how talented a person is, it always helps to have friends in high places to help spread the word about those abilities. Guitarist Sanjay Mishra, who will be leading a group on Wednesday at Blues Alley, must understand this as well as anyone. His big break came in 1995 with the release of Blue Incantation, an album whose chief supporter was none other than the late Jerry Garcia. The Grateful Dead stalwart not only released the recording through the Dead’s merchandising company, but also performed on three of its tracks, making it one of his final recordings.

It’s no wonder why Garcia found Mishra’s sound so appealing. Mishra has a very personal sound, and like Garcia, sees improvisation as being central to his musical aesthetic.

“What I generally hear under the name improvisation is really regurgitation. That’s not really improvisation, that’s repetition,” Mishra said during a recent interview with DCist. “In Indian music, they used to say that you have to repeat for a good 30 to 35 years before you can really improvise. Very few people have actually achieved that.”

A native of Kolkata, India, Mishra’s interest in classical guitar led him to earn a degree from the prestigious Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Finding the classical scene to be a bit rigid, and seeing the need to play music with which he could make a living, Mishra began to branch out by incorporating traditional Indian music into his sound. This growth and attempt to combine styles is evident in Mishra’s recordings, the latest of which is Chateau Benares from 2006.