Classical Music Legends

Khansahib Abdul Karim Khan

One of the most distinguished names in the annals of Indian music of all times is that of Khan Sahib Abdul Karim Khan who is considered by many as the doyen of Kirana Gharana. Khan Sahib’s style of singing gave a new clan to the history of Hindustani classical vocal music setting a novel trend and making fundamental departure from the styles of traditional singing in vogue during his time. The aesthetic virtues that embellished his ‘gayaki’ were all its own and the qualities of relaxed freedom, of serene reposeful movement of feeling and caressive approach had not been convinced visualized or presented before. And whatever the form- be it khayal, tarana, thumri, hori or bhajan, Abdul Karim Khan’s vocalism revealed these attributes in all their naiveté and charm. Added to his ‘gayaki’ were two more and equally trend-setting innovations the evolution of a style of thumri radically different from the orthodox, time-honored purab ang and the uncanny adaption of Carnatic ragas to Hindustani expression. The purab ang thumri in Khan Sahib’s voice shed its gossamer, erotic undertones and assumed instead the character of sad pensive and devote sublimation. The carnatic adaptations, on the other hand, emerged in their Hindustani garb with a new colour and sparkle-a new kind of fusion between the music of the south and north, a genius like Abdul Karim Khan could achieve.

Abdul Karim Khan was born in 1872 in a family of great musical tradition in Kirana-near Kurukheshtra in Punjab. He learnt sargams from his father Kalley Khan, dhrupad from Rahamat Khan, khayal in origin from his great guru late Ustad Bande Ali Khan (veenkar) and the Carnatic music during his stay in south India. He was proficient in playing Tasha, Sarengee and veena also.

Khan Sahib was engaged as a court-singer at Baroda but in the year 1898 he resigned and came down to Maharashtra. He settled down at Miraj near Kolhapur, which has since become a palace of pilgrimage of lovers of classical music.

The maestro died on the 27th October in 1937 leaving behind him a galaxy of artists who in their turn became famous and carried out the rich tradition of the glorious style of singing Notable among his pupils are Sawai Gandharva, Roshan Ara Begum, Behere Buva, Dasharath Buva Muley, Suresbabu Mane, and a host ot others. Trained according to the traditional ‘gurukul’ method, these disciples in their own turn created yet another generation of outstanding artists like Gangubai Hangal, Bhimsen Joshi, Manik Varma and Prabha Atre, to name but a few. In order to create a desire or love for classical music he started demonstrating in concerts to the public free of cost or with a very nominal fee.

Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan

One of the most distinguished names in the annals of Indian music of all times is that of Khan Sahib Abdul Karim Khan who is considered by many as the doyen of Kirana Gharana. Khan Sahib’s style of singing gave a new clan to the history of Hindustani classical vocal music setting a novel trend and making fundamental departure from the styles of traditional singing in vogue during his time. The aesthetic virtues that embellished his ‘gayaki’ were all its own and the qualities of relaxed freedom, of serene reposeful movement of feeling and caressive approach had not been convinced visualized or presented before. And whatever the form- be it khayal, tarana, thumri, hori or bhajan, Abdul Karim Khan’s vocalism revealed these attributes in all their naiveté and charm. Added to his ‘gayaki’ were two more and equally trend-setting innovations the evolution of a style of thumri radically different from the orthodox, time-honored purab ang and the uncanny adaption of Carnatic ragas to Hindustani expression. The purab ang thumri in Khan Sahib’s voice shed its gossamer, erotic undertones and assumed instead the character of sad pensive and devote sublimation. The carnatic adaptations, on the other hand, emerged in their Hindustani garb with a new colour and sparkle-a new kind of fusion between the music of the south and north, a genius like Abdul Karim Khan could achieve.

Abdul Karim Khan was born in 1872 in a family of great musical tradition in Kirana-near Kurukheshtra in Punjab. He learnt sargams from his father Kalley Khan, dhrupad from Rahamat Khan, khayal in origin from his great guru late Ustad Bande Ali Khan (veenkar) and the Carnatic music during his stay in south India. He was proficient in playing Tasha, Sarengee and veena also.

Khan Sahib was engaged as a court-singer at Baroda but in the year 1898 he resigned and came down to Maharashtra. He settled down at Miraj near Kolhapur, which has since become a palace of pilgrimage of lovers of classical music.

The maestro died on the 27th October in 1937 leaving behind him a galaxy of artists who in their turn became famous and carried out the rich tradition of the glorious style of singing Notable among his pupils are Sawai Gandharva, Roshan Ara Begum, Behere Buva, Dasharath Buva Muley, Suresbabu Mane, and a host ot others. Trained according to the traditional ‘gurukul’ method, these disciples in their own turn created yet another generation of outstanding artists like Gangubai Hangal, Bhimsen Joshi, Manik Varma and Prabha Atre, to name but a few. In order to create a desire or love for classical music he started demonstrating in concerts to the public free of cost or with a very nominal fee.

Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan

Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali’s was the music that presented the best imaginable blend of technique and appeal. His voice was so unique in its expressiveness that it could afford anything from subtle delicate nuance to a vigorous powerful tone – from a mere quiver of resonance to a flood of melody. He adapted his voice to render fluent ‘khayals’, vivacious ‘thumris’, erotic ‘ghazals’, and soulful ‘bhajans’ with superb artistry all his own. The fine melodic line of Hindustani music took novel shape in his voice. It was a theme that developed technique instead of technique moulding theme. And that was what made him one of the most popular musicians of this century.

Scion of Patiala ‘Gharana’, Bade Ghulam Ali was born at Kasur (now in Pakistan) in 1902. His music received its magic touch from his illustrious father, Ali Bux, and his uncle Ustad Kale Khan, both disciples of Ustad Fateh Ali of Patiala. To their master touches, he added as unstinted industry and unequalled determination. The result was such perfection of technique and interpretation as would befit only the great maestros.

Ghulam Ali Khan Sahib was a composer of distinction and the scores of ‘cheezas’(songs) he composed and set the tune under the nom de plume ‘Sab-Rang’, are a rich contribution to North India’s musical heritage. With the passing away of Khan Sahib in 1968, a vital link with our musical past was snapped. Indeed a few luminaries have shone so brightly on the musical horizon as this inimitable Ustad. His place is assured in the musical archived both as a many-splendored genius and as a classicist who sang for the connoisseurs and masses as well.

Ustad Barkat Ali Khan

Ustad Barkat Ali Khan’s recorded music is all that we now have to cherish and preserve as a memento of his greatness. He sand ‘thurmis’ in a voice suffused with deep, soulful feelings. Like his great elder brother Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, his renderings achieved a sublte blend of popular Punjabi folk with the orthodox features of ‘Purbi-ang thumri’.

Ustad Barkat Ali Khan was born in 1907. His illustrious father, Ustad Ali Bux, groomed both his sons for classical singing. But Ustad Barkat Ali Khan soon discovered that his sensitive, emotion soaked voice and his equally sensitive temperament would lend themselves more naturally to light Classical music. And he harnessed all his originality and virtuosity, talent and imagination, heart and mind to worship his Muse in a differernt way. In the process, he matured into an inimitable exponent of ‘thumri’ and ‘ghazal’ varieties. It marked his rise to greater and still greater heights – till cruel death snatched him away in 1963. But even today, there is hardly any singer who can match Ustad Barkat Ali Khan in the field.

Pandit D V Paluskar

Death comes to all: but when it takes away a creative genius in the prime of life it leaves a void hard to fill. Pandit D.V. Paluskar was one such genius whose sudden death at 34, in 1955, brought a musical career of immense promise to a tragic end.

Dattatraya Vishnu Paluskar was the only surviving child of the Pandit Digambar Paluskar, the great evangelist of Hindustani music, who pioneered a cultural revival in North India in the early twenties. Young D.V. Paluskar was deprived of paternal grooming in the art of singing at a very early age on account of his father’s death. His musical heritage, however, helped him to pursue his art under the tutelage of various well-known musicians notably Prof. Narayan Rao Vyas and Pandit Vinayak Rao Patwardhan, both pupils of his father. Gradually he evolved a style of his own. He was a master in the art of presentation. He sang in a compelling, resilient voice gifted with a high degree of modulation. He never displayed virtuosity for its own sake but concentrated on the spirit of the raga.

Paluskar was an exponent of the Khayal gayaki, of Gwalior. Yet he revealed in his singing a rare synthesis of much of the best in all Classical traditions of North India. This explains why the rich variety of ‘bol-taans’ and ‘taans’ of the Agra and Atrauli ‘gharanas’ found such felicitous expression in his khayal improvisation, while his feeling of voice in the Kirana style brought so much devotional sensitivity to his ‘bhajans’.

Ustad Faiyaz Khan Sahib

The death of Ustad Faiyaz Khan Sahib in 1950 truly marked the end of a great era – closing a brilliant chapter in the history of Indian music. He was an architect in music with the feeling of a poet. Khan Sahib was a traditionalist among reformists and a reformist among traditionalists and his art symbolised the grand evolution of Hindustani music from the ancient ‘dhrupad’ and ‘dhamar’ to contemporary ‘khayal’, ’thumri’, ‘ghazal’ and ‘dadra’.

Few masters had enriched the Agra ‘gharana’ as Ustad Faiyaz Khan Sahib did. Born in 1880 in a family that claimed its musical lineage to the great Miyan Tansen, Faiyaz Khan lost his parents while still a child. He was brought up by his illustrious grandfather, Ghulam Abbas Khan, who trained him in ‘dhrupad’ singing. Later, he received guidance in ‘dhamar’ and ‘khayal’ singing from his equally eminent uncle, Kallan Khan.

His music owed its dignity and grandeur to his personality. Nevertheless, he was a ‘dhrupad-dhamar’ singer, but he could excel in ‘khayal’ and even glide as effortlessly into ‘thumri’ as he would swoop on ‘ghazal’ or ‘dadra’. His compositions of rare ‘cheezas’ are a rich contribution to the treasure house of Indian music.

Though settled down in Baroda as Court musician of the late Sayajee Rao Gaikwad of Baroda, his professional tours took him around the country. The title “Aftab-e-Mausqi” was conferred on him by the late Maharaja of Mysore State in 1911. Khan Sahib’s recorded songs offer the very quintessence of his inimitable ‘gayaki’ which helps revive the most nostalgic memories in all those who love pure, elevating music.