RMIM Archive Article "74".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM/C Archives..
# Subject: Great Master's series
# Great Masters #14: Ustad Amir Khan
#
# Posted by: Rajan Parrikar ([email protected])
# Sources: "Down Melody Lane" (1984) by G.N. Joshi
#
Namashkaar!! This is the fourteenth instalment of Great Masters
and the first one this Fall. And it features the late Ustad Amir
Khan.
Amir Khan's artistry was of a very high order. Traditional yet
heretical, complex yet effortless, profound yet supremely simple-
such was the ambivalence of his style.
If you ask me for a reco on Darbaari Kanada, I shall point to
Amir Khan. Hansadwani? I shall again point to Amir Khan. And Mal-
kauns? Sorry, go to Amir Khan.
Today, given the frills and trills that our "Ustads" and "Pan-
dits" employ to impress audiences the world over, it is Amir
Khan's music that serves a silent admonition.
The following profile is lifted from G.N. Joshi's "Down Melody
Lane" (Orient Longman Limited 1984); ISBN 0 86131 175 2. Hope you
like it.
Rajan Parrikar
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USTAD AMIR KHAN
by
G.N. Joshi
pp 91-95
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The death of Ustad Amir Khan in a tragic motor accident in Cal-
cutta a few years ago has created a void in the world of Hindus-
tani classical music. At the present time, when there is a dearth
of such gifted artists, his death is an irreparable loss. Had he
lived longer he would have had, at least, a number of able and
talented disciples to carry on the tradition of his gharana.
In the last 25 years some artists have, by their revolutionary
spirit, progressive outlook and creative faculties brought about
radical changes in the style of presentation of classical music.
Ustad Amir Khan was such an artist. Like Kumar Gandharva. Amir
Khan disregarded the age-old, conventional traditions, and with
his intelligence and talent evolved an entirely original style of
presentation. He also succeeded in gaining the approval and
recognition of critics and connoisseurs.
Amir Khan was born at Indore in 1912. Music was in his blood; his
ancestors had been musicians in the Mughal courts. His father was
an expert sarangi and veena player. A mehfil of Amir Khan's was
always a pleasant experience. He had a very impressive and mag-
netic personality. At his concerts he would always sit in the
posture of a yogi doing his tapasya, with closed eyes and deep
meditation. He maintained the same position till the end of his
concert. His smiling countenance, a total lack of gesticulation
or facial distortion, his absolute concentration on the song, and
the slow, gradual build-up of a raga picture in- variably kept
his audience completely engrossed. He had, for accompaniment, two
tanpuras tuned to perfection, a subdued harmonium and a tabla
with a straight, simple but steady laya. An atmosphere of solem-
nity and tranquillity pervaded his con- certs, in striking con-
trast with the noisy and sometimes un- musical gymnastic bouts
some singers have with the tabla players that entertain listeners
with acrobatics rather than providing them with aesthetic
delight.
He had cultivated his voice till it was as exquisitely chiselled
as a piece of sculpture. While presenting a raga he unfolded it
with extreme skill, delicacy and purity. At times, when an as-
cending note appeared to be suspended in mid-air, he un- expect-
edly made a lightning play on that note, holding the audience
spellbound. Because of his inborn, instinctive know- ledge of
avakash, kal and laya he was able to make his voice sound as if
he was singing swaras from two different octaves simultaneously,
treating his audience to a unique celestial ex- perience. His
mastery over layakari and the swaras was com- plete. His taans
though complicated, and full of artistic twists. vere executed
in an easy and graceful way. He had an amazingly wide range of
pitch, and he moved majestically through this span with his
liquid golden voice. Listeners were always favour- ably impressed
by his gayaki and skilled display of tonal beauty. He did not
agree with the popular notion that the tarana was just a tongue-
twisting exercise with a meaningless cluster of words, involving
a lot of voeal jugglery in an ever-increasing tempo. He always
put into a tarana a Persian couplet inter- woven in the apparent-
ly meaningless 'Dir tun, tan, din yalali, yalallum', and honestly
believed that these syllables did have some mysterious and mystic
import. According to him it was the Persian scholar Amir Khusro
who invented the tarana. Amir Khan was very keen on establishing
this theory by carrying out research to unravel the hidden mean-
ings of the tarana. But cruel destiny snatched him away and his
mission was left un- accomplished.
Amir Khan's presentation was always thoughtful and methodi- cal
and he rarely indulged in repetitive phrases. The thorough treat-
ment he gave each raga naturally required considerable time for
flawless elaboration. It was well-nigh impossible to get a satis-
factory exposition from him in just 3 minutes. It was therefore
only in the late 1960s that I could have him to record for a
long-playing disc. It was not an easy job to bring him before the
mike, though obtaining his consent was not all that difficult.
Even to approach him posed a very big problem for me. Amir Khan
lived, in those days, in very disreputable sur- roundings, where
it was considered very objectionab]e for any gentleman to go,
even during the day. This is the locality a little beyond and op-
posite the Congress House on Vallabhhhai Patel Road, near the
Kennedy bridge. It is inhabited by professional singing and danc-
ing girls, as well as prostitutes. Amir Khan was giving tuitions
to some of these singing girls for his living and therefore had
to stay in one of the buildings on the third floor. Later, when
his financial position improved, he shifted to a flat on Peddar
Road. Just beyond the building where Amir Khan lived was the
residence of an elderly singer by the name of Gangabai. Ustad
Bade Gulam Ali Khan and Ahmad Jan Tirakhwa often stayed with her.
This shows that even women of these professions were treated with
respect as artists, in artistic cirles. As the recording execu-
tive of H.M.V. I had to contact artists regardless of time and
place.
To obtain Amir Khan's agreement for the recording I had to meet
him, and ,therefore it was incumbent on me to visit his
residence. I was greatly put off when I learnt about the locality
where he stayed. I was afraid of what people would say if they
observed me entering a house of ill repute. Any outsider would
naturally draw his own conclusions, not knowing that an eminent
singer was living in that building. If I had, out of fear of so-
cial stigma, refrained from going to visit Amir Khan, his great
artistry would have gone unrecorded. The idea of securing his
consent for recording together with a keen sense of duty prompted
me to enter the building, eyes downcast, not looking about me
till I entered Amir Khan's room on the 3rd floor. Once in his
room I cheered up, and I talked to him for an hour or two. After
that I visited him often. We exchanged views on music and ghara-
nas, and such visits gave me opportunities to study his likes and
dislikes. These visits also gave him confidence in me. After a
couple of months and 4 or 5 such visits, he agreed to come for a
recording. Some more time was lost in persuad- ing him to agree
to the terms of payment. Finally this hurdle too was crossed. Yet
Amir Khan went on cancelling dates, giving fresh ones and then
again postponing the recording on some flimsy ground. I got fed
up with his dilly-dallying and, in spite of my great regard and
respect for him, I justifiably felt very annoyed. Ultimately one
day I plucked up my courage and said to him, 'If I had approached
God Almighty as many times as I have come to you, he would have
blessed me, but all I can get from you is the promise of a future
date.'
Seeing my exasperation he became thoughtful, smiled a little and
replied, 'Please do not disbelieve me. Name any day of this week
and I will keep the appointment.'
True to his word he came on the day I named, and I got from him
his first long-playing disc. His favourite ragas were Marwa, Dar-
bari Kanada and Malkauns. It is indeed rare these days to hear
Raga Marwa as it was presented by Bade Gulam Ali and Amir Khan.
His first LP was received with tremendous enthu- siasm by the
public. This delighted Amir Khan, and he was more than ready for
another recording. In spite of this I had to put in a lot of ef-
fort and time to bring him to the studio again. This time he
made an LP containing ragas Lalit and Megh and this was all that
could be obtained from him before he was lost to the world.
It was my ardent desire to record as many eminent artists as was
possible and to get out of each as much as I could to preserve
their art for posterity. Bade Gulam Ali, Alla Diya Khan, Amir
Khan, Kesarbai Kerkar, Rajaballi, Amanat Ali, all these and oth-
ers of that generation had extremely old fashioned, conservative
outlooks and were peculiarly obstinate when it came to recording
their talents. This attitude prevented me from fully achieving
my goal, and a wealth of art vanished along with these great
singers.
I felt very distressed at Amir Khan's sudden death. I still have
feelings of great disappointment and frustration when I think of
the number of opportunities I lost.
********************************************************************
Rajan Parrikar
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian