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Dev Anand: He started his career in films with Navketan
“A warm and simple man, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan started his career in films as a salaried staffer with my banner, Navketan Films, around 1950 or 1951. It was he who brought in the quiet Jaidev in as a part of his music team when he composed music for my film Aandhiyan (1952) and Humsafar (1953). He was a very modest man despite his illustrious lineage, being the son of Ustad Allauddin Khan who was a guru to someone as illustrious as Pt.Ravi Shankar.
His song Hai kahin par shaadmani aur kahin nashaadiya, written by Pandit Narendra Sharma and sung by Lata Mangeshkar, was very popular. In my Humsafar he worked with Sahir Ludhianvi and several playback singers.
Later, of course, when he left to do his own thing, Jaidev stayed on with us and also got his break. S.D.Burman was also a part of our team and I believe that Khansaab did teach the sarod later to R.D.Burman. But what really fascinated me was that later I saw his son from his American wife also play the sarod.”
Ustad Sultan Khan: He was no less than God for me
“I had the privilege of being based in the same town as Khansaab – Jodhpur, where Ustad Ali Akbar Khan was a court musician. I loved him as a child and as I grew up, my love for him increased aur bada mazaa aaya! Later when I had made a bit of a name for myself , it was satisfying to hear his words of praise. Later, he even told me that he would regularly listen to my cassettes.
“We had a unique bonding. Whether he was based in London, Paris or elsewhere, we would keep in touch or I would even visit him there. Such giants are born once in centuries. Aaj kal commercial artistes hote hain. But he was a Hindustan ki shaan, in the league of Ustad Bismillah Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar.
Most friends are made jawani mein, but maine unnka bachpan se unke aakhri waqt tak adab kiya. I cried when he passed away. Hindustan ka ek ratan chalaa gayaa! He was no less than God for me, aur bhagwan ko bhagwan ki tarah dekhiye to hi woh mehsoos hota hai!”
THE USTAD’s MILESTONES
Concert violinist the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin called Ali Akbar Khan, “An absolute genius...the greatest musician in the world,” and many have considered him the “Indian Johann Sebastian Bach.”
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s family traces its gharana to Mian Tansen, court musician of Emperor Akbar. Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s father, the late Padma Vibhushan Acharya Dr. Allauddin Khan, was acknowledged as the greatest figure in North Indian music in the 20th century.
Born on April 14, 1922 in East Bengal (Bangladesh), Ali Akbar Khan began his studies in music at the age of three. He studied vocal music from his father and drums from his uncle, Fakir Aftabuddin. His father also trained him on several other instruments, but decided finally that he must concentrate on the sarod and on vocals.
For over twenty years, he trained and practiced 18 hours a day. After that, his father continued to teach Khansaab till he was over 100 years old. Ustad Ali Akbar Khan has continued his father’s tradition of the Sri Baba Allauddin Seni Gharana of Maihar and Rampur, India.
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan gave his first public performance in Allahabad at thirteen. In his early twenties, he made his first recording in Lucknow for HMV and the next year, he became the court musician to the Maharaja of Jodhpur.
The state of Jodhpur bestowed upon him his first title, that of Ustad or Master Musician.
He also made the first Western LP recording of Indian classical music and presented the first television performance of Indian music, on Alistair Cooke’s Omnibus, sowing the seed for the popularity of Indian music in the West in the 1960s.
Khansaab founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta in 1956.
Later, recognising the extraordinary interest and abilities of his Western students, he began teaching in America in 1965. In 1967, he founded the Ali Akbar College of Music, which moved to Marin County, California, the following year. He also opened a branch of his college in Basel, Switzerland, run by his disciple Ken Zuckerman.
He composed music for films throughout his career beginning with Aandhiyan and Humsafar followed by Merchant-Ivory’sThe Householder, Khudita Pashan (or Hungry Stone) for which he won the Best Musician of the Year award, Satyajit Ray’s Devi and Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha.
When Ali Akbar Khan first received the title of Ustad, his father merely laughed. But later, when his father became a centenarian, he told his son that he was very proud of him. “I will do something which is very rare,” he told him. “As your Guru and father, I am giving you the title Swara Samrat (Emperor of Melody).”
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and his family, in particular his father, have created vast written, recorded and oral records of music in their tradition.
On June 14 1994, the Ali Akbar Khan Foundation was created in order to fund the Baba Allauddin Institute, a library and archive to preserve and make available these materials to future generations. The oldest recordings of performances in the collection have already been preserved on new master-tapes.
Khansaab taught at the Ali Akbar College of Music for almost 40 years.
He was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 1971 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1988.
He won five Grammy nominations - in 1970, 1983 and in three successive years from 1996 to 1998 for different albums.
Apart from multiple Honorary Doctorates in India, in 2000, Khansaab was conferred the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts, Honoris Causa from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
