The passing away of sarod exponent Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, hailed variously as ?India?s Bach? and ?the greatest musician in the world?, at far away San Francisco earlier on Friday severed yet another link with an age of greats of Indian classical music.
?It?s a big loss for the Indian classical music,? said Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, leading santoor player. ?Khan sahib was a trend-setter in Indian classical music. He gave a new dimension in the tonal quality, expressiveness, different aspects to Indian classical music. He improvised on his music, which was not planned, yet reflected a flow of creativity. The tonal quality in his sarod was at its peak as one would feel the voice when Lata ji sings or Bismillah Khan plays the shehnai.?
No stranger to fame, Khan sahib, as he was popularly referred to, had many firsts to his credit. Among the first to introduce and popularlise Indian classical music to the West, he set up the Ali Akbar College of Music in Berkeley, California in 1967, which was followed by a branch in Basel, Switzerland in 1985. He was the first Indian musician to receive the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1991. He has also been nominated for Grammy Awards five times. He was the first Indian musician to record an LP album of Indian classical music in the US and to play sarod on television the country. ?Americans gained so much from him and now there are a lot of sarod players, disciples of Ali Akbar Khan, who had spread awareness about the sarod,? Sharma said.
He was honoured by the Padma Vibhushan by the Indian government, the second highest civilian honour, besides numerous other national and state level awards. But perhaps the honour closest to him as what his father, the legendary Ustad Allauddin Khan, bestowed on him, referring to his son as the ?Swara Samrat?.
Describing it as a loss to the entire music fraternity, Subhalaxmi Amjad Ali Khan, who hails from the same biradari , said that ?he had given a number of new ragas and a new dimension to the instrument, just as like his father did. It?s like losing one star in the horizon of classical music.?
Belonging to a Maihar gharana, which traces its origins to Akbar?s court musician Tansen, Ali Akbar Khan followed his father?s footsteps. He started learning music at the age of three and gave his first public performance aged 13. His first recording for HMV was in his early 20s.
He composed music for various filmmakers including Satyajit Ray, Ismail Merchant, Chetan Anand and Bernardo Bertolucci. Among the films was Aandhiyan (1953), The House Holder (1963), Khudita Pashan and Devi (both 1960), and Little Buddha (1993). He married thrice and had 11 children. His son, Aashish Khan, is also a sarod player.
Khan was based in California, and toured extensively. Ailing of late, he passed away due to renal failure. He was 87. But as Sharma put it, ?his contribution will keep him alive forever.?
(Inputs by Arunima Mishra)