(Dev) Aandhiyan (1952)This film was produced by Dev Anand and had the music by the great master of Sarod Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (see his picture below). I recently posted an extensive article on the Ustad, who was called the Swara Samrat, in the "Anmol Fankaar" web site. The entire artcle can be accessed at the following link ...
http://www.anmolfankaar.com/specials/ek-fa...-ali-akbar-khanThe following are excerpts from that article ...
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan was born on April 14, 1922 in a family with a deep rooted pedigree in music. Like himself, his father Baba Allauddin Khan was a multi-instrumentalist. Baba Saab is generally believed to be the founder of Maihar Gharana that is considered to be very similar to Hindustani classical music. The sarodist Timir Baron, the flutist Pannalal Gosh, Pandit Ravi Shankar and Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, both prominent sitarists, were schooled in Maihar Gharana discipline.
Khan Saab was a virtuoso when it came to playing the sarod musical instrument. He was a musician, a composer of several new classical ragas, he wrote music for a few films, he was a worldwide performer, and he was also an educator. Khan Saab was bestowed with several honors during his brilliant career. The Indian government named him a national treasure and honored him with Padma Vibhushan for his many achievements that enriched the field of classical music.
Khan Saab was the court musician for the Maharaja in Jodhpur from 1943 to 1948. In this court he started educating students in music and was bestowed with the title of Ustad by the Maharaja. When the Maharaja passed away in an airline crash, Ustad decided to move to Bombay.
Encouraged by the results he got from educating aspiring musicians, Ustad founded Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta in 1956. Later, in 1967, he established another school in Berkeley, California, USA. That school is now located in San Rafael, California. In 1985, Ustad opened yet another branch in Basel, Switzerland. He also taught music lessons at Montreal and McGill Universities in Canada. When it came to instructing, though Khan Saab was a warm hearted generous man, he was a didactic teacher and stern disciplinarian.
Khan Saab, known for his innovation, was never willing to compromise his music. Based on the traditional ragas, a system of varying degrees of scales, he created his unusual melodies. This unwillingness to make compromises made him endearing to music connoisseurs around the world. His initial concerts mostly consisted of alaps but by the mid-60’s he became very bold and experimental. He worked with several Western artists during this period, resulting in many noteworthy albums, such as, “Flowers of Evil: Six Poems of Baudelaire” in 1968 with Yvette Mimieux, and Indo-Jazz fusion albums with saxophonist John Handy, including, “Karuna Supreme” in 1975 and “Rainbow” in 1981.
Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, the noted maestro of santoor, has this to say in an interview talking about Khan Saab. "… something that I find truly admirable in him is that he dedicated the last 40 years of his life teaching." He continued to add that "… teaching the sarod to a novice when you are a master can be excruciatingly boring. But Ustadji did this tough job for 40 years …"
Perhaps the greatest tribute that was ever given to him was by none other than his father. He told his son that he was so proud of him that he has no hesitation in saying these words. “… I am so pleased with your work in music that I will do something which is very rare. As your Guru and father, I am giving you a title, ‘Swara Samrat’, loosely translated to mean the king of music, …”.
In the end, Khan Saab’s work touched upon several facets of Hindustani music. He was a court musician, a radio broadcaster, a composer who worked with notable film personalities, and he also built a rich legacy of student with his instruction that will continue for years to come. Khan Saab brought people all over the world a little closer together through his abundantly rich music in a time when the internet did not exist. We are left with his legacy to listen and to treasure. And, in fact, his legacy continues through his three sons, Aashish, Alam-E-Aftabuddin, and Manik. All three are now considered to be expert sarodists.
The Swara Samrat once said that “ … music is the only thing that you can share with a million people and you don’t lose, you gain. …” He once wrote of the sarod, "If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist -- then you may please even God."
There is also a thread going on in the Forum in the "Raag Rang" directory on the Ustad. Several people have contributed some of Ustad's music in this thread including r&d and Nandi. Here is the link to this thread ...
http://www.hamaraforums.com/index.php?showtopic=46037I am including below a musical piece that Ustad worked with Zakir Hussain, the Tabla maestro. Here are its details ...
Title: Raga Ahir Bhairav- Teen Taal
Album: The Versatile Genius Ustad Zakir Hussain & The Maestros (Vol.1)
Time: 10 min 44 sec
Bit Rate: 192 kbps
Year: 1999
Sarod: Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
Tabla: Ustad Zakir Hussain
Now for the raag ...