Search Indian Maps, Pincodes, Local Info and more...
Vilayat Khan
Birth name | Vilayat Khan |
Born | August 28, 1928 in Gauripur, British India |
Died | March 13, 2004 (aged 76) |
Genres | Indian classical music |
Occupations | Composer, sitar player |
Instruments | Sitar |
Years active | 1939–2004 |
Website | khan.com |
Ustad Vilayat Khan lived till 2004, 13th March from 28th August, 1928, to be famous as one among the Indian maestros of sitar. He did his first recording of the 78-RPM disc when he was 8 years of age, while at 75 years of age, he rendered his last concert in the year 2004. Vilayat Khan was from Gauripur in India, whose father was Enayat Khan, himself a sitar maestro. The pedigree of his family history goes back to the dates of mughals, where his ancestors were musicians in the courts. Vilayat’s father was a sitar player and also the player of surbahar or bass sitar, like his grandfather Imdad Khan, who used to teach in the gharana of ImdadKhani or Etawah, which was also the residence of Imdad Khan.
With the death of Enayat Khan, while Vilayat was of 9 years, his musical education continued with guidance by rest of his family members, uncle Wahid Khan, who was a surbahar and sitar maestro, Bande Hassan Khan, his maternal grandfather and also from Bashiran Begum his mother, who had gone through the teaching of his forefathers. Zinde Hassan, who was his uncle, took care of his practices. From his childhood, Vilayat thought about becoming a singer, but her mother insisted on him to go for the family torch practicing sitar.
Biography
Coming from a family which was having plenty of musicians, with Ustad Nathan Khan his father, being commissioned for court musician in Mysore maharaja, Ustad Vilayat Hussain received his training in initial years from Ustad Karamat Khan as well as from Ustad Kaleem Khan, and in the later years from Ghulam Abbas Khan and Aftabe Mausiqui Ustad Fayyaz Khan.
Vilayat Khan had a voice with booming resonance and his renditions were very much full of melody, which were evident from his musical shows and concerts accompanying his guru Ustad Faiyyaz Khan. Besides the ability to sing, he also could make beautiful compositions.
A great part of the life of Vilayat Khan was passed in Calcutta. He had two marriages. From the first marriage he had borne 3 issues, namely Yaman Khan and Zila Khan the sufi singers while Shujaat was a sitarist. Hidayat was one son from his second wife, who went on to become a sitarist by profession. He also had a younger sibling, by the name of Imrat Khan, who himself was a star in the field of surbahar arena after the war. Both the brothers had rendered several duets when they were young, but in the later years separated with severe differences without even having speaking relation. Ustad Rais Khan was his nephew and a sitarist of caliber. There were some disciples under Ustad Vilayat Khan, apart from his sons, some of the famous ones being Kashinath Mukherjee, who was the younger sibling of Hrishikesh Mukherjee who is a film director, Kalyani Roy, Arvind Parikh, Debashis Datta, etc. Mrs Lakshmi Seshan, who is presently teaching the instrument still at the age of 80, has been learning with Vilayat Khan, since she was 12 years. The Maestro also had Big Jim Sullivan as his pupil for lessons in sitar, who is among the famous musicians of session in English.
Career
The first concert of Vilayat Khan was at the All Bengal Music Conference which was conducted by Bhupen Ghosh with Ahmed Jan Thirakwa in Kolkata, with latter playing the tabla. Immediately on the next day of this performance, there were headlines with title “electrifying Sitar” in Bombay in 1944, which was a concert held in Mumbai by Vikramaditya Sangeet Parishad. During the years in 1950s, Vilayat Khan had close working with various makers of instruments such as Kanailal as well as Hiren Roy, who were sitar makers, for making improvements in the instrument. During his performances, he preferred removing the tanpura drone, which created a silence, which was filled up with chikari strings strokes.
As far as ragas were concerned, he modified and re-interpreted some like Jaijaivanti, Bhankar and a few he invented like those of Sanjh Saravali, Enayatkhani Kanada, Mand Bhairav, etc. Also to his credit is being the first in the interpreter in the traditional manner of ragas of basic types, such as Todi, Shree, Yaman, Bhairavi and Darbari.
For a long period of 65 years, till his death in 2004 from lung cancer, Vilayat Khan had been busy recording as well as broadcasting through All India Radio, and has remained a master or ustad for over 60 years. He went to foreign countries from time to time since last 50 years, with the credit of being the first musician from India in 1951, to have performed in England after india got its independence. In the years of 1990s, he had a climax of his career, when a number of CDs were launched for india Archive Music in New York, of which some were quite traditional while a few created eccentric controversies. During his last years, he was also performing and recording in surbahar form. He has credits of playing duets in various concerts along with other maestros such as Ali Akbar Khan, Bismillah Khan and for a few years with Imrat Khan, his brother.
Vilayat Khan also did the music for a few films like Jalsaghar by Satyajit Ray in Bengali, Kadambari by Madhusudan Kumar in hindi and the Guru under Merchant Ivory productions in English. He had also rendered the music for a documentary which was very less known in Bengali language made by Dr Barin Roy.
Awards
Moscow International Film Festival | |||
Year | Result | Award | Category/Recipient(s) |
1959 | Won | Silver Prize (1959-1967) | Best Composer for : The Music Room (1958) |