Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
nkdat...@bigmailbox.net
Hindu
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan passes away
Kolkata: Sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan died in San Francisco,
U.S., on Friday after a prolonged kidney ailment, according to a
family friend here.
Khan, 88, died at his music centre, according to Rabin Pal, secretary
of sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar.
Mr. Pal said he was informed about the death by the Ustad’s family in
San Francisco.
Khan’s secretary here Ashish Roy said the maestro, who was on
dialysis, was ailing for over four years and his condition
deteriorated in the last four months.
A recipient of Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, the Ustad was a
colossus in the world of Indian classical music for the last five
decades. He is survived by his wife Mary, three sons and a daughter.
Brilliant compositions
Hailed by violinist Yehudi Menuhin as ‘the greatest musician in the
world,’ Khan had many firsts to his credit in taking Indian classical
music to the west. He was admired by both eastern as well as western
musicians for his brilliant compositions and his mastery of the 25-
string instrument.
The illustrious son of Ustad Alauddin Khan was the first to cut a long
play record of Indian classical music in the U.S. and to give a sarod
recital on American TV.
The Ustad was also the first Indian musician to receive the MacArthur
Foundation Fellowship in 1991. He was nominated for Grammy Awards five
times between 1970 and 1998.
Born on April 14, 1922 in Shibpur village of Comilla district, now in
Bangladesh, Khan took up music at the age of 3, learning vocal music
from his father and percussion from his uncle, Fakir Aftabuddin.
His father trained him in several other instruments too, but he
decided to concentrate on sarod and vocals.
Khan gave his first public performance in Allahabad at the age of 13
and made his first gramophone recording in Lucknow when he was in his
early 20s. He became the court musician of the Maharaja of Jodhpur and
continued for seven years until his patron’s death. The state of
Jodhpur bestowed upon him the title ‘Ustad.’ At the request of
Menuhin, Khan visited the U.S. in 1955 and performed at the Museum of
Modern Art in New York.
He founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Kolkata in 1956. In 1965,
he began teaching in the U.S. and later opened a branch of his college
there and in Switzerland. — PTI
Torpedo
<nkdat...@bigmailbox.net> wrote in message
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nkdat...@bigmailbox.net
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=93342
.....Ustad Ali Akbar Khan was one of the performers at the famous
Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, where most performers performed
without remuneration to contribute the proceeds towards Bangladeshi
refugees in India during the Liberation War. Ustad Khan was the sarod
player in Ravi Shankar's Bangla Dhun tune, along with Ustad Alla Rakha
Khan in tabla and can be seen performing in the video of the concert.
I don't know if this maestro has done anything else for Bangladesh,
but as a nation we are grateful to all the people involved in that
concert at Madison Square Gardens in New York on 1st August, 1971. I
hope that at least the newspapers will honour these great souls,
because our government has failed miserably in doing so. .....