28/08/2017
•• Remembering Legendary Hindustani Classical Sitarist Abtab-e-Sitar Ustad Vilayat Khan on his 89th Birth Anniversary (28 August 1928) ••
Ustad Vilayat Khan (28 August 1928 - 13 March 2004) was one of India's well known Sitar Maestros. Along with Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee and his younger brother Ustad Imrat Khan, Ustad Vilayat Khan was one of the great pioneers who introduced Indian Classical Music to the West. Widely regarded by many as the greatest sitarist of his generation, he recorded his first 78-RPM disc at the age of 8, and gave his last concert in 2004 at the age of 75.
Vilayat Khan was born in Gauripur, India. His father Enayat Khan was recognised as a leading Sitar and Surbahar player of his time, as had been the grandfather, Imdad Khan, before him. He was taught in the family style, known as the Imdadkhani Gharana or Etawah Gharana, after small city close to Agra where Imdad Khan lived.
However, Enayat Khan died when Vilayat was only 9, so much of his education came from the rest of his family: his uncle, Sitar and Surbahar Maestro Wahid Khan, his maternal grandfather, singer Bande Hassan Khan, and his mother, Bashiran Begum, who had studied the practice procedure of his forefathers. His uncle Zinde Hassan looked after his Riyaaz. As a boy, Vilayat wanted to be a singer; but his mother, herself from a family of vocalists, felt he had a strong responsibility to bear the family torch as a Sitar Maestro.
Vilayat Khan performed at All Bengal Music Conference, as his first concert, organized by Bhupen Ghosh in Kolkata with AhmedJan Thirakwa on Tabla. His performance at the concert organized by Vikramaditya Sangeet Parishad, Mumbai in 1944 drew the headline "Electrifying Sitar". In the 1950s, Vilayat Khan worked closely with instrument makers, especially the famous Sitar-Makers Kanailal & Hiren Roy, to further develop the instrument. Also, he liked to perform without a Tanpura drone, filling out the silence with strokes to his Chikari strings.
Some ragas he would somewhat re-interpret (Bhankar, Jaijaivanti), others he invented himself (Enayatkhani Kanada, Sanjh Saravali, Kalavanti, Mand Bhairav), but he was first and foremost a traditional interpreter of grand, basic ragas such as Yaman, Shree, Todi, Darbari and Bhairavi.
When he died from lung cancer in 2004, Vilayat Khan had been recording for over 65 years, broadcasting on All India Radio almost as long and been seen as a master for 60. He had been touring outside India off and on for more than 50 years, and was probably the first Indian Musician to play in England after independence (1951). In the 1990s, his recording career reached a climax of sorts with a series of ambitious CDs for India Archive Music in New York, some traditional, some controversial, some eccentric. Towards the end of his life, he also performed and recorded sporadically on the surbahar. He has performed duet concerts with maestros like Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ali Akbar Khan and brother Imrat Khan. Khan also composed and conducted the score for few movies and a documentary.
Vilayat Khan took few disciples other than his sons Shujaat Khan and Hidayat Khan; among the best-known are Kashinath Mukherjee, Arvind Parikh and Kalyani Roy. He trained his daughter Zila Khan in Sitar and Vocal Music and also made her a formal student in a ceremony in 1991.
Fans and media alike liked to play up Vilayat Khan's rivalry with and animosity towards Pt. Ravi Shankar. However, in calmer moments Vilayat would admit there was not much to it. His animosity for the politics and institutions of India's cultural life was another matter. In 1964 and 1968, respectively, he was awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards - India's 4th and 3rd highest civilian honours - but refused to accept them, declaring the committee musically incompetent to judge him.
In January 2000, when he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the 2nd highest civilian award, he again refused, going so far as to call it "an insult". This time, his criticism had a slightly different twist: he would not accept any award that other Sitar players, his juniors and in his opinion less deserving, had been given before him. "If there is any award for Sitar in India, I must get it first", he said, adding that "there has always been a story of wrong time, wrong person and wrong award in this country".
Among other honours he turned down was the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. For a while, he also boycotted All-India Radio. The only titles he accepted were the special decorations of "Bharat Sitar Samrat" by the Artistes Association of India and "Aftab-e-Sitar" from President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed.
On his Birth Anniversary, Hindustani Classical Music And Everything pays rich Tributes to the Legend and are very grateful for his contributions to the Indian Classical Music. 🙏💐
