Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (1920 - 2009)
"For us, as a family, music is like food. When you need it you don't have to explain why, because it is basic to life."
-Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
Ali Akbar Khan, son of Ustad Allauddin Khan, needs little introduction for his name occupies an elevated position in the world of Hindustani music. He did for the Sarod what Pandit. Ravishankarji did for the Sitar. Such epithets as “Emperor of Sarod” and “Bach of Indian Music” are telling of the esteem that he enjoys in the West such that his name has become synonymous with the instrument.
Ali Akbar was born in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) and he too, like Baba Allauddin Khan, grew up in an environment where Swara, Laya and Raaga were as common places as breathing, eating and sleeping. Needless to say, being the son of the greatest Sarodiya of his time, he was trained by Baba from his tender years. He was taught drupad and dhamar first and the Sarod from the age of nine. Baba was ruthless disciplinarian and an uncompromising perfectionist as a teacher. He would lock up the young boy in a room and command him to practice for long hours. Mistakes rarely went unpunished. Even in his early youth, his irrepressible father would tie his son to a tree and beat him black and blue if he ever made a mistake while practicing or could not execute a gamak. Baba always bracketed out his tender loving side and brought forth his more severe side when he took on the role of the teacher.
Naturally enough, the young Ali Akbar began to chafe when he was submitted to such harsh methods of instruction. On one occasion, he said to himself that enough is enough, procured a rope, climbed down from the upper storey of his home at the dead of night. Then he proceeded to the Maihar railway station with two rupees in hand and his beloved Sarod. Ticketless, he boarded a train going to Khandwa. After a while a ticket examiner caught the defaulter and promptly detrained him before the train reached its destination. From there, Ali Akbar proceeded to the town on foot. En route, he was tempted to lay his money on a gambling table he saw on the way; he lost every paisa he had with him. But he hugged his dear Sarod, his paternal legacy. Hungry and homeless, he wandered about the railway station where he was spotted by a music lover who fed and housed him and also arranged for a few programmes. With the money he obtained from these concerts, Ali Akbar proceeded to Bombay. After wandering about for a while in the big city, he was fortunate enough to get a break in Bombay AIR.
Once when one of his programmes was aired, the Maharaja of Maihar happened to hear it, as also the name of ht eartist. He promptly informed the agonized Baba about his son’s probable whereabouts. Baba speedily reached Bombay and hauled the young man back home. As a token, Baba made the training sessions less rigorous. The Maharaja also appointed Ali Akbar as a court musician. In no time he began to scale the musical heights his father had in mind for him. From this point on there was no looking back. The first indication of the immense fame to follow came in his twenties when he was appointed as court musician by the Maharaja of Jodhpur. Several honours and much wealth came his way incessantly from that point on.
Later on, RaviShankar became his guru-bhari and later his brother-in-law. In the mid 1950s he started visiting the US for long spells. After a while, sensing lucrative prospects there, he settled down in San Rafael, California and started a school of music there. During the 1960s and 1970s, both he and Ravi Shankar gave a number of jugalbandis at various places in the US, and in European countries. This partnership proved to be very fruitful while it lasted. The concept of jugalbandi received a solidity and weight in the hands of these nearly matched instrumentalists who shared similar ideas on music and could take it to new heights.
As with Ravi shankar’s music, there is something truly traditional and fascinatingly modern about Ali Akbar’s music. Though not a colourful performer as Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar made numerous innovations to the instrument and the style of playing in a much quieter manner. His rigorous training under Baba, as also his own innovative additions, gives his alaaps the meticulous structure, the grand spaciousness and solemn depth characteristic of drupad. Ali Akbar’s command over rhythm was superb and at times, even breathtaking, especially when he has someone with astounding gifts like Pt. Swapan Choudhry as his Tablist. Audiences always looked forward to these lively contests between the Tabla and the Sarod for they are not merely exciting spectacles but musical events that challenge and spur either player to give his best. Following the mutually spurring rhythmic contest, both the sarod and the table converge and proceed to an exhilarating climax.
Ali Akbar was a widely recorded artist. One has only to listen to some of the recordings that came out in the 1950s and the 1960s to appreciate the unparalleled melodic variety he has at his command. Rarely do we come across an instrumentalist who combines the cerebral with the emotional, the concrete with the tantalizing and the sensuous with the ethereal with such ease in the circumambient universe of his art. Ali Akbar also went on to create a handful of ragas like Chandranandan, Medhavi, Lajwanti and Gauri Manjari.
When Ali Akbar Khan first received the title of Ustad as a relatively young man, his father merely laughed. But later, when the patriarch was a centenarian, he told his son one day that he was very proud of him: "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 (Emperor of Melody)." Khansahib feels most fortunate to have received this blessing from his father, mother, and uncle.
It may come as a surprise that Ustad Vilayat Khan had a special place in his heart for Ali Akbar – a fact that stands in stark contrast to the gall he was never tired of spewing on his professional rival – Ravi Shankar.
In over three decades, Ali Akbar has made San Rafael, California his home as also the nucleus of all his musical activities (www.aacm.org). Here, he has trained a number of American disciples into the nuances of Hindustani music. Some of his well known gifted disciples are – Ken Zuckerman, Sharan Rani, Ashish Khan (his son), Brij Narayan, Pt. Rajeev Taranath (now resides in Bangalore), Pt. Brij Bhushan Kabra and Pradeep Barot.
AWARDS, TITLES & RECORDINGS
1955