Shiraz Ali Khan, the youngest sarodia of the Maihar gharana lit up the Sunday morning with the sonorous swaras of Bilaskhani Todi during his fluid, gentle and deeply inspiring performance, at the Legends of India, morning raga concert series. Accompanied on tabla by young Saurabh Guho from Kolkata, he also mesmerised the audience with the melodious ‘Maand’, the folk melody of Rajasthan. Shiraz had created waves earlier this year, when the HCL Concert Series featured him in their memorable concert ‘The Wave of Maihar’!
The great grandson of the legendary Acharya Baba Allauddin Khan, grandson of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and son of late Dhyanesh Khan, Shiraz awed the Delhi audience when he played the sarod holding it totally opposite to the way it is conventionally held. He plays the sarod holding it exactly the way Baba Allauddin Khan did.
Shiraz disclosed the secret later during the interview. The sarod he played was 150-year -old instrument of Baba Allauddin Khan. “It had such a different tonal quality because it was made by Baba himself, together with his brother Ayet Khan, who was a superb instrument maker. Baba Allauddin Khan had designed everything – the shape of the drum, the skin membrane, the wooden body, the steel sheet fingerboard and the strings. He especially took care of the instrument’s sound and its tonal quality.”
One wanted to know whether Shiraz was a left-hander by birth and used the left hand in his daily life too. Shiraz denies this. “Oh no, I write with my right hand, eat and play games like cricket with right. It’s only when it comes to music that I play with left hand. I started learning sarod with my right hand only but when I started learning tabla with Pt. Shankar Ghosh at the age of eight I started with my left hand. There were quite a few instruments (sarod) of different sizes at home brought by my father from Maihar. I tried my hand on all of them. When my father noticed that I feel more comfortable with left, he decided that I should play that way only. It was totally the decision of my first Guru, my father, whom I lost just a few days after this crucial decision.”
Shedding light on his initial training, Shiraz says, “My father gave me initial basic training. I still remember my first raga was Yaman Kalyan but I lost him when I was hardly six. I later learnt from my aunt Amina Parera and my uncle Ashish Khan but prior to that it was my grandmother Zubeida Begum (the first wife of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan), who took care of me. It was she who instilled in me the discipline of getting up early in the morning, attending school, practising sarod. She knew everything about sarod and was an expert in making ‘java’, the wooden striker made out of the coconut shell. My grandfather and everybody else in my family used to play sarod with the striker made only by her.”
His father was keen to put him in ‘Path-Bhavan’, where music was compulsory from primary classes. “I remember playing sarod along with the morning prayer of the school, apart from the vocal music classes I attended in school. I even remember playing tabla, with my cousin Rakhi in ‘Shri Shikshayatan’, her girls school where I used to accompany her on tabla professionally. Then I started training under Aminaji, my aunt, who always lived with us at our home. She taught me simple compositions line by line. She told me not to copy anybody, not even my grandfather, my uncles or even any other musician. She discouraged me from playing fast. She said “Concentrate on tone and total tunefulness.”
On getting an opportunity to learn from his illustrious grandfather, Shiraz says: “ I remember he taught me his own creation Bageshree-Kanhada. He also taught me the do’s and don’ts of many ragas. He wanted me to finish my studies before I took up sarod professionally. So I did English (honours) from the Kolkata University.”
Indian Blue
Shiraz also started experimenting as a teenager with his band ‘Indian Blue’ as a lead player, way back in 2005. “My band is not a fusion band. It only concentrates on the music of my grandfather and other family members, not only Indian classical music that my family has played but their experiments too. My grandfather, for instance, created albums like ‘The Journey’, ‘The Garden of Dreams’, ‘Legacy’, etc. Then there is an important album of my uncle named ‘Inner Voyage’.”
He wants to keep all this music alive through his band , primarily an instrumental band, with santoor, sarod, vocals, tabla and percussions. “Sometimes there are sarangi, violin and flute too. What we are trying to do is to create our own interpretations of the music of my family and other remarkable names of Maihar gharana like Pt. Ravi Shankar. We adopt all the vocal and instrumental compositions of the inheritance and play in our own style.”
When asked about his hobby, Shiraz surprises us when he says he was into motor sports. “There was a phase in my life when I left my home and wanted to see what is life, not being the grandson of Ud. Ali Akbar Khan. Am I capable of doing any thing on my own? There was a time when I stopped performing. Did corporate jobs, even giving tuitions to specially abled ‘Divyang’ kids, joining an NGO.”
Then one day his grandfather, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, called him up from California. . “He said: ‘Your father was my favourite son. After he has gone, it is your responsibility to carry forward the legacy. Even if I’m not with you, don’t think you are away from us. I don’t teach you regularly but that is because you don’t need it. You have got all of it in you. Just listen to us, our music. I’m sure you would be able to play.’ That phone call was a turning point that decided that I quit everything and go back to my inheritance, my tradition. It is this tradition that I am made for.”
Plans for future
“My uncle and guru Ashish Aashish Khan, who is teaching full time in California Institute of Arts, wants me to assist him there in the U.S. The latest news is that he has legally adopted me as his son. He always used to teach me like his son because his son and daughter are not doing music. Now he wants me to be there with him, so that he may give all his time to me.”
