Ustad Ali Akbar Khan was born on 14th April 1922 and would have been 94 this year. It is difficult to try to assess the impact of his music on the world today, as he touched so many people in so many countries in such different ways. For some he was the epitome of musical knowledge and subtle raga intricacies, for others he was just a very patient teacher whose music touched them. For his son Ustad Ashish Khan, “my father came from heaven to play the sarod, now every Gharana is trying to imitate his sound and style of playing the sarod.”
It was not just the depth of his music, but his training to literally thousands of people, who, may not have all become concert musicians, nevertheless experienced life changes after assimilating the impact of Khan sahib’s music in their lives.
He has several students who are masters of music today – his concert playing family members include sons Ustad Ashish Khan, Alam Khan and grandson Shiraz Ali. Among his most prominent students are late Sharan Rani, late Pandit Nikhil Bannerji, Prof. Sisirkona Dhar Chawdhary, Pandit Damodar Lal Kabra, Pandit Rajiv Taranath, Pandit Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar and Purbayan Chatterji. It would not be an exaggeration to say no living instrumentalist today is untouched by Ustad Ali Akbar’s music. His contemporaries of equal stature like Ustad Vilayet Khan, and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, have verbalised their feelings of the highest respect for his music, and for him personally.
Legends like Lord Yehudi Menuhin have described him as “the greatest musician in the world”. Yet it is said the title that he cherished the most was his father and Guru’s term for him – “Swar Samrat” or Emperor of music or musical notes.
His perception of ragas was revolutionary; the insights he had of musical notes gave him an unrivalled creativity. His musical vision was matched by his delicate handling and complete mastery of his instrument. The numerous new ragas he made – Chandranandan, Madhu Malati, Gauri Manjari, Madan Manjari ( named after his mother Madina) – to name just a few of the more commonly heard ones are witness to his astounding genius.
In his personal life it is said he lived his life with an extraordinary simplicity. Though he lived in Maihar, then in Jodhpur, then Bombay and later California, his life was totally music centric.
Apparently, he loved the simple pleasures of life best – he loved food, good whisky, the company of friends whose common interest was always music.
His son Alam Khan, currently running the school of music he set up in California, says: “He was one of the most gentle, loving, inviting, humorous, gracious, compassionate and humble human beings one could ever meet.
Besides his legendary music, his personality and soul has touched the hearts of people all over the world. There will never be another like him.”
Though he lived the greater part of his life in the United States, where he died, he retained strong links with India and while health permitted, always spent time every year in his beloved Calcutta. Ustad Ashish Khan says “I feel extremely fortunate to have a father like him, also to have a great mother, my respectful Pranam to both of them.”
Every year, Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar, one of his most talented disciples, holds an annual music festival in his honour in Kolkata. Called Swar Samrat, it is a small tribute to a colossus of a man who remains in every sense of the word, an Emperor of music.
