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Versatile artiste Ustad Hamid Ali

Ustad Hamid Ali is the grandson of Ustad Ali Bax, the elder of the illustrious duo ‘Aliya-Fattu’, where Aliya stood for Ali Bax and Fattu for Fateh Ali. Since there were no appropriate honorary terms for musician those days like we have the Padmas today, therefore the Maharaja of Patiala, an erstwhile princely state, awarded the honorary army ranks of Colonel and General to Ali Bax and Fateh Ali respectively.

Hamid Ali is endowed with a rich, powerful and sonorous voice. He used it to full capacity to commence his recital with a mid-tempo khayal in raga Megha set to the 10-beat time cycle of Jhap tala. The good old composition “Garajat-barasat” was rendered with pleasing vistar, alap and badhat, well-knit taans and sargams and impressive sequences with bold gamaks. The Teen tala composition that followed was well developed with the characteristic nuances of his family’s rich traditions.

The thumri “Roz kehata hun”, although tunefully rendered, seemed to be rather too early and so also the ensuing ghazal “Pyar hi pyar mein”. It was quite amusing to listen to another ghazal, which he sang on the request of a member of the audience, thereby turning the concert into an evening of light music.

Hamid Ali, however, made amends by reverting to a khayal in raga Pilu, “Chamke khiley”, but soon after he rendered another ghazal “Pyar ne mujhe soney naa diyaa”. He concluded his recital with the khayal in raga Bageshwari, “Piya bin mohey”, which was set to mid-tempo Teen tala. He followed it with a lively tarana in the same raga set to a fast tempo Teen tala. It was sad to observe him compromise on his rich classical inheritance with light music, mostly ghazals.

He had a plethora of accompanists: Salamat Hussain (harmonium), Kamal Ahmed (sarangi), Ajmal Khan (tabla), Imtiaz Ali (sitar) and Akbar Khan (dholak). The inclusion of the last two for a classical music concert seemed rather odd.

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