Hindustani classical singer and music maestro Utsad Rashid Khan passed away in Kolkata on January 9. He was 55 and is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. The famous vocalist was suffering from cancer and was admitted to a private health facility in Kolkata in November 2023.
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Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, rushed to the hospital to meet the bereaved family and described Mr. Khan as “truly a world famous classical Indian vocal artist”. Ms. Banerjee said that the body of the music maestro will be kept at Rabindra Sadan, the State’s cultural complex on Wednesday and the final rites will be held with full State honours including a gun salute.
State honours
Born in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh, Rashid Khan received his initial training from his maternal grand-uncle, Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan (1909–1993).He gave his first concert at age eleven. In April 1980, when Nissar Hussain Khan moved to Kolkata, Rashid Khan came to the city with his grandfather. Rashid Khan also joined the ITC Sangeet Research academy at the age of 14.
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By 1994, he was acknowledged as a musician (a formal process) at the academy. Mr. Khan received his primary training from his grandfather Nissar Hussain Khan who was a strict disciplinarian, and would insist on voice training from 4 am. He would make him practice one note of the scale for a whole day.Ghulam Mustafa Khan was among the first to note his musical talents, and for some time trained him in Mumbai.
Rashid Khan was an exponent of the Rampur-Sahaswan gayaki (style of singing) which is closely related to the Gwalior gharana. This kind of singing features medium-slow tempos, a full-throated voice and intricate rhythmic play. Rashid Khan’s renderings stand out for the emotional overtones in his melodic elaboration. “The emotional content may be in the alaap, sometimes while singing the bandish, or while giving expression to the meaning of the lyrics,” a website dedicated to the singer quoted the vocalist as saying.
The vocalist won several awards including Padma Shri and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2006. In 2022, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award of the country. The West Bengal government also honoured Ustad Rashid Khan with Banga Bibhushan and Sangeet Mahasamman.
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Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari paid homage to the departed vocalist and said that his demise “would create a huge void in the sphere of Music especially Hindustani Classical Music.”
Exceptional expertise
Rashid Khan’s style of singing was influenced by legends like Amir Khan and Bhimsen Joshi and included the slow elaboration in his vilambit khayals in the manner of his maternal granduncle. He had also developed exceptional expertise in the use of sargams and sargam taankari (play on the scale). Rashid Khan was also a master of the tarana like his guru but later he made his style of rendition as his own signature in the landscape of Indian classical music.
Singer Usha Uthup said that Rashid Khan was “one of the best vocalists in the world” and the “complete consummate singer”. She said that Rashid Khan was gone too soon. Vocalist Haimanti Shukla described Rashid Khan as a “great human being” who always worked for the welfare of performers.
Rashid Khan also experimented with fusing pure Hindustani music with lighter musical genres, e.g. in the Sufi fusion recording Naina Piya Se (Amir Khusro), or in experimental concerts with western instrumentalist Louis Banks. He also performed jugalbandis, with sitarist Shahid Parvez and others.
Rashid Khan gave his voice to a number of songs in Hindi and Bengali films from 2004 to 2019. The most popular songs were: Aaoge Jab Tum Saajna in the film Jab We Met in 2007, Alah Hi Rahem in My Name Is Khan in 2010 and Bol Ke Lab Azad Hain in the film Manto in 2018.