Jodhpur is proud of its association with legendry Ali Akbar Khan

Rajendra Bora

Jodhpur. With the passing away of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who became a legend in his own life time, an era of Indian classical music has ended. The land of Marwar is proud of its association with the master of Sarod, a 25-stringed instrument, who brought the Indian classical music to the international stage.
Ali Akbar Khan Saheb began his professional musical career in Jodhpur serving as court musician in 1940s. People of Jodhpur have always been proud of the fact that the Ustad started his journey to great musical heights from the land of Marwar.. In fact his first true achievement came when he was appointed the court musician in the Jodhpur Royal Court.

It was also in the Jodhpur Royal Court that he was bestowed upon the title of ‘Ustad’ (master musician).

Veteran music connoisseurs in Jodhpur still have fond memories of Ustad who, they remember, was a jovial fellow and a good cook too. He was provided with an official car from the court in which he would go on long drives with local connoisseurs of music discussing intricacies and nuances of Indian classical ragas.

During his three years stay in the Sun City a hugely successful national music conference was organized that was attended by every musician worth the salt from all parts of the country.

The Ustad, virtually synonymous with Sarod had arrived in Jodhpur as a young man of 22, just out of his teens, after showing his virtuosity very early in life. He gave his first public performance in Allahabad when he was only 13. His first disc was cut by HMV when he was only 20.

Born on April 14, 1922 in East Bengal, now Bangla Desh, in a gifted family he was trained under the watchful and severe tutelage of his highly disciplinarian father Ustad Allaudin Khan. Exasperated by his father’s strictness the teenage boy fled to Bomaby to try his luck at All India Radio station. But he was forced back home by his father.

Tracing his ancestral roots to Mian Tansen, a 16th century musician in the court of Emperor Akbar, Khan Saheb began studying music at the age of three. Initially studying vocal music with his father, he studied drums with his uncle, Fakir Aftabuddin. Although he tried playing a wide variety of instruments, he felt most comfortable on the sarod.

In the Jodhpur Darbar he was accompanied by another musical genious Jaidev who later carved his own niche in bollywood giving soulful music to dozens of films, including Hum Dono, Mujhe Jeene Do and Ghaonda.

Although the Ustad exclusively devoted himself to classical music he too made contribution to film music and his musical scores for films are rare gem always cherished by Hindustani Film Music buffs. He scored music for Dev Anand starrer ‘Aandhiyan’ besides Ivory-Merchant’s Shashi Kapoor starrer ‘The Householder’ and Satyajit Roy’s Sharmila Tagore starrer ‘Devi’. He won best musician of the year award for his score for film ‘Kudita Pashan’. He scored music for Hollywood legend Bernardo Bertolucci’s ‘Little Buddha.’

A five-time Grammy nominee, he was called, by Yehudi Menuhin, "an absolute genius and the greatest musician in the world."

(The piece appeared on June 21,2009 in Jaipur Live supplement of The Hindustan Times)