Elder and Young Slaves: Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Ghulam Ali

Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Ghulam Ali

I once knew a guy in Pakistan. He was an American like me at the time. And I was jealous of his ability to speak Urdu and knowledge of the country. He had grown up there, no doubt, like I had in India but it just didn't seem fair!

Anyway, he had this predilection to always ask people, "Bada ya chota?"  (Large or small).  If we were ordering a karhdai for lunch and the waiter said they had chicken or meat, this guy would ask, "Bada ghosht ya chota ghost?" Which meant, "cow (large) or goat (small) meat?"

And if someone mentioned he loved the voice of Ghulam Ali he would ask, "Bade Ghulam Ali ya Chote Ghulam Ali?"  I used to wince at that, after hearing the question in reference to the lunch menu.

But it did serve its purpose for it introduced me to the fact that there is more than one Ghulam Ali in the world of South Asian music.  To that point my only compass point had been the ghazal artiste Ghulam Ali.  I had no idea whatsoever that there was another pair of Ghulam Ali's one of whom was Big and the other Small.

Thankfully I have since discovered the wonders of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, definitely one of the top three classical vocalists to come out of the sub-continent in the past 150 years.  His first LP on which he renders two moody ragas, Goonkali and Malkauns, is stupendous and I share it today with you.  His melancholy but vigorous renditions meet my own wintry mood just perfectly.

The other collection is the original (for me) Ghulam Ali, master of the popular Ghazal and probably Pakistan's best known export to other parts of South Asia.  This collection of ghazals includes some interesting versions of his more popular hits and is a nice complement to the majesty of the Big guy.

Track Listing (Bade)

01 Ae Kartar Poori Karo (Raga Goonkali)

02 Eree Kab Avey Sajan (Raga Malkauns)

here

Track Listing (Chote)

01 Dil Mein Ik Leher Si

02 Kahoon Jo Haal To Kehtay

03 Dil Walo Kya Dekh Rahey Ho

04 Gham Hai Kushi Hai

05 Tere Aane Ka Dhoka

06 Apni Dhun Mein Rehta Hoon

07 Woh Kabhi Mil Jaeen Tau

08 Ya Rub Gham-E-Hijran

09 Pattta Patta Buta Buta

10 Mohabhat Ki Ranginiyan

11 Ghum Nahin Ji Tan Se Nikla

12 Dareecha Be Sada Koi

13 Yeh Dil Hai Pagal Dil Mera

14 Sotay Aur Jaagtay

here

A Bet Both Ways: Ghulam Ali and Asha Bhosle

It is hard to name two bigger and influential stars in sub continental music than Asha Bhosle and Ghulam Ali. 

Asha Bhosle

The former, along with her sister, Lata Mangeshkar, one of the two incontestable Empresses of Indian film music, has recorded over 12,000 songs and acknowledged as the ‘Most Recorded Singer’ by the geniuses at Guinness Book of World Records.  But her contribution is measured by far more than the sheer quantity of her output. In an extraordinary career she has not only recorded some of the most memorable film songs but made records of pop, ghazal and avant garde disco (see an earlier post) and jazz with some of the world’s finest ensembles and artists.

Ghulam Ali

For his part, Ghulam Ali, has for more than a generation, occupied the summit of his chosen profession.  Though classically trained and an outstanding vocalist he has arguably done more to create one of the most commercially successful and widely loved styles of music, the popular ghazal than any other single person.  While Mehdi Hassan is probably better regarded by the cognoscenti Ghulam Ali’s place in the hearts of critics and the people is unassailable. Making a definitive count of the number of outstanding and timeless ghazals he’s gifted to the world would trouble a maths professor.  

You could say the place these two have carved for themselves in South Asian music is akin to that of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra in the American popular music.

Tonight’s selection is a cassette I picked up in the crowded streets of Calcutta before it was known as Kolkatta.  Herein each sings a couple of their more famous ghazals and then come together for some very nice vocal jugalbandi-ing.

In a region where citizens rarely mix with their cousins across the border (yet can be the closest of friends when they are in a third country) both Asha and Ghulam Ali have huge and loyal fan bases in each other’s country.   Makes you wonder what the world would be like if singers, instead of politicans, ran the show. But obviously the manufacturers were just looking to appeal to two markets with one product!

            Track Listing:

            01 Dayar-e-dil ki raat mein charagh sa jala gaya

02 Hangama Hai Kyon Barpa

03 Dard Jab Teri Atat Hai To Gila Kis Se Karen

04 Phir Sawan Rut ki Pawan Chali Tum Yaad Aaya

05 Gaye Dinon ka suragh Lekar kidhar se aaya kidhar gaya woh

06 Awargi

07 Dil Dharakne ka sabab yaaad aaya

08 Nainan Tose Lage

Listen here.

The Revolution will be Taped: Ghulam Ali

The problem with fishing trips, especially to warm languid climates where one wakes each morning and nods off each evening to gentle Andaman Sea zephyrs is that they must end. And so it is with mixed feelings that the Washerman’s Dog returns to more regular music sharing.

Tonight, the focus is on a fine album of Punjabi ghazals, folk and sufi music performed by Ghulam Ali. There are a number of interesting aspects about this record, other than the high standard of Ali’s performance and the strong, well-selected material.

The album was released in 1981 at a time when Ghulam Ali was not yet a massively popular artist in India. He was beloved by critics and a small audience of music ‘aficionados’ but was still not a name that rolled off the lips of the average music-listening public.  And the selection of songs included on this record reflect a rather ‘conservative’ and safe approach: songs based on traditional Punjabi folk-epics and one of its greatest mystical poets, Waris Shah. There are none of the more romantic, more contemporary ghazals that have distinguished most of Ghulam Ali’s career. And which has made him so well loved in India as at home in Pakistan.  No doubt the record company ‘suits’ felt that this staid approach was the appropriate way to promote Pakistani music in India.

Until the 1983, the sorts of popular music, other than film music, that were made available to the average music lover in India were very limited. Music was available only on LPs that could be played only on record players which about 0.1% of the Indian public owned! If you listened to the radio you got film music and some classical. If you wanted popular music you had to tune into Radio Ceylon! All India Radio was extremely slow to open its radio waves to popular music that did not meet its staid conservative heavily politicised agenda. One or two major international record labels controlled the music market and if they weren’t interested in your type of music (language, genre, style) then you simply didn’t get it. Maybe at the temple or in the home but not on the radio or in the record shop.

Between 1983-6 this virtually totalitarian system was blown completely apart by the advent of a simple technology: the cassette tape. Suddenly, and literally almost overnight, small producers, local artists, singing in every possible language and style, were able to record, distribute and create huge audiences for non-film based and classical music which the monopolistic record companies preferred. And the ‘genre’ that led as well as benefited from this revolution (as equally earth-shattering as the emergence of Elvis Presley in 1950s USA) was the ghazal. 

So this record is interesting because it is one of the outstanding South Asian singers of our time singing some great Punjabi songs on the cusp of the collapse of the contemporary Indian popular music industry. And on the very edge of the dawning of a new age of non-film popular music of which he himself would soon become a superstar.

            Track Listing:

01.  Koi Hosh Nahin Deewana Main

02.  Ranjha Jogra Ban Aaaya

03.  Uth Gaye Gavando Yaar

04.  Kyon Chan Vekhan

05.  Main Tere Qurban Ve

06.  Heer Waris Shah

Listen here.

Dissolute Heart: Ghulam Ali

Ghulam Ali is one of the best loved singers in South Asia. His ghazals are stupendously popular across both Pakistan and India and indeed, it is said, ‘you’ve not heard music until you hear Ghulam Ali sing a ghazal.’  Although his ghazals have sold multiple millions and his style and lyrics are accessible to the casual listener, his musical pedigree is rooted in the Hindustani classical tradition.  Named after one of India’s greatest classical vocalists Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan with whom he studied as a lad, Ghulam Ali, takes the musicality and lyricism of his music very seriously. He is one of those artists who is both immensely popular and critically adored.

Here is a snippet from a radio interview in which he opens up about his childhood and approach to singing.

Ghulam Ali

I was born in 1941 in Pakistan's Sialkot district. I was six at the time of the Partition. I have foggy memories of people crossing the border. Once, when I was six or seven years old, I was humming a song in the class and my master Ebrahim noticed and called me. I was terrified and afraid he would punish me. But he just asked whether I was Daulatbhai's son. My father was also a musician.

Then he asked me to sing the song I was humming. I sang the song and my master, also a singer, was very impressed by me. At the age of eight, my father gave me a raaga and asked me to rehearse it on the harmonium. I worked on it for a month and learnt it. My grandmother was very angry with my father because she felt that he was overstretching a small child like me, but my father explained that my age was the right time to build the base in music. 


My name 'Ghulam' was given by my father, a great fan of Bade Ghulam Ali Khansaab. He used to live in Lahore. I had always been listening to Khansaab, since childhood. My father used to take me to Lahore, 100 km away from our village. We used to travel first in a tonga, and then take a bus to Lahore.

Bade Ghulam Ali Khansaab used to sit near Lahore Shahi Masjid on a charpoy surrounded by people. He used to talk about music and his singing used to give me goose bumps. After the Partition, Khansaab came to India. He used to come to Pakistan once a year to meet his younger brothers. Once, he had gone to Kabul for some music function, and my father also attended. He requested Khansaab to take me as a student. He in turn asked me to sing and I was terrified. I recalled a little of what I had heard of Khansaab's own thumri and sang it.

He was pleased seeing my dedication to music. He told my father he would baptise me as a student. He was based in India and said I would learn under the guidance of his brothers, who were based in Lahore. I stayed in their house. There were other students and we had to do household chores like filling water, washing vessels etc. We never had any specific time for learning. We were taught in between the work.

I was a good student. Whatever they used to teach, I would retain it. Once I was rehearsing on the terrace, and a person from Radio Pakistan had come to meet them. He heard me and was very impressed. I was called down and he asked me whether I wanted to sing on the radio. In those days singing on the radio was very prestigious.

I replied that if my teachers permitted it, I would come. When I was called to the radio station and they started my audition, they stopped me mid-way. I thought they had rejected me, but the station director and deputy wrote 'Excellent' as their remark. I was only 14 years old when I started singing for a children's programme for Pakistani radio. In six months, I progressed to the topmost level.

Mohammad Rafi: The entire world listens to me. But I listen to Ghulam Ali

Everyone has their favorite Ghulam Ali ghazal. Mine is the title track of tonight’s post, Yeh dil yeh pagal dil mera (This heart, this mad heart of mine) also known as Awaargi. It is an absolute masterpiece of forlorn and mad love and the devastation that accompanies that state of heart. But equally high on my list is the second track Jin ke honton pe haseen on which he is accompanied by one of the most masterful tabla performances ever put to tape. Unfortunately, it  is cut short as this selection is from a home-recorded mehfil in Rawalpindi, and thus the audio quality is pretty basic.

It is still highly highly highly enjoyable and if you are a fan this will be a selection you’ll return to again and again. If you are new to Ghulam Ali this set is less accessible than some of his more popular recordings but still worth the time.

So until next time…ladies, gentlemen, khawateen aur hazraat: Ustad Ghulam Ali.

         Track Listing:

01. Yeh Dil Yeh Pagal Dil

02. Jin ke Hoton Pe

03. Qurbaton mein bhi judai

04. Wo ek khwab mein taskeen

Listen here.