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| Ustad Umeed Ali Khan
Umeed Ali Khan was a giant of
Hindustani classical music and I introduce him with a heart-felt tribute from
one of his relations.
Ustad Umeed
Ali Khan 1910-79 is one of the best musicians
Punjab has ever produced. Born in the area of Amritsar, young Umeed Ali Khan was groomed by his late father
Ustad Pyare Khan who was a court
musician of Bhuman Shah, a Sikh
maharaja. Ustad Umeed Ali Khan’s ancestors
can be traced back to Ustad Baba
Bannay Khan saab who was a
student of Ustad Haddu & Hassu Khan
(Gwalior gharana) who spread khyal singing in Punjab and also pioneered
the Punjabi khyal bandish.
Umeed Ali
Khan was a typical Punjabi who used to wrestle in his happy
days. In those time musicians were expected to do these kind of exercises to maintain
themselves, topping them with rich diet and hours of hours of practice. There
was a time when he had a duel with Ustad
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, where Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan (Kirana gharana) was there as a judge. He sang
the raag Saazgiri and afterwards Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan voted young Umeed as the best performance
by saying that "Woh larka maar gaya
baazi," (That boy killed that one!) Young Umeed was very happy with this comment, coming as it did from
a grand legend.
He is also notorious for the duel with Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan (the teacher of Malika-e-Ghazal Farida Khanum, Malika Zahida Praveen and Ustad
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan) singing Lalit
and Sham Kalyan. Khan Saab went to India
on a few occasions where he met my dada
(grandfather) Ustad Amir Khan and became
best brother-like friends for ever. Khan
Saab travelled to the UK where he has 2 disciples: the late Roshan Masih and Naeem Salaria (the teacher of Najma
Akhtar). According to Naeem
saab, Khansaab’s favourite singer was Lata Mangeshkar and liked singing filmi songs of hers. You don’t see or hear many classical
artists who sing filmi songs. Out of
all raags that he rendered, Khan saab’s favourite was Kafi Kanada
and is the first person who popularized this very raag with the Punjabi bandish
"ley jaande nahi je naal". Just to name a few of Khan saab ‘s famous students in Pakistan: Fateh Ali Khan Hyderbadi, and Hamid
Ali khan who are his nephews who reside in Karachi.
At the age of mid 60 Khan saab’s hearing was
gone and he came to the UK for treatment but did not suceed according to Naeem Salaria who stayed at his
residence for a year and took care of his needs. Sadly in 1979 he passed
away at the age of 69. May Khan saab soul rest in eternal peace in God’s
realm.
On this
recording we have three fantastic renditions in Punjabi ang by the Ustad, including his favorite raga Kafi Kannada. All of them give the spirit the Hope for which Khansaab was named (umeed). The drut on the third selection is simply jaw droppingly good and worth
the ticket at the door.
  
01 Kafi Kannada [Lay Janda Nain Jay
Naal]
02
Emen [Kaise Kaise Ka
03 Wohi Rang Ranaya
|
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Giving us Hope: Ustad Umeed Ali Khan (Fresh Link)
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7 comments:
I would like to share this piece about Ustad Umeed Ali Khan on a FB page I run called "What The Raags Told Me". May I?
Sure
I do not find a link to download this. Please provide a link
Thanks & Regards,
Subhasis
Subashis,
done! Enjoy.
Hi there, perhaps i am late to the party, this is some serious rare recordings you have hear. Could i please request, rater beg to please reupload this gem please please please ? God Bless and waiting with bleated breath
Thanx a lot.. I wish you had just added a label "Music of Pakistan" for all these 50 plus audio CD Rips.. That way it wud've been so easy to have a look at all this treasure and comment. Now we have to goto all the threads one by one and scroll to bottom to see if any such audio cd rip is attached there. Theres no catalogue or index or list of these CDs on internet so no one knows now about which and how many artists titles were released. I know you are a busy person but if you can somehow manage a list of all these "Music of Pakistan" audio cds titles, it wud serve the purpose. Each title can later be linked to its relative thread in ur leisure time. Thanx again for your highly esteemed services for the spread of quality music. we owe you.
Hello, I really appreciate this blog. I study Hindustani Classical Singing with Umeed Ali Khan's son Nawazish Ali Khan. A musician myself I met Nawazish at The Globe Theatre where we were doing a show together. He was one of the most incredible musicians I'd ever met and I asked him how we could stay in touch. He told me to come for a singing lesson, that was nearly four years ago and I'm still going for singing lessons. Would it be possible to upload the tracks again? As I'd very much like to hear them. Thanks so much. Laurence Corns.
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