Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

Ali Akbar Khan’s sister Annapoorna Devi (born Roshanara Khan in 1926 in Maihar) played the surbahar. She married the sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar for a brief period before their divorce. Ali Akbar and Ravi Shankar together made for great brand ambassadors of Hindustani Classical music to be made accessible to the listeners outside of India. I was fortunate to have heard both of them perform at Delhi’s Modern School grounds when they rung in the dawn of a New Year having started playing post dinner on 31st December. The experience of listening to the two legends on the same stage remains a defining moment in my musical journey. Ali Akbar was 13 when he made his debut as a performer at the Allahabad Music Conference in 1936 and accompanied Ravi Shankar during his debut performance at the same conference three years later. Over the years they toured the world together and performed to mesmerize listeners who did not need to to know the alphabet to understand the new language the duo was teaching. Check out this clip of the duo performing.

The sarod is a complex instrument with 25 strings. These include four main strings, four jod strings, two chikari strings and fifteen tarab strings. This fretless instrument is played with a plectrum that is usually made from coconut shell or even the shell of tortoise. Ali Akbar became one of the first names to become synonymous with sarod. He was music director of All India Radio station, Lucknow before leaving it to become the royal musician in the court of the princely state of Jodhpur.

He briefly dabbled with composing music for films much against his father’s wishes. Satyajit Ray invited him to compose the music for his film Devi (1960). Ali Akbar did not think Ray had the same sensibilities in Hindustani Classical as he did for Western. The same year he composed music for Tapan Sinha’s classic Khsudita Pashaan (Hungry Stones), based on a short story by Rabindranath Tagore.

In 1989 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honor, and in 1991 he became the first Indian musician to receive a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.” He is credited with the creation of many Ragas. He was not flashy or flamboyant but just a musician who obsessed with his craft. Someone who made the complex instrument communicate in a language that we loved even if we did not understand all of it. Hear Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (April 14, 1922 – June 18, 2009) play Raga Marwa – a Raga that is played at the time of sunset. After all it is the end of an era.