Aashish Khan
Golden Strings of the Sarode
Moment Records, 2005
1. Raag Lalita Gouri - Alaap
2. Raag Bhimpalashree - Gat Jhaptal
3. Raag Mishra Bhairavi - Gat Dadratal
Aashish Khan - sarod
Zakir Hussain - tabla
Cita:
For this intimate yet scintillating, Grammy-nominated duet, Aashish Khan, son of the legendary Ali Akbar Khan and a brilliant sarode virtuoso, is heard with percussionist, producer, and composer Zakir Hussain, who has not only taken his ancestral tabla drums into the 21st century, but is a noted classicist with an impressive pedigree of his own. His famous father, Ustad Alla Rakha, working with sitar master Ravi Shankar, was largely responsible for bringing Indian classical music to Western ears during the 1960s. Together, the two younger men explore and expand the perimeters of their respective instruments. Invented in the 17th century, the fearsomely demanding sarode (sarod-dhayak-vina in sanskrit) is made of teak wood with a fretless steel fingerboard, resonating goat skin belly, and 25 metal strings variously employed for drone, rhythm, and melody. The term tabla actually refers to a pair of drums; the smaller dayan is played with the right hand while the larger bayan is played with the left. The three raags that make up the recital are, as is typical of this type of music, are associated with different times of day. Bhimpalashri, meant for the afternoon, is gently but not passively melancholy. Lalita Gouri captures the lingering fires of sunset, while Bhairavi is redolent of fragrant night shadows, romantic longing, and the eternal feminine. - Christina Roden
Cita:
On this Grammy-nominated album, the sons of famous fathers carry on the important tradition of North Indian classical music, applying their virtuosic talents to three traditional raags. Aashish Khan, like his father Ali Akbar Khan, is a master of the 25-stringed sarode, a challenging sitar-like instrument. Zakir Hussain--son of celebrated tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha--is himself a gifted tabla player. The two musicians play together so seamlessly, it is like listening to inspiration itself.
Cita:
A unique co-production with Meyer Sound, this extraordinary CD presents Aashish Khan, one of the foremost sarodists of our time. The eldest son of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan, he here presents both rare and popular raags, described in his own words in authentic and moving liner notes. He is joined by his musical colleague Zakir Hussain, with whom he has enjoyed 30 years of making music. Moment Records is proud to present this audiophile-quality recording.
Cita:
Aashish Khan Debsharma (born December 5, 1939) (popularly known as Ustad Aashish Khan) is an eminent Indian classical musician, known for his virtuosity on the Sarode. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006 in the 'Best World Music' category for his album "Golden Strings of the Sarode". He is also a recipient of Government of India's highest honour in performing arts, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. Besides being a high-profile performer, composer, and conductor, he is also an adjunct professor of Indian classical music at the California Institute of the Arts, and the University of California at Santa Cruz, in the United States.
Aashish Khan is a representative of a family of great classical musicians of India. His grandfather Ustad Alauddin Khan, a singular phenomenon in the twentieth century Indian classical music, and founder of the "Senia Maihar Gharana" or "Senia Maihar School" of Indian classical music; was called with reverence as "Baba" (or Father) by his fellow maestros and students. His father Ustad Ali Akbar Khan is a distinguished Sarode player. His aunt Annapurna Devi is a Surbahar player and former wife of sitar legend Ravi Shankar.
Aashish Khan was born in 1939 at Maihar, a small princely state of British India, where his revered grandfather Ustad Alauddin Khan was a royal court musician at that time. His mother the late Zubeida Begum was Ustad Ali Akbar Khan's first wife. He was initiated into North Indian classical music at the age of five by his grandfather. His training (or taalim) later continued under the guidance of his father Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and his aunt, Annapurna Devi. He is one of the most notable disciples of his grandfather Ustad Alauddin Khan, and the foremost disciple of both his father Ali Akbar Khan and aunt Annapurna Devi. Though the music school they represent is popularly known as "Senia Maihar Gharana"; it is essentially the traditional "Senia Gharana". (The founder of this "Senia Gharana" or "Senia School" is believed to be the legendary court musician of Mughal Emperor Akbar Mian Tansen. And the "Senia Gharana" is undoubtedly the one and only root of all styles of Indian classical music.) "Senia Maihar Gharana" follows the traditional "Beenkar" and "Rababiya" pattern of the "Dhruvapada" style of the original "Senia Gharana". However, followers of the "Senia Maihar School" tradition have principally been responsible for a renaissance in Indian classical instrumental music in the twentieth century.
Aashish Khan grew up in Maihar and Calcutta performing Indian classical music among distinguished circles of connoisseurs. He gave his debut public performance at the age of 13, with his grandfather, on the All India Radio "National Program", New Delhi, and in the same year, performed with his father and his grandfather at the "Tansen Music Conference", Calcutta. Since then he has performed at major venues of classical music and world music both in the Indian subcontinent and at abroad with great applause. Besides his virtuosity as a traditional Sarode Ustad Aashish Khan is also one of the pioneers in the establishment of world music genre, as founder of the Indo-American musical group "Shanti" with tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain in 1969, and later, fusion group, "The Third Eye". In "Shanti", AAshish Khan is featured playing the acoustic Sarode sometimes through a fender guitar amplifier with vibrato effect.
Under Pandit Ravi Shankar, he has worked as a background artist on musical products for both film and stage, including Oscar Winner Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar, Parash Pathar, Jalsha Ghar, and Sir Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi. He has also worked as a background artist with Maurice Jarre on John Huston's film The Man Who Would be King, David Lean's A Passage to India, and composed the music for Tapan Sinha's films, Joturgriha (he received Best Film Score Award for Jotugriha) and Aadmi Aurat.
During 1989-1990, Aashish Khan served as the Composer and Conductor for the National Orchestra of All India Radio, New Delhi, India, succeeding musical stalwarts like Sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar, and flautist Pandit Pannalal Ghosh.
Aashish Khan has pioneered in the art of collaborating Indian classical music with western music, and world music. He is thus remembered by the music fraternity as one of the foremost representatives of Indian classical music in the Western world. He has collaborated with such diverse western musicians as John Barham, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Charles Lloyd, John Handy, Alice Coltrane, Emil Richards, Dallas Smith, Don Pope, Jorge Strunz, Ardeshir Farah, and the Philadelphia String Quartet. Ustad Aashish Khan is currently co-leading "Shringar" with Andrew McLean and other notable New Orleans musicians such as Tim Green and Jason Marsalis. Shringar is the first foray of any classical Indian musician into the music culture of New Orleans, widely considered the Mecca of Jazz. His recordings include Wonderwall Music, Young Master of the Sarode, California Concert, Sarode and Piano Jugalbandi, Shanti, Live at the Royal Festival Hall London, Homage, Inner Voyage, Monsoon Ragas, The Sound of Mughal Court, and the latest, Jugalbandi Sarode & Sarangi Duet, with Ustad Sultan Khan.
Aashish Khan is a music teacher, currently serving as adjucnt professor of Indian Classical Music at the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, U.S., and as an adjunct professor of Music at the University of California at Santa Cruz, United States. He has formerly taught at the faculties of the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California, University of Alberta in Canada and the University of Washington, Seattle. While pursuing a busy career as a concert artist and composer, he teaches students throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Africa, as well as India. Many of his students have established themselves as stage performers in India and abroad. Notable mention among them would be of Sarode players Rick Henderson, Debanjan Bhattacharya, Aditya Verma, Ranajit Sengupta; Sitar player Amelia Maciszewski; Santoor player Dishari Chakraborty; and Rabab player Rishi Ranjan.
He presently divides his time principally between Calcutta, and California, where most of his students and disciples are located.
He is the recipient of several distinguished honours in recognition of his excellence in Indian classical music and world music as well. He has been awarded, among many, the Fellowship of the Illinois Arts Council, U.S. in 2002, and India's highest award for performing arts, i.e., the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 2005. In 2006, he was nominated for a Grammy award in the 'Best World Music' category. He is one of the very few celebrated Indian musicians who have been nominated for this award (other Grammy nominees and/or winners include Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, Sarode maestro Ali Akbar Khan, and Guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt; all are from "Senia Maihar Gharana"). Among Sarode maestros, he is second to only his father Ustad Ali Akbar Khan who earlier received Grammy nominations. On May 24, 2007 Ustad Aashish Khan became the first ever Indian classical maestro to become a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the U.K.'s highest society in Asian arts and culture. Several Indian medias have also declared that Ustad Aashish Khan is "India's greatest living Sarode player".
In September 2006, He announced at a press conference in Calcutta that since his forefathers were Hindu Brahmins of the East Bengal, and held the surname "Debsharma", he would also wish to use his forefathers' surname to help people understand the root of his great musical lineage. He also stated that his family were never officially converted into Islam and not necessarily Khan means a Muslim. He depended on fact that his grandfather the late Ustad Alauddin Khan himself said in his biography (Aamar Katha, (Bengali), published by Ananda Publishers, Calcutta) that his forefathers were indeed Hindus and holders of the surname "Debsharma". He also said that his name (Aashish), his brothers' names (Dhyanesh, Pranesh, Amaresh) were all given by their grandfather Alauddin; and all these are essentially Hindu names. However, his father has rejected Aasish's claims as fallacies. An anguished Ali Akbar Khan told Times of India in an e-mail from the US where he has settled, "I do not support his (Aasish's) choice. Unfortunately, many statements made by my son in the newspaper regarding the history of my family are incorrect. My family has been Muslim for many generations, and we will remain Muslims. It's a shame that he is trying to reinvent the history of our family and in turn hurting past generations of our family."
Aashish Khan - Golden Strings of the Sarode
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