Sarangi Sabri Khan family

The globetrotter has just wrapped up another journey. This time it was to the just-concluded Oslo World Music Festival, Norway. The occasion was even more special as it was for the first time that three generations of the musicians from the family performed together on a platform abroad – the Ustad along with his son Kamal Sabri Khan, an established musician himself, and Suhail Yusuf Khan, who is Ustad's grandson and Kamal's nephew. "You know, Suhail is the eight generation musician in the family, I being the sixth," says the Padma Sri awardee.

Oslo World Music Festival saw musicians from across the world and genres, and the family is happy that sarangi found a place there. "The festival brings together in not-so-commonly known music and the best performers together. And sarangi hasn't been promoted as much as many other string instruments. May be the organisers wanted to introduce it to the audience there," explains Ustad Kamal, who has learned the instrument under the tutelage of his illustrious father.

Different generations, even different sensibilities but one thing that is same is the instrument and their dedication to it. "Every musician has a different style but the technique is the same," informs Sabri Khan. Seconds Kamal, "The basic principles can never change but over the years each of us has developed a trademark style. The first generations were definitely more traditional."

Every kind of music has a place in today's world. In a world where rock and pop rule the roost, what prompted the youngest Khan to take to the same instrument as his grandfather. Legacy or interest? The reticent 19-year-old Suhail answers, "It is the first music that I heard when I was born and somewhere unknowingly it became a part of my life. As a result this instrument became more important than any other."

The eldest Ustad himself played different musical instruments like sitar, sarod and clarinet, though sarangi was his priority always. "Unfortunately not a single university in the country teaches sarangi. But people abroad love this instrument and the resonance it leaves but there are not many who appreciate it in India. Once, there was a 24-hour non-stop programme in Paris," elucidates the guru who gets shishyas from across the globe, especially from places like China and Japan. He adds, "The rate at which we are absorbing the Western culture and they ours, very soon we will have to go abroad to learn our own music."

Fusion is the buzzword of the century and sarangi took the same route as sitar or even santoor. "My father has played with all big names. We have always collaborated with musician whenever possible. My album Dance of the Deserts was on the same lines. If you want to be a world musician then you cannot afford to stick to your music alone. You have to make space and adapt yourself to other kind of music," says Kamal.

And when you talk about collaborations, you cannot afford to forget the fact that sarangi for long was just meant to be an accompanist to vocal. It was only in the late 19 th Century that Ustad Shakoor Khan and Ustad Bundoo Khan gave it the soloist outlook. "Since it is the only instrument that can get closest to the human voice, it made for the best accompanist, which I think is a compliment for sarangi and not a drawback. To be a good soloist, one has to establish as a good accompanist, as otherwise the knowledge becomes limited," clarifies Kamal, one of the four sons of the maestro.

Sabri Khan saab seals the argument when he says, "Sarangi is what it is, the instrument with 100 colours. Play it the way you want. It can complement any kind of music, and is still as enjoyable."

When 'saaz' meets 'awaaz'!

Their conversation is replete with the mellifluous sophistication of the Eastern Uttar Pradesh tehzeeb and peppered with similes that might seem over the top to the average Dilliwallah, but for them it is a way of life. A snow white cat who has borne five dainty babies recently flits in and out of a cupboard that houses a plethora of awards, and the ornate furniture looks strangely out of place even as the charming simplicity of the plaintive sarangi strains waft through the still air. The paandaan and the carved brass spittoon look well used and the walls proudly display the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.

Alka Raghuvanshi shares a paan with the sarangi maestro Ustad Sabri Khan and the Hindustani vocalist Ustad Ghulam Sadiq Khan, as they have a converse about music, All India Radio and other memories that conjoin their long and lively association.

Sabri: Sarangi is said to have a hundred colours that is why from saurangi it became sarangi, but I think it has even more than a hundred colours! They consider a sarangi player an accompanist but then we ourselves are to blame. We get lured by the money that starts coming to us regularly as accompanists. But the positive side is that one learns a lot as an accompanist.

Sadiq: You are absolutely right! I too personally prefer the sarangi, for it is the only instrument that actually follows the human voice with its amazing tonal quality where the sargam and taan both can be replicated. Violin is the only other instrument that comes closest to the sarangi. Harmonium can fill up space, but not be really the shadow of the human voice.

Sabri: I remember Acharya Brihaspati banned it from the AIR, and harmonium ka bakayda janaza - a proper funeral procession - was taken out! It was considered an incomplete instrument and the fact is that it has only flat tones and can never emulate the human voice as a sarangi can. It (harmonium) was played along with light music. Then came singers like Naina Devi and Begum Akhtar and Mehdi Hassan who played the harmonium as they sang.

Sadiq: Aap to gavaiyon ki dil joi karte hain with the charming way in which you play the sarangi. But then any instrument can be a solo instrument, provided you have the ability to make it so. When I used to learn from Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, he would stress on the purity of both the saaz and the awaaz!

Sabri: In fact I learnt singing before being allowed on the sarangi. Our ustads taught us well.

Sadiq: The relations of the heart are so much more intrinsic than mere blood ties! We are often accused of not revealing all our kala to our shagirds. We have become badnaam but it is true that a lot of us share our special cheez (compositions) with only our family. But there is sense of betrayal when the shagirds with whom we shared our special compositions were unfaithful to us and went so far as to undercut the gurus.

Sabri: It reminds me of a horrible incident. Once I saw an old bent man huddled together under a sackcloth who would intermittently break into a song and at other times start mumbling things like a demented and tormented soul. He was Ustad Bakshan Khan, a student of Ustad Chajju Khan of the Bhendibazar gharana, who had betrayed his ustad and later lost his mind like a curse from his ustad.

Sadiq: But I do know one thing: that if today shagirds who had betrayed us, come back and ask for some particular bandish we will never refuse - after all, if a person sings a bandish associated with our family wrongly, it reflects poorly on us. But a guru always has more than any student can ever hope to get. Just like: jaaye ustad khali ast - a Persian saying which means that the ustad's space can never be filled. And we have a khazana of amazing other cheezein that can completely bedazzle any listener.

Sabri: It is not as if we have given 'duplicate' stuff to our students - unko bhi khalis maal diya hai. But there are a few pieces that we perform only among the guni jan. It is sometimes difficult even for them to recognise what we are performing. Once I performed the Ritwai Malhar for a very august audience - but they were unable to recognise it!

Sadiq: You have been witness to some very historic moments - both musical and otherwise. I would love to hear about them!

Sabri: Two such moments I shall never forget: The night India became azad, I was in the Parliament House when Lord Mountbatten walked in at 12 midnight and signed the papers at 12.01 to make India independent. All the top leaders like Sardar Patel, Pandit Nehru, and Rajendra Prasad were there when we played Saare Jahan Se Accha in front of all of them. The second was when Yehudi Menhuin expressed a desire to play with an Indian musician, I was the person chosen to play a duet with him. So many great masters one has played with. But the other day my grandchildren were most enthused when I told them that Hrithik Roshan's grandfather and I used to perform at the AIR together!

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2006/07/01/stories/200 6070102850400.htm