The Masters....

We have so many artists in our country who have given every thing for their art. The latest and perhaps the best example is Ustaad Bismillah Khan.Please share information about the artists you know of who spent all their lives in their chosen art.

Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia (b. 1938)

Profile

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia is known internationally as the greatest living master of Bansuri, the North Indian bamboo flute. Chaurasia is among a few but growing classicists who have made a conscious effort to reach out and expand the audience for classical music. He is probably the most accessible Hindustani musician who has done a lot to popularize Bansuri and classical music among the masses.

Hariprasad Chaurasia was born in Allahabad in 1938 into a non musical family. His father was a wrestler. His mother died when he was very young. Hariprasad had to learn music almost in secret, scared of the father who wanted him to become a wrestler. First he started learning vocal music from Pt. Rajaram at the age of 15. Later, he switched to playing the flute under the tutelage of Pt. Bholanath of Varanasi. Much later, while working for All India Radio, he received guidance from the reclusive Smt. Annapurna Devi (daughter of Baba Allaudin Khan ).

Pt. Chaurasia is a rare combination of innovator and traditionalist. He has significantly expanded the expressive possibilities of North Indian classical flute through his masterful blowing technique. Hariprasad Chaurasia is one of the busiest North Indian classical musicians, regularly traveling and performing throughout the world. Apart from classical music, he has made a mark as a hindi film music director along with Pt Shivkumar Sharma forming a group called Shiv-Hari. He has also combined with various world musicians at experimental music, including the famous group Shakthi.

The great Indian master of the North Indian Bamboo Flute has won a number of prestigious awards including the Sangeet Natak Academy (1984), Padmabhushan (1992) and Padma Vibhoosan (2000).

Bharath Rathna Ustad Bismillah Khan (1917-2006)

Profile

Ustad Bismillah Khan is the third classical musician after Pt Ravi Shankar and Smt M S Subbulakshmi to be awarded Bharath Rathna, the highest civilian honour in India.
The gentle genius of Bismillah Khan is perhaps single handedly responsible for making Shehnai a famous classical instrument. Traditionally used to play music during marriages, Shehnai is the counterpart of south indian nadaswaram. It is also used to play music in temples.
Born in a small Bihar village in 1917, Ustad Bismillah learned shehnai from his uncle who used to play in the famous Vishwanath temple of Varanasi. He brought Shehnai to the center stage of indian music with his concert in the calcutta All India Music Conference in 1937. There was no looking back.
Bismillah Khan is now one of the most respected musicians and well sought after. Yet his lifestyle has not changed. It retains the old world charm of a Benaras life ... his chief mode of transport is still the cycle-rikshaw !
I'm still reminded of the great music he played for Kannada film Sanadhi Appanna, where RajKumar played the role of the gentle genius of a Shehnai player.

Ustad Zakir Hussain (b. 1951)

Profile
Zakir Hussain is today appreciated both in the field of percussion and in the world of music at large as an international phenomenon. A classical tabla virtuoso of the highest order, his consistenly brilliant and exciting performances have not only established him as a national treasure in his own country, India, but gained him fame all over the world for his many accomplishments.
Zakir's contribution to world music has been unique, with many unique and historic collaborations including Shakti, which he founded with John McLaughlin and L. Shankar, the Diga Rhythm Band, Making Music, Planet Drum with Mickey Hart, and recordings and performances with artists diverse as George Harrison, Joe Henderson, Van Morrison, Jack Bruce, Tito Puente, Pharoah Saunders, Billy Cobham, the Hong Kong Symphony and the New Orleans Symphony.
In 1987, his first solo release, Making Music, was acclaimed as "one of the most inspired East-West fusion albums ever recorded." In 1988, he became the youngest percussionist to ever be awarded the title "Padma Shri" by the Indian government, a title given to civilians of merit. In 1990, he was awarded the Indo-American Award, in recognition for his outstanding contribution to relations between the United States and India. In April 1991, he was presented with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award by the president of India, making him one of the youngest musicians to recieve this recognition from India's governing cultural institute. In 1992, Planet Drum, an album co-created and produced by Zakir and Mickey Hart, was awarded a Grammy for Best World Music Album, the Downbeat Critics Poll for Best World Beat Album and the NARM Indie Best Seller Award for World Music Recording.
In 1992, he also launched Moment! Records which features original works and collaborations in the field of contemporary world music, as well as digitally recorded live concert performances by great masters of the classical music of India. The label presents Zakir's own world percussion ensemble, The Rhythm Experience. His compositional skills can also be heard on soundtracks for the films In Custody, Ismail Merchant's directorial debut, and Little Buddha by Bernardo Bertolucci, for which Zakir composed, performed and was the Indian music advisor.

M. S. Subbulakshmi Bharatha Rathna

Profile

Bharatha Rathna M.S. Subbalakshmi, popularly called MS, was perhaps the most charasmatic and popular Carnatic musician we have known. She captured the popular imagination like no other and was the face of classical music for both the masses and critics for over 6 decades.
M.S. Subbalakshmi was born in the temple town of Madurai on September 16th, 1916, to veena player Shanmukhavadivu. Her Grandmother Akkammal was a violinist. Her father, a lawyer by profession, was a music lover.
Her first guru Madurai Srinivasa Iyengar passed away rather too soon. But she kept practicing on her own and having a musician mother helped a lot. Her first recording was at the age of ten, when she recorded a couple of songs for HMV in Madras.
She started giving concerts at a tender age, first accompanying her mother and then as a solo vocalist. She was the child prodigy of Madurai. She has by now given concerts all over the world like the ones at Edinburgh festival and at the United Nations, Carnegie Hall as the the inagural concert at the festival of India in London in 1982.
In 1940 she married Sadasivam, a well known figure in the Madras Congress circle, and a protege of Rajaji. They had met four years earlier and with his wide connections in the journalistic and political world, he became instrumental in the continued success of her already flourishing career. She started acting in Films too, in 1938. Her movies were quite successful and her final movie "Meera" released both in Hindi and Tamil was a mega hit. After that she quit movies to concentrate solely on music. The money from movies went into the magazine Kalki.
A series of top musicians, notable among them Semmangudi, Musiri, Brinda, composer Papanasam Sivan, 'bhajan' singer Sidheswari Devi of Banares, were persuaded to teach M.S. fresh compositions and styles of singing. Kalki magazine played a big role in projecting M.S. as a saintly musician, that has endured to this day.
M.S., the Nightingale of Carnatic Music, in the cultural renaissance of the 1940s and the succeeding decades is a legend. She has become an institution and the face & voice of the classical traditions of carnatic music. Thousands see her as the embodiment of grace and tradition of Indian womanhood - kind, considerate, compassionate, self-spoken, self-sacrifying and somewhat unworldly.
She has got every award a musician in India can get ... from "Isai Vani" in 1940 to Bharath Rathna in 1998. Her husband and inspiration Sadasivam passed away in 1997, after which she stopped giving public concerts. MS passed away on 11th Dec 2004, leaving behind her large repertoire of classical, bhajan and film recordings.

thanks sur sangamji 😊 ...such topics shd be made sticky so that busy people like us can read in in leisure....or we have to search every time...

Bharath Rathna Pt Ravi Shankar


Profile
Bharath Rathna Pt Ravi Shankar is perhaps the most well known Indian Musician outside India. He has been the cultural Ambassador of India for a number of decades now. He was awarded the Bharath Rathna, the highest civilian honour in India, by the govt. of India in 1999.
Born into a rich family on 7th April, 1920, he was tutored by Baba Allaudin Khan, the founder of what has come to be known now as the Maihar Gharana. He toured with his brother, Uday Shankar's dance troupe for many years.
He collaborated with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Ustad Alla Rakha to introduce Indian music to the west in the 60's. He became tremendously famous. He then successfully collaborated with many western musicians including George Harrison of Beatles fame, Yehudi Menuhin and Philip Glasse.
Apart from concerts, he has conducted orchestras and scored music for many films including Sathyajit Ray's Pather Panchali.
Ravi Shankar's first wife and daughter of his guru is the reclusive sitar exponent Annapoorna Devi. Ravi Shankar's daughter from his second wife, Anoushka Shankar is his disciple as well and a raising Sitar star. His other daughter is the jazz-pop singer and receiver of several 2003 Grammy awards, Norah Jones.
Ravi Shankar has a galaxy of disciples like Manilal Nag, Vijay Raghav Rao, Vishwamohan Bhatt, Tarun Bhattacharya, Lakshmi Shankar, Ronu Majumdar, Partho Sarothy and Shubhendra Rao among others.
Having spent decades in the US, he is now back in India and lives in Delhi. Even at the age of 85, Pt Ravi Shankar, is still active in music. He is also working on completing the Ravi Shankar Institute for Music and Performing Arts, Delhi, in which he imparts his knowledge to students.

Sahir Ludhianvi (1921 - 1980)

Profile
Sahir Ludhianvi was born Abdulhayi in 1921 in Ludiana (in Punjab) as the only son of a prosporous family. But soon his mother left his boorish Father and resulting financial insecurity haunted his childhood.
Soon after college he published his work TalkhiyaaN in Lahore, where he became the editor of a urdu magazine. After partition he decided to stay back in Pakistan. But his writings were considered inflammatory by the govt and a warrant was issued which made him quickly change his mind and he eventually landed in Bombay.
He quickly became the most important and recognized lyricist in Hindi films. The most critical success was perhaps for his poems penned for Guru Datt's Pyaasa. But I'd guess this Mukesh's immortal song is his most popular.
kabhii kabhii mere dil me.n, Kayaal aataa hai
ke jaise tujhako banaayaa gayaa hai mere liye

Originally posted by: ankita31

thanks sur sangamji 😊 ...such topics shd be made sticky so that busy people like us can read in in leisure....or we have to search every time...

Thanks Ankita ji,I am trying to learn about the maestros..You can also share information about a great artist you know of..

Very useful information Sur ji thanks a lot!!they are the real masters not only in the sense that they have great knowledge about music but how they dedicate their life for music 👏