Ustad Sultan Khan Passes Away

[PAL 07]

Ustad Sultan Khan the great sarangi player and very humble vocalist has passed away. READ BELOW

This is a video of him explaining sarangi and accompanied by the great tabla maestro zakir hussain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUDgF1XAHMc

Years back, he said in an interview, "The art of giving good sangat (accompaniment) is that you must subdue your ego. You are part of someone else's baaraat, so you don't wear a suit that is better than the artiste's and call yourself the dulha." But, over the years, the baaraati seamlessly became the bridegroom and the instrument that had long echoed and enhanced vocal music - being the closest in temperament to the human voice - nudged its way to centre stage. Sultan Khan's hauntingly lyrical sarangi became a sound that found its way in concert halls across India and the world, including at Prince Charles' 49th birthday party in London (who later wrote and thanked him "for bringing a wonderful part of India's ancient soul into my house").

At his home in Malad, where numerous musicians had gathered to condole, musician and composer Taufiq Qureshi recollects, "I was his roommate when we were touring Germany with my father Ustad Allah Rakha and Zakirbhai so I had some lovely moments with him, where we would sit talking about music. When he did his first vocal album, 'Sabras', I arranged the music. And when I did my first album, 'Colours of Rajasthan', he sang.

"He was someone who was truly creative but, besides that, he was a fantastic human being," says vocalist Purvi Parikh, who spent many years with him, fine-tuning her music. "He gave so much love. Any one who came to him for advice, he would encourage with such positivity, as if to say, 'go forth, you are a hero'. He would follow a lot of swamijis and saints and would say that the only thing way your destiny can move forward is by the blessings of all these people."

Although born a Muslim from near Jodhpur, he practiced only the religion of music and love, which are anyway synonymous. Qureshi recalls that when he married outside his community, Sultan Khan came to the wedding and said that he should not worry, nor feel alone. He would always stand by him.

He had once told this writer that the sarangi's predecessor, the Ravanahasta, was a seven-stringed harp made by Ravana by stringing sinews pulled out of his arm, with which he sang Vedic hymns to Shiva. Notwithstanding its later association with courtesans, "this instrument is therefore about total surrender to God," he said, with his trademark paan-stained smile.

[HDSH]

I have listened to many audio/videos of him doing jugalbandi with Zakir Hussain, mind blowing stuff! Soothes the mind

Here is an example.