Monday, September 9, 2013
JAGJIT SINGH also known as Jagmohan
Singh (8 February 1941 – 10 October 2012), was a prominent
Indian Ghazal singer, songwriter and musician. Known as the
"Ghazal King", he gained acclaim together with his wife, another
renowned Indian ghazal singer Chitra Singh in the 1970s and 1980s. Their
combination album comprising music from the films, Arth and Saath
Saath is the HMV's largest selling combination album of all
time. Sajda (An Offering, 1991), Jagjit Singh's magnum opus double
album with Lata Mangeshkar holds the same record in non-film
category.He sang in numerous languages. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by
the government of India in 2003.
Singh is credited for the revival and popularity of ghazal, an
Indian classical art form, by choosing poetry that was relevant to the masses
and composing them in a way that laid more emphasis on the meaning of words and
melody evoked by them. In terms of Indian Classical music, his style of
composing and Gayaki (singing) is considered as Bol-pradhan,
one that lays emphasis on words. He highlighted this in his music for films
such asPrem Geet (1981), Arth and Saath Saath (1982),
and TV serials Mirza Ghalib (1988) and Kahkashan (1991).
Jagjit Singh is considered to be the most successful ghazal singer and composer
of all time in terms of critical acclaim and commercial success. With a career
spanning five decades and a repertoire comprising over 80 albums, the
range and breadth of his work has been regarded as genre-defining. He is the
only composer and singer to have composed and recorded songs written by Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee — also a critically acclaimed poet — in
two albums, Nayi Disha(1999) and Samvedna (2002).
Singh's 1987 album, Beyond Time, was the first
digitally recorded release in India.He was regarded as one of India's most
influential artists. With sitar legend Ravi Shankar and other leading
figures of Indian classical music and literature, Singh voiced
his concerns over politicisation of arts and culture in India and lack of
support experienced by the practitioners of India's traditional art forms,
particularly folk artists and musicians. He lent active support to
several philanthropic endeavors such as the library at St. Mary's School,
Mumbai, Bombay Hospital, CRY, Save the Children and ALMA.
Jagjit Singh was born on 8 February 1941 in Sri Ganganagar, Bikaner
princely state (now in Rajasthan), India. His birth name was Jagmohan
but this was changed to Jagjit after his parents sought the advice of a member
of the Sikh Namdhari sect.His parents were Sikh — Amar
Singh and Bachan Kaur — and had several other children, with sources variously
reporting the number between six and eleven.
Educated initially at Khalsa High School and Sri
Ganganagar Government College, Singh obtained an arts degree from DAV
College at Jalandhar and then a post-graduate degree in history
from Kurukshetra University in Haryana. Throughout this time,
and as a consequence of a natural talent that was spotted by his father, Singh
learned music in Sikh temples and from musicians such as Pandit Chaganlal
Sharma and Ustad Jamaal Khan, both of whom were trained in classical
Indian music. He performed on radio and on stage, as well as composing some
material, although he subsequently claimed that his father, who was a
government employee, had hoped that he would become an engineer. On
another occasion his memory was that his father aspired for him to become a
bureaucrat and that his siblings were encouraged musically.
In March 1965, and without the knowledge of his family, Singh
moved to Mumbai, where there were many opportunities for music artists
because of the Bollywood film industry. He obtained work initially as
a singer of advertising jingles and later progressed to playback singing. In
the same year he persuaded the record company HMV to produce an EP;
he also altered his Sikh image by abandoning his turban, shaving and
cutting his hair. His first film role was in Dharati Na Chhoru,
a Gujarati production by Suresh Amin.
Singh toured the UK in 2011 and was due to perform with Ghulam
Ali in Mumbai but suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on 23
September 2011. He was in a coma for over two weeks and died on 10 October 2011
at Lilavati Hospital, in Mumbai. He was cremated the following day at
Chandanwadi Crematorium in Mumbai.
A number of tributes have been paid to Singh after his
death, and some tried to cash in on his popularity, which was criticised
by his wife.
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