Wednesday, September 4, 2013
TALAT AZIZ (born 11th
Nov, 1956) is a popular ghazal singer from Hyderabad, India.
Born in Hyderabad, India to Abdul Azeem Khan and
Sajida Abid, a famous Urdu writer and poet. He went to Hyderabad
Public School till the 12th standard when he finished his ISC and then
joined The Indian Institute of Management and Commerce for his B'Com(Hons)
Course.
His family loved fine arts and used to organize Mehfils in
their house, inviting artists and poets like Jagjit Singh, Jan Nisaar
Akhtar the father of the famous writer Javed Akhtar to name a few.
This greatly influenced him and started learning music from an early age. He
is Sania Mirza's uncle.
Talat Aziz took his initial training in music from Kirana
Gharana. He was trained primarily by Ustad Samad Khan and later by Ustad Fayaz
Ahmed who were famous classical music singers.
After the initial training, Talat decided to learn music from
music maestro Mehdi Hassan. On many occasions, like on a concert tour of
the US and Canada in 1986 he shared the same stage with him on concerts in
India and abroad.
His first major performance was in Hyderabad at a place
called King Kothi. He sang before a crowd of over 5,000. He sung Kaise
Sukoon Paoon and some ghazals by noted shaayars of Hyderabad. Though
he was nervous at his first performance in front of audience yet he performed
well.
After his graduation he moved to Bombay in 1976 on a
suggestion from Jagjit Singh. He also trained under classical music Ustad
Samaad Khan and Faiyaz Ahmed Khan, and for his ghazal training he
became a disciple of Mehdi Hassan in 1978. With the help of Jagjit he released
his first album in 1979, Jagjit Singh Presents Talat Aziz. But for several
years he was to struggle for a living. Talat also sang some ghazals in films
like Umrao Jaan and Bazaar, which were super-hit.
Talat has also composed music for TV serials and has also acted in
several of them. He composed music for teleserials to name a few like Deewar,
Baaz, Adhikaar, Ghutan, Sailaab, Aashirwaad and the magnum opus, Noorjehan. His
acting was appreciated in serials like Sahil, Manzil, Dil Apna Aur Preet
Parayee and Noorjehan a TV serial written by Nida Fazli. Talat released many
albums like Jagjit Singh presents Talat Aziz, Talat Aziz live,Images A team
Come True Lehren, Ehsaas, Suroor, Saughaat,Tasavvur, Manzil, Storms, Dhadkan,
Shahkaar, Mehboob,Khubsoorat,Irshaad, Khushnuma, to name a few with his latest
offering in 2009 Caravan e Ghazal in which Sonu Niigaam also participated in a
duet 'Qurbaton mein bhi' a ghazal written by Ahmed Faraaz
The singer was the ghazal artiste to release a ghazal music video
of Tasavvur, in 1987 when a video album was not even thought of .He is often
seen on the small screen in various roles as a music judge. However, his fans
would love to see him on the silver screen too. He worked in a film in 1990. It
was Mahesh Bhatt's `Dhun' opposite Sangeeta Bijlani. The film never
got released for various reasons but the music was released by HMV in 1991 and
was a great hit of that time featuring tracks like ' Main Aatma tu Parmaatma' a
bhajan sung as a duet with none another than Mehdi Hassan and Talat and other
tracks like 'Yaad aane waale' Laagi prem dhun laagi' which became a rage with
the young crowd
The advent of the ghazal as a popular genre began in the late
seventies and became a rage in the 80" when artists like Talat Aziz used
to sell out albums in the hundreds of thousands of units.
Begum Akhtar had her following of ghazal lovers. Then came
Mehdi Hassan's, Ghulam Ali who was equally well known.On this side of
the border, the Indian couple Jagjit and Chitra Singh, the ghazal exponents did
live shows and sang at private mehfils. During that period Sanjeev Kohli,son of
Madan Mohan, discovered a singer called Talat Aziz, who was young,
good-looking, malleable and above all, he had a good voice. Jagjit Singh had
already heard Talat sing at a Mehfil in Hyderabad, so he agreed to compose his
first album.In 1979 his first album titled "Jagjit Singh presents Talat
Aziz" came out which was phenomenal success thus gave him a launch pad for
his meteoric rise. Then came the classic ghazal ' zindagi jab bhi teri bazm
mein " from Umrao Jaan composed by Khayyam the ghazal from Bazaar ' Phir
chidi raat baat phoolon ki' a duet with none other than the legend Lata
Mangeshkar and the iconic nazm 'Aaina mujh se meri' from Mahesh Bhatt's film
Daddy.
Talat Aziz has been singing in concerts for over three decades and
has traveled the globe with his sell out performances . He completed his 25 Years
Silver Anniversary with the launch of a special audio and video album in 2004
at the NCPA Mumbai where the veritable who's who of the music industry were
present and the ones like Mehdi Hasan and Lata Mangeshkar who could not make it
sent in their messages on video and a special documentary on his life was
screened. This was released by Universal Music India as a special commemorative
DVD with the audio cd pack of two released by Times Music.
He has recently been signed on as a creative music producer director
with Bollywood Live a Percept Group initiative along with Sonu Nigam and Salim
Sulaiman Merchant for BOLLYBOOM .. A Bollywood Dance Music Festival to be held
all over India and the World commencing from November 2013.
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