Monday, September 9, 2013
USTAD AMIR KHAN (August
15, 1912 – February 13, 1974) was a well-known Indian classical vocalist.
He is considered one of the most influential figures in Hindustani
classical music, and the founder of the Indore Gharana.
Amir Khan was born in a family of musicians in Indore, India. His
father, Shahmir Khan, a sarangi and veena player of
the Bhendibazaar gharana, served at the court of the Holkars of
Indore. His grandfather, Change Khan, was a singer in the court of Bahadurshah
Zafar. Amir Ali's mother died when he was nine years old. He had a younger
brother, Bashir, who became a sarangi player at the Indore station of All
India Radio.
He was initially trained in the sarangi by his father. However,
seeing his interest in vocal music, his father gradually devoted more time to
vocal training, focusing on the Merukhand technique. Amir Ali was
exposed at an early age to many different styles, since just about every
musician who visited Indore would come to their house, and there would be mehfils at
their place on a regular basis. Also, he learnt the basics of tabla playing
from one of his maternal uncles, who was a tabla player.
Amir Khan moved to Bombay in 1934, and there he gave a
few concerts and cut about half a dozen 78-rpm records. These initial
performances were not well received. Following his father's advice, in 1936 he
joined the services of Maharaj Chakradhar Singh of Raigadh Sansthan in Madhya
Pradesh, but he stayed only about a year. Amir Khan's father died in 1937.
Later, Khansahib lived for some time in Delhi and Calcutta, but
after the partition of India he moved back to Bombay.
Amir
Khan's first marriage was to Zeenat, sister of the sitar player, Ustad
Vilayat Khan. From this marriage, which eventually failed and ended in
separation, he had a daughter, Farida. His second marriage was to Munni Bai,
who gave birth to a son, Ekram Ahmed. Around 1965, Khansaheb married Raisa
Begum, daughter of the thumri singer, Mushtari Begum of
Agra. He had expected that Munni Begum would accept the third wife; however,
Munni disappeared and it is rumored that she committed suicide. With
Raisa he had a son, Haider Amir, later called Shahbaz Khan.
Khansahib died a premature death in a car accident in Calcutta,
and was buried at Calcutta's Gobra cemetery.
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