Ustad Bismillah Khan was a shehnai maestro from India. The term "Ustad" or "Pandit" in relation to Indian classical music implies Master or Guru.
Bismillah Khan was born on March 21, 1916. Born as the second son of his parents, Paigambar Khan and Mitthan, he was christened as Qamaruddin initially, before his grandfather uttered Bismillah after looking at the newborn.
He 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.He was perhaps single handedly responsible for making the shehnai a famous classical instrument. He brought the shehnai to the center stage of Indian music with his concert in the Calcutta All India Music Conference in 1937. It was Khan Sahib who poured his heart out into Raga Kafi from the Red Fort on the eve of India’s first Republic Day ceremony, on January 26, 1950.
The applause that I get from children when I sing the bhajan Raghupati Raghav Rajaram gives me the greatest fulfillment.
~ said in 2004 while performing at a cultural programme in New Delhi to mark Gandhi Jayanti.
From wikipedia
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12 comments:
He is a jewel of Indian music.
He was also honoured with the Sangeet Natak Academi Award, the Tansen Award and the prestigious Padma Vibhushan.
- kiraN
its really nice to know so much abt this great man...
i pay my tribute to sch a great personality...
Someone who made Shehnai priceless...
btw...personally i felt KANK was horrible. I shouldnt say this...but seems even my version of it seemed much better :-)
Sad but every good thing comes to an end.
kiraN... yes, he is a jewel
shruti, vibhor... welcome!
harish... :)
he was a man.. of music lived for it!.. we all should salute this mastreo.
it is sad. but he is dead let us wait for another one to be as good as he and give him the respect. simple
hmmm thanks
Another legend passes away...
:(
A lot of us from SPICMACAY met him because he used to perform for SPICMACAY whenever we requested it.. .. he used to have "nakhras", which the student community of SPICMACAY was hard pressed to meet, but the way he spoke!! :-)
He was sweet.. and best of all, he would come to play shehnai in the small scools and colleges to students who would come ready to sleep and leave ready to learn the Shehnai :-)
sujit... yes
vaishnav... it is not that simple, no one can replace such a legend i believe.
velu nair... yes, sad truth
how do we know... lucky u, u met him personally!
histroy repeats - we may or may not be part of the history History will repeat. there will be always the best of best yet to come. he is just a start of iceberg - ice berg yet to be seen.
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