Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan


Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan was an Indian sitar player. Khan received the national awards Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan and was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 1987.

Early life

Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan was born in 1927 in Jaora as the son of Jaffer Khan, a versatile vocalist, sitarist and beenkar. He belonged to the Beenkar Gharana of Indore and was an All India Radio artiste since the early 1940s. A few years before the Beatles met Ravi Shankar, in 1958, Khan collaborated with jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck. Brubeck who was in Bombay through the U.S. State Department sponsored Jazz Ambassadors Program was impressed by the improvisation in Indian music and said that the experience accompanying Halim Jaffer Khan led him to play in a different way. Brubeck says of that meeting, "We understood each other." Khan also performed with the noted English classical guitarist Julian Bream in 1963.

Career

Khan is known for his own style Jafferkhani Baaj. He describes it as, "a synthesis of precision in technique, systematic thought" with a vigorous playing style. Cultural anthropologist and reader at the University of Mumbai, Dr. Kamala Ganesh states: "His music making is full of eclectic yet deeply informed choices. He is a thinking musician but puts across his complex views with a simplicity and feeling which demarcate the articulate performer from the articulate theoretician.... In him, one gets an unmistakable sense... a syncretic tradition". The Indian santoor player Shivkumar Sharma remembers of Khan's performance of the raga Chhayanat: "It was probably in 1955–56, I was relaxing in my terrace in Jammu. In the stillness of the night I heard the notes of Raga Chhayanat on the sitar emanate from my neighbor's radio. I immediately noticed that the tone of the sitar was completely different and the style of playing radically unique. I rushed to switch on my radio.... I was totally engrossed and was very curious to know who this maestro was."
Khan has been credited with bringing Carnatic ragas Kirwani, Kanakangi, Latangi, Karaharapriya, Manavati, Ganamurti, and others into the sitar repertoire, rendering them through a Hindustani sensibility and in the Jafferkhani style. He was the first Hindustani musician to collaborate with Carnatic music in a performance with renowned Veena player Emani Sankara Sastry.
Khan was also involved with Indian cinema. Music Director Khwaja Khurshid Anwar introduced him to the Hindi film industry in 1946 at the age of 17 when he played sitar in the songs of film Parwana. He also composed and played for films like Mughal-e-Azam, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Goonj Uthi Shehnai, Kohinoor and collaborated with noted music directors such as Vasant Desai, C. Ramachandra, Madan Mohan and Naushad who has said, "he not only enriched film music, but his participation lent prestige to my songs." Music critic for the Times of India, Amarendra Dhaneshwar described Khan's playing as, "Sitar virtuosity at its peak."
In 1976, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan established Halim Academy of Sitar, India's first sitar academy in Bombay, Maharashtra, with Chief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan as its inaugural Chief Guest

Death

Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan died on 4 January 2017, at his home in Mumbai, India, from cardiac arrest, aged 89.

Legacy

Khan trained several prominent sitar players, including Ravi Chary, and his son, Zunain Khan.

Works and awards

Select awards

  • Tagore Fellow of Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2012
  • Hanumant Sanman Murari Bapu, 2010
  • Godavari Gaurav Kusumagraj Pratishthan, Nashik, 2010
  • Padma Bhushan Government of India 2006
  • Pillar of Hindustani Society TACCI, Mumbai, 2006
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, Legends of India, 2005
  • Giants International Award, 2004
  • Kala Ratna Mumbai, 2003
  • Swarsagar Award, Pimpri-Chinchwad, 2003
  • Acharya Pt. Ramnarain Foundation Award, Mumbai, 2002
  • Sharda Ratna Mumbai, 2002
  • Tansen Samman, Gwalior, 2000
  • Sangeet Research Academy ITC-SRA Award, Mumbai, 2000
  • Srestha Kala Acharya, 1998
  • Nada Nidhi Avadhoota Datta Peetham, Mysore, 1998
  • Haafiz Ali Khan Award Haafiz Ali Khan Memorial Trust, 1992
  • Swar Sadhana Ratna Award, Mumbai, 1992
  • Shikhar Samman Government of Madhya Pradesh, 1991
  • Gaurav Puraskar, Government of Maharashtra, 1990
  • Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Delhi, 1987
  • Ustad Allauddin Sangeet Ratna Bhopal, 1986
  • Civil Medal awarded by the Mayor of Bombay, 1985
  • Tantri Vilas, Sur Singar Samsad, Mumbai, 1984
  • "Silver Tanpura," AICC Delhi, 1975
  • Padma Shri, Government of India, 1970
  • Hzt Amir Khusrau Gold Medal, Hyderabad, 1959
  • Gold Medal, Bombay State Music Conference, 1956
  • "Silver Sitar," Hyderabad, 1955
  • Gold Medal All Bengal Music Conference, 1953

Video

Narrated by violinist Yehudi Menuhin, Deben Bhattacharya's film Raga features a young virtuosic Halim Jaffer Khan playing raga Sindh Bhairavi.

Select discography

  • 75th Celebration Swar Sadhna
  • 70th Birthday Release
  • Columbia
  • Enchanting Sitar
  • Guzra Zamana
  • His Master's Voice
  • Immortal Series: Vol 1 ; Vol 2
  • Instrumental Classical: Sitar
  • Lilting Strings
  • Live in Jaipur 1968
  • A Night at the Valley
  • Sangeet Suman
  • Sitar Quintet
  • Sitar Through the Ages
  • Sitar Ecstasy
  • Theme on Strings
  • Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan
  • Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan
  • Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan
  • Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan