A previous installment of this column featured short vocal recitals by noted sarangi players, demonstrating how they among a few other mus...
A previous installment of this column featured short vocal recitals by noted sarangi players, demonstrating how they among a few other musicians were multi-faceted when it came to the ease with which they handled their instruments, additional instruments or even vocal music. In fact, sarangi players Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Abdul Aziz Khan shifted to vocal music and the vichitra veena respectively. Unfortunately, we do not have recordings of their sarangi recitals.
At times, special circumstances led few musicians to engage with more than one discipline, although they did not necessarily pursue more than one as performers, or not on a regular basis. For instance, some of those who decided to establish music classes in the first few decades of the twentieth century in India taught more than one subject.
Jaffer Khan, a rudra veena and sitar player also well-versed in vocal music, taught tabla, harmonium, jaltarang and vocal music, under the banner of the Dadar Sangeet Vidyalaya started by him. Once again, we do not have any recordings of Jaffer Khan.
But his son, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan, the well-known virtuosic sitar player, while sharing experiences of his career as a musician for films narrated a few instances when he sang and played the...
