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Family and life
Ustad Alauddin Khan tradition
Aashish Khan
is a representative of a family of great classical musicians of India. His grandfather Ustad Alauddin
Khan, a singular phenomenon in the twentieth century Indian classical music, and founder of the "Senia Maihar Gharana" or
"Senia Maihar School" of Indian classical music; was called with reverence as "Baba" (or Father) by
his fellow maestros and students. His father Ustad Ali Akbar Khan is a distinguished Sarode player. His aunt Annapurna Devi
is a Surbahar player and former wife of sitar legend Ravi Shankar.
Maihar
Aashish Khan was born in 1939 at Maihar, a small princely
state of British India, where his revered grandfather Ustad Alauddin Khan was a royal court
musician at that time. His mother the late Zubeida Begum was Ustad Ali Akbar Khan's first wife. He was initiated into North
Indian classical music at the age of five by his grandfather. His training (or taalim) later continued under the guidance
of his father Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and his aunt, Annapurna Devi. He is one of the most notable disciples of his grandfather
Ustad Alauddin Khan, and the foremost disciple of both his father Ali Akbar Khan and aunt Annapurna Devi. Though the music
school they represent is popularly known as "Senia Maihar Gharana"; it is essentially the traditional "Senia Gharana". (The
founder of this "Senia Gharana" or "Senia School"
is believed to be the legendary court musician of Mughal Emperor Akbar Mian Tansen. And the "Senia Gharana" is undoubtedly
the one and only root of all styles of Indian classical music.) "Senia Maihar Gharana" follows the traditional "Beenkar" and
"Rababiya" pattern of the "Dhruvapada" style of the original "Senia Gharana". However, followers of the "Senia Maihar School"
tradition have principally been responsible for a renaissance in Indian classical instrumental music in the twentieth century.
Music and accomplishments
Aashish Khan grew up in Maihar and Calcutta performing Indian classical music among distinguished circles of connoisseurs. He
gave his debut public performance at the age of 13, with his grandfather, on the All India Radio "National Program", New Delhi, and in the same year, performed with his father and his grandfather at the "Tansen Music Conference",
Calcutta. Since then he has performed at major venues of classical
music and world music both in the Indian subcontinent and at abroad with great applause.
Besides his virtuosity as a traditional Sarode Ustad Aashish
Khan is also one of the pioneers in the establishment of world music genre, as founder of the Indo-American musical group
"Shanti" with tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain in 1969, and later, fusion group, "The Third Eye". In "Shanti", AAshish Khan
is featured playing the acoustic Sarode sometimes through a fender guitar amplifier with vibrato effect.
Under Pandit Ravi Shankar, he has worked as a background
artist on musical products for both film and stage, including Oscar Winner Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar, Parash Pathar,
Jalsha Ghar, and Sir Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi. He has also worked as a background artist with
Maurice Jarre on John Huston's film The Man Who Would be King, David Lean's A Passage to India, and composed
the music for Tapan Sinha's films, Joturgriha (he received Best Film Score Award for Jotugriha) and Aadmi
Aurat.
During 1989-1990, Aashish Khan served as the Composer and
Conductor for the National Orchestra of All India Radio, New Delhi, India, succeeding musical stalwarts like Sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar, and flautist
Pandit Pannalal Ghosh.
Collaborations
Aashish Khan has pioneered in the art of collaborating
Indian classical music with western music, and world music. He is thus remembered by the music fraternity as one of the foremost
representatives of Indian classical music in the Western world. He has collaborated with such diverse western musicians as
John Barham, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Charles Lloyd, John Handy, Alice Coltrane, Emil Richards, Dallas
Smith, Don Pope, Jorge Strunz, Ardeshir Farah, and the Philadelphia String Quartet. Ustad Aashish Khan is currently co-leading
"Shringar" with Andrew McLean and other notable New Orleans
musicians such as Tim Green and Jason Marsalis. Shringar is the first foray of any classical Indian musician into the music
culture of New Orleans, widely considered the Mecca of Jazz.
His recordings include Wonderwall Music, Young Master of the Sarode, California Concert, Sarode and
Piano Jugalbandi, Shanti, Live at the Royal Festival Hall London, Homage, Inner Voyage, Monsoon
Ragas, The Sound of Mughal Court, and the latest, Jugalbandi Sarode & Sarangi Duet, with Ustad Sultan
Khan.
Teaching
Aashish Khan is a music teacher, currently serving as adjucnt
professor of Indian Classical Music at the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, U.S., and as an adjunct professor of Music at the University
of California at Santa Cruz,
United States. He has formerly taught at the faculties of the
Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California, University of Alberta in Canada
and the University of Washington, Seattle. While pursuing a busy career as a concert artist and composer,
he teaches students throughout the U.S., Canada,
Europe, and Africa, as well as India.
Many of his students have established themselves as stage performers in India
and abroad. Notable mention among them would be of Sarode players Rick Henderson, Debanjan Bhattacharya, Aditya Verma, Ranajit
Sengupta; Sitar player Amelia Maciszewski; Santoor player Dishari Chakraborty; and Rabab player Rishi Ranjan.
He presently divides his time principally
between Calcutta, and California,
where most of his students and disciples are located.
Recognition
He is the recipient of several distinguished honours in
recognition of his excellence in Indian classical music and world music as well. He has been awarded, among many, the Fellowship
of the Illinois Arts Council, U.S. in 2002, and India's highest award for performing arts, i.e., the Sangeet Natak Akademi award
in 2005. In 2006, he was nominated for a Grammy award in the 'Best World Music' category. He is one of the very few celebrated
Indian musicians who have been nominated for this award (other Grammy nominees and/or winners include Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar,
Sarode maestro Ali Akbar Khan, and Guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt; all are from "Senia Maihar Gharana"). Among Sarode maestros,
he is second to only his father Ustad Ali Akbar Khan who earlier received Grammy nominations. On May 24, 2007 Ustad Aashish
Khan became the first ever Indian classical maestro to become a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the U.K.'s
highest society in Asian arts and culture. Several Indian media have also declared that Ustad Aashish Khan is "India's greatest living Sarode player" In Kolkata, the most
prominent disciples in Sarode are Ranajit Sengupta and Debanjan Bhattacharjee, while Dishari Chakraborty in Santoor.
Religious conversion
In September 2006, He announced at a press
conference in Calcutta that since his forefathers were Hindu Brahmins of the East
Bengal, and held the surname "Debsharma", he would also wish to use his forefathers' surname to help people understand
the root of his great musical lineage. He also stated that his family were never officially converted into Islam and not necessarily
Khan means a Muslim. He depended on fact that his grandfather the late Ustad Alauddin Khan himself said in his biography (Aamar
Katha, (Bengali), published by Ananda Publishers, Calcutta)
that his forefathers were indeed Hindus and holders of the surname "Debsharma". He also said that his name (Aashish), his
brothers' names (Dhyanesh, Pranesh, Amaresh) were all given by their grandfather Alauddin; and all these are essentially Hindu
names. However, his father has rejected Aasish's claims as fallacies. An anguished Ali Akbar Khan told Times of India in an
e-mail from the US where he has settled,
"I do not support his (Aasish's) choice. Unfortunately, many statements made by my son in the newspaper regarding the history
of my family are incorrect. My family has been Muslim for many generations, and we will remain Muslims. It's a shame that
he is trying to reinvent the history of our family and in turn hurting past generations of our family."
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