Ali Akbar Khan - Rough Guide To Ali Akbar Khan '2018

Tracks list

The foremost virtuoso of the sarod in modern times, Ali Akbar Khan was
instrumental in popularizing Indian classical music in the west. This Rough
Guide showcases his sublime talent and intuitive command of melody and rhythm
which led violin legend Yehudi Menuhin to dub him ‘the greatest musician
in the world’.

Above all others, it fell to two towering figures in Hindustani music to usher
and shepherd it into modern times and modernity. And onto the world stage. Ali
Akbar Khan (1922–2009) and Ravi Shankar (1920–2012) were virtuosi
on their respective stringed instruments. In many ways they seemed like yin and
yang opposites. The Muslim Khan played the sonorous, steel-clad, metal-strung,
short-necked lute called the sarod. It is ‘male’ in the
subcontinent’s figurative order of instruments, counterbalanced by the
Hindu musician’s ‘female’ long-necked lute, the sitar.

These six tracks from the sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan are examples of his
inspirational narrative storytelling style. Ken Hunt chose performances that
show him adapting his performance parameters to the limitations and challenges
of recording technology. The two opening tracks in the deep night raga Darbari
Kanada are from his early career as a 78 rpm recording artist.

Unlike radio broadcasts, the technology required the performer to distil and
wrap the piece’s essence in little over three minutes. These two sides
present Darbari Kanada’s opening alap movement and the jor in which
unmetered rhythm is introduced. Transferring this idea to another era, his 1993
masterpiece Plays Alap took the idea of concentrating entirely to the opening
movement to new levels of artistic development.

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s repertoire regularly embraced uncommon or obscure
ragas. Maligaura is an example with a disputed history; it is, however, the
workhorse for a number of shababs (Sikh hymns) in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
Ladkadahan Sarang, a piece he had released as a 10-inch/25.5 cm disc, is
traditionally supposed to have a cooling effect. By contrast, Darbari Kanada,
Ahir Bhaira and Pilu are familiar items. Pilu, an evening raga for the end of
the day, closes. It acts as a parting glass that returns the anthology to his
short-duration interpretations from the age of shellac.

One of several hallmarks of Khan’s magisterial style, revealed on these
tracks, is his sublime command of the confluence of melody and rhythmicality. He
was the living embodiment of Claude Debussy’s view that music is “a
matter of colours and rhythmical time.” That sensibility underpinned his
playing wit and style. How he fashioned and adapted his craft, as recording
technology changed, remains a marvel.

Every period produces a pantheon of musicians of enormous stature in their
field. Rarely does any age have a musician of whom it can truthfully be said
they were the world’s greatest musician of their time. That is what
Yehudi Menuhin called Ali Akbar Khan. Khan is still transporting.

Tracklist:
01. Ali Akbar Khan - Darbari Kanada (Alap)
02. Ali Akbar Khan - Darbari Kanada (Jod)
03. Ali Akbar Khan - Ahir Bhaira - Teentaal
04. Ali Akbar Khan - Maligaura - Jhamptaal
05. Ali Akbar Khan - Ladkadahan Sarang - Dhamari
06. Ali Akbar Khan - Pilu

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