Bade Ghulam Ali Khan

Bade Ghulam Ali Khan (1902–1968) is an Hindustani classical vocalist. Khan was born in Kasur, then in the Punjab province in British India; after partition, Kasur became a part of Pakistan.[2] His father was a famous singer, Ali Baksh Khan, in a West Punjabi family of musical heritage.

At the age of seven, he learned sarangi and vocal from his paternal uncle Kale Khan, who was also a singer and composer of repute, and after his death he picked up a few compositions from his father who had re-married by this time.[3] This tenure lasted for almost three years. It was at this juncture that he improvised the musical instrument "Kanoon" to the present "Swaramandal" which became his trademark. When he was about 21 years old, he moved to Benaras where he accompanied a courtesan named Zarabai on the sarangi and started to perform in public.

Singing career

Though Khan started his career by accompanying female singers on the sarangi, he also used to sing a few compositions of his late uncle. He was also a disciple of both Ustad Akhtar Hussain Khan and Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan, two scions of the Patiala Gharana.[4] He became popular as a vocalist after his debut concert in Kolkata. Khan amalgamated the best of four traditions: his own Patiala-Kasur style, the Behram Khani elements of Dhrupad, the gyrations of Jaipur, and the behlavas (embellishments) of Gwalior. His voice had a wide range, spanning three octaves, effortless rendition, sweetness, flexibility and ease of movement in all tempi.[3] His raga expositions were brief, contrary to convention, and while he agreed that the beauty of classical music lay in leisurely improvisation, he believed that the audience would not appreciate long alaps, and he had to sing for the masses and change the music to what the audience wanted.