The Best of Ustad Amir Khan: Better than Best

               

Musicians of yore loved to quote a famous incident. Ustad Shah Amir (also referred to as Shahmir), a sarangi and been player worked as an accompanist to musicians of the Bhendi Bazaar Gharana. Once, during a visit to a relative’s house, he happened to open a book of notations based on the extremely tough ‘Merukhand’ gayaki. A member of the family, on noticing, snatched the book from his hand shouting that this was not meant for mere accompanists. Deeply wounded Shah Amir decided to train one of his sons in the ‘Merukhand’ gayaki style. That son later became Ustad Amir Khan, also the founder of the scintillating Indore Gharana.

Listening to the ustad’s gayaki thirty-six years after his passing, in the RPG-released The Best of Ustad Amir Khan the stamp of his extraordinary heritage is unmistakable.

Ustad Amir Khan Sahib, as he is popularly called to this day, evolved his own gharana which came to be known as the Indore School of Music or Gharana. This school of music has spawned masters like Pundit Amarnath, the Singh Bandhus, and Shanti Sharma, all stalwarts in their own right.

The album starts, rather appropriately, with a Vilambit Khayal in Raga Marwa, a melody of the dusk, followed by evening ragas.  Marwa, a non-pliant hexatonic raga, is one of the most difficult ragas and falls within the sole purview of a maestro. Needless to add Khan Sahib does extraordinary justice to its slow-pulsed execution.

The prolonged alaap, in fact the entire composition, is redolent with suggestions of purpling twilight, cowherds shepherding their wards while someone plays a flute in the distance…   

One wishes RPG hadn’t chosen Malkauns as the next feature, though. It should have been reserved for the last. A sundown melody should been followed by the scintillating evening melody, Hamsadhwani. The brilliant compositions rendered in both ragas do the Indore traditionalist proud, no doubt. If only the music company would employ knowledgeable editors chary of the time-appositeness of the ragas. The present album could have been such a brilliant compilation had anyone in the music company cared enough.

Listening to the second-last composition in Raga Megh, literally meaning ‘cloud’, with sparkling sargam alaaps in this hot weather actually acted like a rain shower. The imagery of monsoon clouds and thunderous rainfall is too evocative to lay aside. It made me open my bedroom window when lo and behold! I received a light shower in my face. A miracle or a coincidence?!

The entire collection in the The Best of Ustad Amir Khan is nothing short of amazing. Truly.