Sultan of sarangi

Tribute

 This was the master key to unlock the heart of the late sarangi maestro, Ustad Sultan Khan. Belonging to a long-standing family of sarangi players hailing from Jodhpur, for the late master, the city and its musical linkages remained inseparable and endearing, and visitors who could establish referential links with his beloved city were a class apart in the presence of the maestro. Conversations invariably diverted from hardcore musical discussions to the familiar sights and sounds of the city and the visitor was pressed into sharing a meal with the musician family in the true spirit of Jodhpur hospitality.

Despite his stay in Bombay throughout his professional career and his music concert tours around the world, the Jodhpur magic never wore off and as part of his final wish, he has been laid to rest in that city, beside the graves of his revered ancestors. Like all gharana-oriented musicians, he too had begun his training at the feet of his late grandfather Ustad Azim Khan. Later, he had honed his skills under his late father Ustad Gulab Khan. Thereafter, in the calling of a sarangi maestro who, unlike other musicians, is required to establish himself as both a soloist and an accompanist on the sarangi, Ustad Sultan Khan had been placed under the tutelage of the famed vocalist of the Indore Gharana, the late Ustad Amir Khan.

Simple human being

Away from the arc lights of the performance venue, the portly ustad was a journalist’s dream. Despite his fame as both a vocalist and a sarangi nawaz, he had none of the airs of a star performer. Whenever references were made to his impeccable handling of his instrument, he was quick to point out that his instrument was a fickle mistress who could let him down at the most prestigious concert by slipping off his fingers and playing a false note, despite endless hours of preparation and riyaaz. At home, clad in his signature lungi and kurta, he held court with musicians and common listeners with utter ease.

Asked to an informal round of practice playing, the ustad would regale his listeners with a sing-along in a vocal mettle that made it difficult to separate instrument from vocal timbre for his style of sarangi bowing was in the format of the gayaki ang and with his singing impromptu in sync with the playing, the rendition became a Ganga-Jamuna musical merger of rare quality.

He had held his first solo concert at the tender age of 11 at the All India Music Conference, a platform that gave space to beginners of promise alongside the veterans. At this concert, the august audience had comprised none other than the legendary doyen, Ustad Gulam Ali Khan, among others. Thus, for the junior players, this stage was more in the way of an assessment than a way of drawing attention to their expertise. Of course, Ustad Sultan Khan had excelled on both counts, for, in his hands the sarangi rang out notes that duplicated the human voice with such sincerity that listeners found it hard to decipher one from the other. In those years, in keeping with the prevailing practice among vocalists, the sarangi was mastered by every vocalist. Thus, Sultan Khan could sing as well as play his instrument and had kept up this practice all through his performance career. Before long, he had come to be regarded as a vivacious folk and film music singer also.

Public recognition in the art came when in the 1990s he took the film world by storm by his rendition of Piya basanti. The maestro went on to make his musical mark once again in the number, Albeli saajan aayo re, sung to the drumbeats of a very young Shankar Mahadevan. His tryst with the drums took on a permanent character when he became the instrumentalist who kept time on the sarangi to the complex tabla concerts of Ustad Zakir Hussain.

It was his sarangi that, like a steadfast time keeper, provided the cycle of beats coming to rest on the first or sa note while the tabla patterned a complex variety of relas, tukras and kayedas. As a solo sarangi player, he was the handpicked artist at prestigious concert platforms such as the ITC Sangeet Sammelan. His sarangi also made its mark in joint performances with other sarangi players such as Kamal Sabri. The senior musician made all his team members feel completely at ease and won over hearts with his amiable mannerisms.

Recognition

Much before the listeners had learnt to recognise the ustad at on-stage performances, the late ustad had made his mark as the chosen accompanist by the film industry’s greatest diva, Lata Mangeshkar. In later years, he was a favourite with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Khayyam who felt that the sarangi accompaniment in the hands of Sultan Khan Sahib gave added fillip to their performances.

In like manner, the world of jazz and rock was to find in him an artist after their own hearts. He was the ideal accompanist for fusion concerts and made his mark with bassist Bill Laswell. His work alongside Pandit Ravi Shankar and in George Harrison’s Dark Horse World Tour is now the stuff of musical history. In the summer of 1998, Ustad Sultan Khan emerged triumphant on the fusion music scene when recording with Warren Cuccurullo and his experimental rock band.

The California-based band had been working on alternate musical forms to bring out a psychological and surreal angle in pop music and the plaintive notes of the sarangi with its mood-specific aura proved ideal for it. He attuned his sarangi to be in sync with bass and acoustic guitars, giving the music a distinct character and form.

On the Indian musical scene, the late ustad will be long remembered for his musical style. In his hands, the lilting richness of desert air sprang to life. For the purist listener, he had a plethora of evening melodies to regale them with. In his bowing the ragas Des, Nat, Bhairav, Bageshri, Maand and others of this thaat or genus, were listeners’ favourites.

Holding his much weathered and sonorous instrument close to his right ear, much in the way of a beloved’s touch, with bent head and half-closed eyes, he would begin an effortless bowing of the strings. The mehrab-like decoration of the upper half of the instrument, with its blue stone engraving like a third eye and a red string dangling from one of the wooden knobs of the strings, the sarangi of Ustad Sultan Khan would enchant his audience into a world of melody that touched hearts and linked the concert hall into a trance-like delight under its spell.

In his life and his art, Sultan Khan proved that even a dying musical instrument such as the sarangi can leap back to life and mesmerise thousands with its sonorous timbre, even keel bowing technique and flexibility of styles to suit all genres and please all generations.