Salamat Ali Khan: Life and Music Interview to Satyasheel Deshpande | Samvaad Foundation |1980s

[@supreetdeshpande9602]

What a confident person.... He spoke well of almost everyone, even his contemporaries. He was a great vocalist.

[@waqasrahman8167]

Khoobsurat interview. Maaza aa gaya.

[@satnampardesi3255]

Bhttt khoob Interview❤

[@satnampardesi3255]

Thumari k concept mein bhtt ashi baat ki Ek ustad Bde Gulam Ali g se miln ki bat b bhttt ashi lgi gana ek taraf nature ek taraf

[@arvi79]

apke detailed comments .....speechless. Thanks

[@SundeepDougal]

🙏

[@SundeepDougal]

CONTD FROM DESCRIPTION When talking about the state of Indian classical music, he says, "हमारे पंजाब में कहावत है," he says. "गाना पंजाब में जवान था, ग्वालियर में बूढा हो गया और महाराष्ट्र में उसकी हड्डी पसली रह गयी" "There is a saying in Punjab: the song spent its youth in Punjab, grew old in Gwalior and in Maharashtra, it is left with its bones and ribs." The real high point in the interview is at about the 1hr:16mts mark when Deshpande gets a rise out of him by saying that some say "kaa Karuun Sajnii and Yaad Piyaa kii aaye are geets and not thumris," that Punjabis can't sing thumri, and that it is only sung in Banaras. तनक़ीद भी जायज़ होनी चाहिए, नाजायज़ नही, he adds. Even criticism should be fair, and not unfair. [It might be interesting in this regard to Kesarbai Kerkar's sark for example, in her Hyderabad concert about those who only seem to be pining for their sajni: जितने भी गव्वैये आते हैं वो क्या कह के जाते हैं... कि...क्या करूँ सजनी - तो सजनी के नाम से वो रोते है, और तो कुछ जानते नहीं हैं." kzbin.info/www/bejne/n4iymoCmYs-AgdE at about the 45-second mark] Thumri's evolution has made it more refined, he says. He demonstrates it by singing the Banaras thumri - Baajuu band - then sings like BGAK and Barkat Ali. Says people who can't sing it like them are the ones complaining. People travelled first by bullock carts, then cars, then early aeroplanes, now in Jumbo Jets. Would you say jumbo jets should be abandoned and we should go back to early planes? Can you compare Akhtari Begum with Lata Mangeshkar? Begum Akhtar would take one and a half hours to sing a ghazal and Lata kills people in a three-minute song. Would you say Lata is not a great singer? This is a supremely enjoyable - and edifying - interview. *** I had been sharing this interview of Salamat Ali Khan far and wide and thought of sharing it on his death anniversary yesterday. I find that the first part has gone missing from NCAA website and also from archives.org, and in its place only the second part of 8.52 mts has been repeated twice, where it has been labelled as Interview of Ustad Salamat Ali Khan and Ustad Sharafat Ali Khan (Vol. II)", with what is now being called being repeated. I am glad I downloaded the interview when I did and also that others have already shared it on YT. While the idea behind a National Cultural Audiovisual Archives is commendable, what is missing is rigour in proper labelling, transparency and accountability. One can only hope that Part I will be restored to the website and also on archives.org. kzbin.info/aero/PLMYQ2DE1_LdbKcuIw7va_hBuLbqGQOlo

[@ArchismanMozumder]

Thank you for the upload & your insightful views. Very very noteworthy.

[@abhinavrathore3856]

My other question is that salamat sahab mentioned death of his father while he was still a child. then who taught salamat sahab later??

[@SundeepDougal]

If you listen to the interview, or read the description, he addresses the question very clearly where he mentions that the brothers did not have any other ustad after their father's death but that they learnt by modelling themselves after greats like Ashiq Ali Khan, Tawaqqal Khan and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan by merely listening to them. Essentially, they taught themselves and their style evolved as they consciously wanted to present a different style from the big names who were popular at that time in Pakistan.

[@waqasrahman8167]

He learnt from many ustaads including Ustad Fateh Ali Khan (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Father). He would often visit him and learn different raags and bandish from him. kzbin.info/www/bejne/b2bJg6RuobySqac

[@abhinavrathore3856]

Why bgak was upset with them l wonder?.....it is not that india does not have other classical singers other than bgak.....so why enimity towards salamat sahab??there must be a strong reason

[@SundeepDougal]

He clearly alludes to the reasons in the interview. BGAK was the reigning celebrity in the HCM universe when the Ali brothers showed up on the scene. The great man felt insecure, evidently. Amit Choudhury recounts a conversation with A Kanan: scroll.in/article/962117/recordings-by-vocalist-salamat-ali-khan-remind-us-how-precise-and-beautiful-the-unimaginable-can-be // I remember having conversations with A Kanan in the 1990s about musicians we admired. This was at a time when I’d make weekly visits to his house in the expansive ITC Sangeet Research Academy properties, and he’d pass on traditional khayal compositions to me.I brought up the brothers Nazakat Ali (1928-’84) and Salamat Ali Khan (1934-2001) during one of these exchanges, and A Kanan recounted a story about when he’d gone to visit Bade Ghulam Ali Khan at a time when the musician was presumably living in Park Circus in Calcutta. He portrayed the Khan as an innocent, as great artists can be, grumbling to him about this upstart duo from Pakistan - the younger brother, Salamat, especially - about whom extraordinary claims were being made. “Who are they?” he asked A Kanan. “Is he really that good?”A Kanan had to reassure him that he wasn’t. Bade Ghulam Ali had a specific status in India, as the khayal’s greatest virtuoso, and it was Salamat Ali’s virtuosity that had prompted that second question. // Depending on one's inclinations, anecdotes can of course be pulled out to show one against the other. BGAK himself faced enough hostility from the divas he left behind in his rise to the top. Kesarbai's pronouncements about him leave no scope for any confusion about what she thought of him, for example. Likewise, no dearth of those who detest Salamat-Nazakat style of singing and consider them an abomination, or upstarts, just as there are many who seem to worship the ground they walked on. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmWzfneAjsyogKM

[@abhinavrathore3856]

@@SundeepDougal yeah I have read this article ....it's interesting that salamat sahab gives only a hint and do not talk about his experience with bgak in detail ....he clearly respected bgak that's why he do not want to give air to the debate ....however I wonder why he is not mentioned in india whenever the classical legends are talked about....he seems to be forgotten....this saddens me.

[@SundeepDougal]

The thing called civility and not speaking ill of the dead, I would imagine. The thing to remember is that this is many years after BGAK's demise. Time is a great healer. In earlier times, there are accounts where he is supposed to have shared what he felt, and it was not this adulatory, evidently. Anyway, I wouldn't really want to pop-psychologise either of the two.

[@abhinavrathore3856]

There is a autobiography book written on salamat sahab, I believe.can you tell me the name of the book and also from where can I get it?

[@SundeepDougal]

His autobiography is not in print, from what I know. Might be available somewhere in libraries or second hand book shops in Pakistan somewhere. It's in Urdu and is titled 'maeN aur merii mausiiquii'.