Born in 1940, Mr. Khan began his musical career under the tutelage of his father Ustad Gulab Khan and gave his first public performance at the tender age of 11. He would go on to become a force on the Hindustani classical music scene and perform with Ravi Shankar, George Harrison, and lent vocals and sarangi to Gavin Harrison’s recording Sanity & Gravity. Mr. Khan was also a member of Tabla Beat Science with fellow musicians Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell. He will be remembered for his vocals for “Albela Sajan Aayo Re” and “Piya Basanti Re”in the 1999 Indian film Hum Del De Chuke Sanam, as well as appeared and performed on the title track “Yaarodu Yaaro” for the Tamil film Yogi.
His honors include India’s civilian honor the Padma Bhushan, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the Gold Medalist Award of Maharashtra and the American Academy of Artists Award.
Mr. Khan is survived by his wife, son Sabir Khan and his daughters Reshma and Sehra. His memorial and burial are expected to take place on Monday, November 28, 2011 in Jodhpur.
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
