Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan was born in 1927 in Jaora (35 km away from Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh) as the son of Jaffer Khan, a versatile vocalist, sitarist and beenkar. He belonged to the Beenkar Gharana of Indore and was an All India Radio artiste since the early 1940s.[3] A few years before the Beatles met Ravi Shankar, in 1958, Khan collaborated with jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck. Brubeck who was in Bombay through the U.S. State Department sponsored Jazz Ambassadors Program was impressed by the improvisation in Indian music and said that the experience accompanying Halim Jaffer Khan led him to play in a different way. Brubeck says of that meeting, "We understood each other." Khan also performed with the noted English classical guitarist Julian Bream in 1963.[citation needed]
Careeredit
Khan is known for his own style Jafferkhani Baaj.[4] He describes it as, "a synthesis of precision in technique, systematic thought"[5] with a vigorous playing style. Cultural anthropologist and reader at the University of Mumbai, Dr. Kamala Ganesh states: "His music making is full of eclectic yet deeply informed choices. He is a thinking musician but puts across his complex views with a simplicity and feeling which demarcate the articulate performer from the articulate theoretician.... In him, one gets an unmistakable sense... a syncretic tradition".[6] The Indian santoor player Shivkumar Sharma remembers of Khan's performance of the raga Chhayanat: "It was probably in 1955–56, I was relaxing in my terrace in Jammu. In the stillness of the night I heard the notes of Raga Chhayanat on the sitar emanate from my neighbor's radio. I immediately noticed that the tone of the sitar was completely different and the style of playing radically unique. I rushed to switch on my radio.... I was totally engrossed and was very curious to know who this maestro was."[7]
Khan has been credited with bringing Carnatic ragas Kirwani, Kanakangi, Latangi, Karaharapriya, Manavati, Ganamurti, and others into the sitar repertoire, rendering them through a Hindustani sensibility and in the Jafferkhani style. He was the first Hindustani musician to collaborate with Carnatic music in a performance with renowned Veena player Emani Sankara Sastry[citation needed].
^"SNA: List of Akademi Awardees – Instrumental – Sitar". Sangeet Natak Akademi. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
^Dhaneshwar, Amarendra. Strings Attached Archived 2 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine, "The Times of India", 19 February 2010.
^ abKamala Ganesh (12 January 2017). "His baaj had no boundaries (Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan)". The Hindu newspaper. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
^Bella Jaisinghani (4 January 2016). "Sitar maestro Ustad Abdul Halim dead". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
^"Sangeet Natak Akademi citation". sangeetnatak.gov.in. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
^"Padma Awards 2006". outlookindia.com/. 25 January 2006. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
^"Legends of India Lifetime Achievement Awards". Legends of India. Archived from the original on 19 March 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
^"Haafiz Ali Khan Awards". www.sarod.com. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
Further readingedit
Jafferkhani Baaj: Innovation in Sitar Music. Khan, Abdul Halim Jaffer. Jafferkhani Baaj: Innovation in Sitar Music. Kohinoor Printers, 2000.