Munawar Ali Khan

Career

He was taught by his father Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and his uncle Barkat Ali Khan. Munawar also learnt Dhrupad from Hussainuddin Dagar (Tansen Pandey). He accompanied his father to all his concerts and became an integral part of his father's recital after his father had a paralytic attack in early 1961.

Munawar had a full-throated voice with open aakar and his style differed from his father's quicksilver style. After his father's demise in 1968 he started giving solo concerts and bravely faced the challenge as the "Khalifa" of the Kasur Patiala Gharana.

He was a Top-grade artist at All India Radio. He also joined Bharatiya Kala Kendra in Delhi as a music teacher. He performed in major music festivals in India and abroad. He toured extensively in Germany, Switzerland, U.K., France, Australia and represented India in Afghanistan in 1986 and in Pakistan in 1984. He has several discs to his credit both in India and abroad, released by Audiorec, HMV, EMI Music and Sony Nad. With Sandhya Mukherjee he also sang for a Bengali film "Jaijawanti" (1971).

He created many khyal and thumri bandishes as well as geets and ghazals. He sang ragas which were not very popular in his Gharana, such as Shuddh Kalyan, Bairagi Bhairav, Abhogi Kanada, Suha Kanada, Devgiri Bilawal, and Ahir Bhairav and he created a new raga named Malini Basant.

Munawar Ali Khan was also a successful teacher; His students include Ajoy Chakraborty, Indira Misra, Primila Puri, Sanjukta Ghosh, Sajjad Ali, Adnan Salem and Kumar Mukherjee. This Kasur Patiala legacy is now carried by his son Raza Ali Khan and his nephews Jawad Ali Khan, Mazhar Ali Khan, Naqi Ali Khan, and Abdul Aziz Khan.

Death

Munawar Ali Khan died at age of 59 in Kolkata on 13 October 1989.

Discography