Ali Akbar Khan

Indian-born musician and educator

• Pronunciation: AH-li AHK-bahr KAHN
• Born: April 14, 1922
• Birthplace: Shivpur, East Bengal, British India (now Bangladesh)
• Died: June 18, 2009
• Place of death: San Anselmo, California

A great virtuoso of the Hindustani sarod, Ali Akbar Khan helped introduce classical North Indian music to large international audiences in the 1960s and won many awards. Along with colleagues from his own background, Khan collaborated with musicians from other traditions.

Areas of achievement: Music, education, film

Early Life

Growing up in the household of his father, the illustrious musician Allauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan was immersed in music from early childhood. His family traced its musical and generational lineage to the legendary musician Mian Tansen, who served the Mughal emperor Akbar, who had ruled northern India and neighboring regions from 1556 to 1605. The young Khan received training from his father, who served the maharaja of Madhya Pradesh, and from other musicians in his family. His rigorous daily practice, overseen by his strict father, was focused on the sarod, a fretless plucked lute also found in Central Asian cultures. Hours every day were spent learning and applying the intricate Hindustani system of ragas (melodic forms) and talas (rhythmic forms).

Finally, Khan was allowed to give his first public concert at the age of thirteen, in Allahabad. Also training under Allauddin Khan was the young sitarist Ravi Shankar, who joined the household as an adopted private student, and Ali Akbar’s sister Annapurna, who later became Shankar’s wife. At the age of twenty-two, Khan was appointed as a musician to the maharaja of Jodhpur. Although this was consistent with the court patronage system that had employed many generations of his ancestors, Khan had already been involved with All India Radio and wanted to explore new professional opportunities that were more consistent with modern life. After the maharaja died, Khan moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) and began composing for films.

Life’s Work

Although he was successful as a film composer, Khan continued to perform classical Hindustani music and devoted special attention to recording, including his landmark recording of Raga Chandranandan, which he had composed. In 1955, he established a music school in Calcutta under his own name, the Ali Akbar College of Music. In the same year, the Western violinist Yehudi Menuhin invited him to perform in New York, where he gave concerts, played on television, and recorded. He realized that long-playing records (LPs) would be useful for capturing the elaborate expositions required for classical Indian music.

Khan continued to tour and record internationally, and over time, more and more musicians and other sophisticated listeners from outside South Asia came to appreciate the artistic depth of the tradition he represented. While these early Western appreciators of classical Indian music were at first few in number and generally came from the elite strata of their own societies, all of this changed in the mid-1960s when the Beatles and other young popular musicians embraced Indian music, which they viewed as a transformation and enrichment of their own culture. Suddenly, the audience for Khan’s music expanded exponentially, as he and his brother-in-law Shankar unexpectedly found themselves being associated with celebrity rock stars.

As exposure to Indian music increased, some of the young enthusiasts evolved into serious students who wished to benefit from the rigorous and systematic training that Khan had received. He decided to establish schools in California (in 1965) and later in Switzerland (in 1985). Although he continued to perform all over the world, he settled in California to maintain a consistent schedule for his school there. He collaborated and recorded with many Indian musicians as well as Americans such as jazz saxophonist John Handy and blues guitarist Ry Cooder.

Khan was awarded numerous honorary degrees and many prizes, including the Padma Vibhushan, granted by the Indian government, in 1989. He was also honored by his adopted country, receiving a Mac-Arthur Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, presented by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1994. That same year, he established an archival library, the Baba Allauddin Khan Institute, to preserve his vast collection of musical documents and recordings, including his own and those of his father.

Significance

As one of the most highly qualified exponents of the Hindustani tradition in his lifetime, Khan shared some of the most sophisticated aspects of this tradition through a lifetime of extensive international teaching, recording, and performing. He continued the process of musical synthesis begun by his father, who had merged various branches of Hindustani music, and extended that process beyond Indian music. While preserving the vast repertoire of ragas inherited from his father, he also created some new ones. By establishing schools of music in the United States and Europe, he extended his influence far beyond the geographic and temporal limits of previous generations.

Bibliography

Khan, Ali Akbar, and George Ruckert, eds. Classical Music of North India:The Music of the Baba Allauddin Gharana as Taught by Ali Akbar Khan at the Ali Akbar College of Music. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2004. Print. Includes exercises, theory, photos, and quotes.

Lavezzoli, Peter. The Dawn of Indian Music in the West:Bhairavi. New York: Continuum, 2006. Print. Covers all the main events and people who helped introduce Indian music to the West; includes a chapter on the Ali Akbar College of Music and covers influences on jazz, classical, and popular musicians.

Shankar, Ravi. My Music, My Life. New ed. San Rafael, CA: Mandala, 2008. Print. Narrative includes Shankar’s studies with Khan’s father, his association with Khan, and his relationships with Western musicians; includes photos, a glossary, and musical exercises.