Aslam Hussain Khan

Aslam Hussain Khan (14 April 1940 - 21 March 2018), also known as Ustad Aslam Khan, was an Indian classical vocalist, teacher and composer, belonging to the Khurja, Hapur, Agra, Jaipur-Atrauli, Delhi, and Sikandra gharanas. He was known for his performances of khyal, thumri, dadra, tarana, ghazal, and bhajan, He also created new ragas such as Suryaranjini.

Life and career Aslam Khan was descended from Shadi and Murad Khan of Hapur gharana, However, he was initially trained in music by his maternal uncle, Altaf Hussain Khan of Khurja gharana. In 1950 his students included Anwar, Manhar Udhas, Vrinda Mundkur, According to noted musician Nayan Ghosh, Aslam Khan was "one of the largest storehouses of rare ragas and bandishes (compositions) besides being an encyclopaedia of anecdotes and historical information of music(al) legends."

According to noted musician and critic Amarendra Dhaneshwar, the style into which Aslam Khan was inducted by Azmat Hussain Khan "adopts a kind of voice-production, which uses a flatter version of the vowel 'a'. This facilitates production of stressful, accented music, which is conducive to rhythmically oriented elaboration of ragas. These singers also sing the 'nomtom' alaaps like a dhrupad singer." According to Batuk Dewanji, another noted critic, Aslam Khan had "adopted complex and intricate taan patterns of the ustads of Harpur [sic] gharana."