Vilayat Khan

Vilayat Khan (28 August 1928 – 13 March 2004) was an Indian classical sitar player, considered by many to be the greatest sitarist of his age. Along with Imdad Khan, Enayat Khan, and Imrat Khan, he is credited with the creation and development of gayaki ang (a technique that emulates the vocal melisma of Hindustani classical music) on the sitar.

He recorded his first 78-RPM disc at the age of 8 and gave his last concert in 2004 at the age of 75. his maternal grandfather, singer Bande Hassan Khan, and his mother, Bashiran Begum, who had studied the practice procedure of his forefathers. His maternal uncle, Zinde Hussain, looked after his riyaz (practice). As a boy, Vilayat wanted to be a singer, but his mother, herself from a family of vocalists, felt he had a strong responsibility to bear the family torch as a sitar maestro. Merchant-Ivory Productions' The Guru (1969) in English, Vilayat gave a chance to newcomer singer Kavita Krishnamurthy in Kadambari — the first song in her long and successful career.

Personal life The Imdad Khan family is of Rajput lineage. In an informal continuation of his Rajput lineage, Vilayat Khan's father Enayat Khan kept a Hindu name of Nath Singh. Vilayat Khan himself composed many bandishes using the pen name, Nath Piya. In an interview given to Karan Thapar for the BBC in early 2002, Vilayat Khan admitted to having the Rajput name – Kahan Singh.

Khan spent much of his life in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He was married twice. and sitarist Shujaat Khan (b. 1960). He also gave sitar lessons to Big Jim Sullivan, the famous English session musician. He trained his daughter, Zila, in sitar and vocal music and also made her a formal student in a ceremony in 1991. The ceremony appears in a documentary made in 1991 and also in India's Ministry of External Affairs film on his life, entitled Spirit to Soul. Vilayat Khan made the United States his second home and had a residence in Princeton, New Jersey besides Dehradun and Kolkata, India.

Among other honours he turned down was the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1995. For a while, he also boycotted All India Radio. The only titles he accepted were the special decorations of "Bharat Sitar Samrat" by the Artistes Association of India and "Aftab-e-Sitar" (Sun of the Sitar) from President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed.

Death and legacy

Vilayat Khan died on 13 March 2004 in Mumbai at age 75. The Press Trust of India reported that Vilayat Khan had lung cancer, diabetes, and hypertension.

In September 2014, a postage stamp featuring Khan was released by India Post commemorating his contributions.

According to The Hindu newspaper, "As for the eternal question, who is the greatest of them all, it would appear that there are many greats and there is Vilayat Khan", "... an artist who had transformed his instrument to resemble the human voice".

Selected discography Primary artist India's Master of the Sitar (1969, Capitol/EMI) Contributing artist The Rough Guide to the Music of India and Pakistan (1996, World Music Network) When Time Stood Still with Kishan Maharaj (2006, Navras).

Footnotes He kept his childhood interest in vocal music all his life, often singing in concerts, and composed khyal bandishes using the pen name Nath Piya.