Note: 31 July 2024: I was just considering initiating a new (second) page for my dear Ustad, Abdul Latif Khan, as it has been becoming unmanageable editing such a long page, and I have many more videos of him to upload. Then the internet made the decision for me. None of the fifteen or so videos that I embedded today were playing. I guess the internet can only take so much at once. So I've moved those videos to a new page, and here they are, happily playing. Many more films of Abdul Latif Khan are in the queue for procesing.
See the bottom of this page for films of Abdul Latif Khan accompanying vocalists in concert.
We start with a concert at the house of the Bhopal District Superintendent of Police.
Ustad was accompanied by Sarwar Hussain and Nicolas Magriel on sarangis and his son Nafiz Ahmed Khan on tabla. The rags are Yaman and Desh:
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Ustad's son Nafiz Ahmed Khan also played a tabla solo accompanied by Ustad's younger son Farukh Khan on sarangi:
An evening sitting on March 5, 1997 began with rag Jog:
Followed by a Hori in Kafi. After that he played his favourite tappa in Kafi:
On the 10th of March, 1997, Ustad played rag Multani. He was accompanied by Iqram Khan on tabla.
This was followed by an interlude of family chaos. Everyone chatted, a toddler sang into my microphone, ALK's son Farukh played the famous film song Paradesi, while Sarwar Hussain and I continued to practice Multani.
Then as we moved from afternoon to early evening, there was a sober rendition of Shri Rag:
This was followed by a thumri in Khamaj:
The next piece is from a sitting the next morning, the 11th of March in which Ustad played rag Lalit. He was eventually joined by his friend Abdul Sayeed Khan singing. His two brothers-in-law Rassool Khan and Badal Khan were also in attendance, giving inspiration:
Next we have more videos of Abdul Latif Khan playing and teaching at home in Shahjahanabad, Bhopal in 1997. The students playing with him usually include Sarwar Hussain and myself. First rag Ahir Bhairav recorded on the morning of 12th of March, 1997:
Next we have another recording of rag Surti Vardani, an eccentric favorite of Ustad's, also from March 12, 1997:
The next three pieces are from a sitting on the next day, the 13th of March. First Ustad played rag Yaman:
Then Khamaj. Towards the end he demonstrates, singing a beautiful thumri.
Then short excursions into rag Gavati and ALK's speciality rag Surti Vardani:
From the 15th of March, here is short take of Ustad teaching the rare rag Salag Barari Todi (Sa Re Ga Pa Dha Ni) to Sarwar Hussain and myself:
The rare rag Salag Varali, a South Indian import, recorded on March 15, 1997:
In the morning of 16th of March, 1997, Ustad sat with his son Nafiz Khan providing tabla accompaniment. First ALK again played rag Salag Barari Todi :
Followed by his favourite dadra in Bhairavi:
In the evening of the same day, ALK began his practice with another rendition of Shri rag:
ALK surprised me by switching to the morning rag Bibhas, which has similarities to Shri. He demonstrated the famous bandish "mora re":
This was followed by Kafi including a hori composition:
Now we have rag Jaunpuri from the morning of March 18, 1997:
Then Charaukaisi later on the same morning:
Ustad started off the morning of 19 March, 1997 again with rag Jaunpuri.
Then a stream-of-consciousness visit to the rags Gavati, Brindabani Sarang, Shuddh Sarang, Madyamad Sarang, Gaud Sarang and Kamod:
In the evening he played rag Marva:
And then Bihag and a touch of Desh:
Then Ramdasi Malhar:
The evening of 19 March ended with rag Bageshri, which, very unusually, he played in D in "thath" tuning, Sa on the sarangi's middle string. After a long day, ALK also dipped into rag Kafi a couple of times.
Now we jump to August of 1997.
In the morning of the 3rd of August we had a long sitting in rag Todi. Ustad played alap and jor and plenty of tans. He did an illuminating demonstration of a type of pulsed bowing using his right hand to ariculate very rapid notes at the beginning of each slow bow stroke. He also demonstrated gamak unadulterated. For most of the session there were three or four of us playing along and catching what we could:
Then he did a beautiful short excursion into a very mishra Bhairavi that included alap, tans, and two beautiful and technically incredible tappas. He sang the words of the first tappa for me in garbled Panjabi.
On the evening of the same day Ustad played an extended rendition of the monsoon rag Miyanki Malhar (mistitled Todi at the beginning), perhaps inspired by our being at the height of the thunderous rainy season:
Abdul Latif Khan was somewhat worse for wear after that lengthy performance. He then spent a few minutes on a beautiful un-named improvisation, megodiclly akin to one of his favoutrte dadras. This included some impressive lightening-fast chromatic tans.
On the morning of the next day, the 4th of August, he played Bairagi. He was accompanied by Sarwar Hussain and myself. At on point Ustad took a rest and Sarwar Hussain practised Bairagi on his own. After a while Ustad picked up his sarangi and continued.
The evening of that day Sarwar Hussain played rag Charaukesi, which can be heard on his page. Then Ustad got into the Charaukesi mood:
As he was putting his sarangi away Ustad sang a bit of Charaukesi. Then after I'd already put my lens cap on, he started instructing me vocally in palta tan formation in Charaukesi:
On the 5th of August, Ustad returned to Bairagi:
Now an evening sitting on August 6, 1997. We started with rag Kaushi Kanada:
Followed by rag Miyanki Malhar:
On the morning of August 7th, Ustad again visited the house of Bairagi:
This was followed by a delicate Jogiya in thumri style:
We were in the midst of monsoon. Fittingly in the evening he played an extended rendition of Megh:
Then, staying in the monsoon mood, Ustad played rag Miyanki Malhar:
That sitting ended with an un-named improvisation that Ustad insisted just came out of his head:
In the evening of the 10 of August, Ustad dredged his memory for beautifl bandishes that he hadn't thought of for decades, mostly singing them. It was a shared session with his old friend (and sister's husband) Abdul Sayeed Khan, who also sang a bit.
Ustad next played a short rendition of rag Yaman on sarangi:
Then there was another episode of musical reminiscing—Ustad rememberingwhat sounded like a version of the rag Jhinjhoti and a bandish in that rag:
Then re returned to his sarangi and rag Yaman:
The evening ended with his consulting me about repairs on his sarangi. It seems I had just done some major work on it. He was very happy with the changes, but it needed some time to settle in, The strings were slightly too high for him and the bridge seemed to have moved. Twenty-nine years later, I'm guessing that I must have changed the skin for him. Working on his instrument always filled me with trepidation. Two year earlier I had replaced the entire fingerboard with a mixture pf rosewood dust and epoxy resin—an operation that was so successfu that Sarwar Hussain is still playing that sarangi, and the finferboard has not worn down al all.
The next morning, August 13, 1997, Ustad played rag Vasant Mukhari.
This was followed by Jogiya, which morphed into the pentatonic morning rag Gunkali. We had quite a bit of tan practice in Gunkali
Then a ultra-chromatic Bhairavi. Ustad appeared to be preoccuped with clarifying a method of using komal Ga. We occasionally see Sarwar hussain scraping his instrument with a Stanley-knife blade.
Now we have two pieces from a sitting on the morning of August 14, 1997. The first a replay of Ustad's favourite Vasant Mukhari:
Followed by a return to the close neighbour Gunkali, inspired by Ustad remembering a song from his childhood which he sings for me before playing:
On the morning of the 15th of August Ustad played rag Jaunpuri. The clip ends with some operations on Ustad's sarangi. All the clips from this week include quite a lot of miscellaneous discussion and Sarwar Hussain renovating his sarangi.
In the evening we started with an extended teaching session in rag Miyanki Malhar. Ustad's son Farukh was following. He is now an excellent player.
Next Ustad grappled with Manj Khamaj in thumri style, possibly the amous song "jaag pari maito pita". It seems he was a bit rusty on this one. I'd never heard him play it before, and it occasionally lapses into desh and other tonalities.
He ended with a serious rendition of Darbari:
Now we have three videos from a sitting with Ustad's son Nafiz Ahmed Khan on tabla from August 16, 1997. Sadly Nafiz was always busy and didn't often have the time to accompany his father. The first piece is rag Darbari, alap followed by jhumra and tintal:
Next was Megh:
Then two songs from the Ramayan tradition of Madhya Pradesh which Ustad was exposed to in his childhood in Gohad. He begins by singing:
Abdul Latif Khan accompanying vocalists
It is a great pleasure to recall my experiences at concerts in which Ustad fulfilled his traditional role as an accompanist, which was sometimes a joy for him. It was also sometimes tedious for him, suffering arrogant behaviour, sometimes being ignored—often by vocalists who had only a small fraction of his musical experience and knowledge. Keep an eye on his facial expressions for some clues as to what was going on inside him.
The firat videos below are from the famous Tansen Sangeet Samelan (festival) in Gwalior in 1994. We begin with Ustad accompanying Mita Pandit, grandaughter of the grewat Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, in a morning concert at the end of November 1994. First the complex rag, Lalit Pancham:
Followed by shorter renditions of the rags Deshkar and Brindabani Sarang:
Now we have two videos of ALK accompanying Jal Krishna Balpouria on December 2, 1994, also at the Tansen festival. First rag Kedar:
Followed by a tappa and a tarana, both in Kafi:
Now we see ALK accompanying Sulochana Brahaspati, widow of the scholar-vocalist and Director General of All India Radio, Acharya K C Brahaspati. To watch my Ustad sitting with her in the Green Room was a painful experience. She started with rag Malkauns:
This was followed by rag Suha:
She ended with a tappa in rag Bhairavi:
Now an afternoon concert, also at the Tansen Samelan by Krishna Hangal, the daughter of the great Gangubai Hangal. She sang rag Shuddh Sarang:
The video ends with some footage of Abdul Latif Khan's extended family in the place where they were staying during the Gwalior festival.
The next three pieces come from a concert by Ajay Pohankar in Bhopal on April 24, 1998. He bagn with the fairly rare rag Jaint Malhar:
Then rag Sohini and a Punjabi-style thumri:
Then rag Darbari followed by a thumri in Bhairavi:
