Faiyaz Khan of Banaras is the youngest brother of my esteemed teacher Ustad Zakan Khan. Not having had the good fortune to secure a job at All India Radio or at Benaras Hindu University, he ended up relying on concerts concocted for foreign tourists and on teaching foreign students to scrape together a meager livelihood.
The piece below is from a concert at Sursangam, Banaras on 15 November, 1996. He played rag Yaman. A typical sarangi phenomenon is highlighted, a mixture of pronounced vagueness about the rag's structure with typical beautiful rag-specific phrases and flourishes. As it happens, the video begins with several minutes of tuning, so go have a cup of tea and a samosa and come back refreshed in time for the show!
