I first met Rafiq Ali Khan in Jaipur in March 1997. He is the younger brother of the excellent sarangi player Ustad Liaqat Ali Khan who by that time had moved to Bombay. So he is also identified with the Sikar gharana and its robust playing style. Some years after I filmed him in Jaipur he also moved to Bombay and became a disciple of Arvind Parikh.
The videos here were filmed in April 1997. In the first session, due to a freak thunder storm, there was no electricity, so I filmed entirely with a two-watt video light. I was immediately struck by his robust attack and solid dry tone, just like in his elder brother Liaqat's playing.
The first piece was rag Vachaspati:
This was followed by some atonal experimentation and then rag Rageshri:
(May 2024) Many more videos of Rafiq are coming nowish! The first is a great nocturnal video of him teaching his young son singing, still April 1, 1997 :
Then we have rag Kalavati:
This was followed by rag Jog:
The session ended with the rare rag Suryakauns, a bit rushed because I told him the tape would finish in twenty minutes. This was weird because I had invented a similar rag, named Sardikauns (Winter kauns) rather than Suryakauns(Sun kauns), like Jogkauns but with only one Nishad, in 1982. I kid you not! My rag did have a more prominent Pancham.
The next day we had a morning session. Rafiq started with rag Todi: (28/5/24 actual video coming next week)
Followed by some discussion:
Then rag Lalit:
Finally Shuddh Sarang:
The session ended with a relative of Rafiq's, Firdoz Ali Khan, a student of Rafiq's father, playing rag Nat Bhairav. The poor boy appears to have not been taken very seriously by the family.
But Firdoz Ali had the powerful dry tone that distinguishes the playing of Rafiq Ali and his elder brother Liaqat Ali Khan.
