Born in 1914, Ustad Siddiqi Akmed Khan was one of the two senior-most functional sarangi players on this website. Ustad Siddiqi Ahmed Khan was a great and highly knowledgeable old-school sarangi player from Moradabad. He learnt from his father Rafiq Ahmed Khan and also from Amman Khan, Ghamit Khan, Ahmed Hussain Khan and Isharat Khan. His family had had close connections with the Rampur Sahaswan Gharana of vocal music. This showed in his deep leisurely vocal sarangi style. He was the father of Ghulam Sabir, grandfather and teacher of Murad Ali Khan, and teacher of innumerable sarangi players and vocalists.
My visits to his home in the Basti Khwaja, Mir Dard in the Minto Road area of Delhi were always exciting. It was a tiny house with a room on each of four floors, and there was always music being played on every floor. Pigeon keeping was their hobby, and a great collection of pigeons lived in a hut on the roof. Once I presented tham with a coveted "Saharanpuri Hara" pigeon.
I was especially taken by Siddiqi Ahmed's young grandchildren Feroz and Shiraz Ahmed Khan who were learning vocal music from him.
Our first offering is from a visit on 14 May, 1995. A leisurely exposition of rag Malgunji beginning with alap in the jor ang (like dhrupad) style, followed by khayal, accompanied by his grandson Aman Ali Khan on tabla:
Then thumri in Pilu:
Earlier in the session, Siddiqi Ahmed Khan had explained some family history to me:
The next two pieces come from a visit on 1 October, 1996, a year and a half later. Siddiqi Ahmed Khan started with rag Purvi:
This was followed by Pilu:
