Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan was a Pakistani singer who specialized in singing the Khayal style of classical music. The singer was from Patiala Gharana. He was the younger brother of Ustad Amanat Ali Khan and sang with him. The duo of Ustad Amanat Ali Khan and Bade Fateh Ali Khan were at the peak of their career in the 1950s and 1960s and enjoyed immense popularity. In 1969, Fateh Ali, along with his brother Amanat Ali Khan, received Pakistan’s highest national literary award, the Pride of Performance Award, from the President of Pakistan.
Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan was born in 1935 (age 82 years; at death) in Sham Chaurasi, Hoshiarpur, Punjab, British India (now in Punjab, India). After the partition of 1947, at the age of 12, he moved to Pakistan with his family. He learned music under the tutelage of his father, Ustad Akhtar Hussain Khan, who was also a renowned singer under the patronage of the Maharaja of Patiala. He followed the legacy of Patiala Gharana, singing classical Hindustani music. He started performing at the age of 9 with his brother Ustad Amanat Ali Khan in the court of the Maharaja of Patiala.
Ustad Fateh Ali Khan in his youth
Contents
Family
Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan belonged to a Punjabi-Muslim family. He was the sixth generation of the Patiala Gharana.
parents and siblings
The elder Fateh Ali Khan’s father, Ustad Akhtar Hussain Khan, was an accomplished singer under the patronage of the Maharaja of Patiala.
Ustad Akhtar Hussain Khan, father of Fateh Ali
His brothers Ustad Amanat Ali Khan and Hamid Ali Khan achieved considerable fame in the same field.
wife and children
The elder Fateh Ali Khan has four children, two sons, Sultan Fateh Ali Khan and Rustam Fateh Ali Khan, who have kept alive the legacy of the Patiala Gharana tradition of music, and two daughters.
other relatives
His great grandfather Mian Kallu Khan had founded the Patiala Gharana in the 19th century. Mian Kallu Khan learned classical music under the tutelage of Mir Qutb Bakhsh Tanroos Khan, who was a musician in the court of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. Later, his grandfather Jarnail Ali Baksh Khan also adopted the same profession and started singing in the court of the Maharaja of Patiala with ‘Colonel’ Fateh Ali Khan.
Jarnail Ali Baksh Khan (left) and ‘Colonel’ Fateh Ali Khan (right)
livelihood
Following the legacy of Patiala Gharana, Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan started singing classical Hindustani at the young age of 9. He got inspiration from his elders and learned music. He was trained by his father Akhtar Hussain Khan and his elder brother Ustad Amanat Ali Khan. He was in his teens when he started singing in the court of Maharaja Yadvinder Singh of Patiala along with his elder brother. The pair of Amanat Ali Khan and Fateh Ali Khan enjoyed immense popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. This was the peak of his success. The pair made their first public appearance in 1945 at a concert sponsored by Pandit Jeevanlal Matu, an influential music expert. In 1949, he performed at the All Bengal Music Conference in Kolkata, which made him very popular and successful. Subsequently, both of them toured South Asia extensively as representatives of the Patiala Gharana.
Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan (left) and Ustad Amanat Ali Khan (right), singing for Radio Pakistan
Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan specialized in classical and semi-classical musical styles like Khayal, Thumri, Ghazal and Dadra. He was also trained in the medieval style Dhrupad. He was proficient in ragas, while his brother Amanat Ali had a good command over sur. The duo had divided their singing specialties such that Amanat Ali Khan sang in the upper voice, and Fateh Ali Khan sang in the lower voice, as per their expertise. The thumri ‘Kab Aao Ge’ sung by the pair is considered an all-time classic. In 1992, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, in collaboration with Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, released a CD titled ‘Ragas and Sagas’, which was appreciated by the listeners.
Cover of the CD album ‘Ragas and Sagas’ (1992)
Some of the most notable albums of Fateh Ali Khan are “Gharanon Ki Gayaki Vol.-18″ (1978), “Raag Ke Ustad, Vol. 2″ (1998), “Raag Ke Ustad, Vol. 3″ (1998), “Bandish – Classical Compositions Re-Interpreted (Feature. Orchestra of Great Musicians of Lahore)” (2013), and “From Raag to Ghazal” (1978).
Poster of the album ‘Bandish’ (2013)
Notable Disciple
Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan taught students from all over the world. Popular Afghan singer Ahmed Wali has been his disciple. Wali was so talented that the maestro named him Ahmed Wali Fateh Ali Khan after himself. Dia was one of his favorite students, who later became an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. She is from Norway and is half Afghan and half Pakistani. Moreover, Haider Rizvi Alhussaini, a famous Nohakhawan, was also his student.
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan was honored with the Pride of Performance Award by the President of Pakistan in 1969 along with his elder brother Ustad Amanat Ali Khan.
- He was also a recipient of the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz award, a state-organized honor of Pakistan. This is the fourth category in the series of Imtiaz Awards.
Death
On 4 January 2017, Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan died in Islamabad at the age of 82. He was suffering from lung disease since 2016 and was admitted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for 10 days. He was buried in the Mominpura cemetery in Lahore, Pakistan. Following his death, the Arts Council of Pakistan organized a tribute program in honor and memory of the iconic singer on 2 March 2017.
Favorite
- Poet: Allama Iqbal, Munir Niazi, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Faraz
- Ragas: Kamod, Megh, Malkauns, Jaunpuri and Adana.
Facts/General Knowledge
- The elder Fateh Ali Khan was named after ‘Colonel’ Fateh Ali Khan, a companion and friend of his grandfather Ustad Ali Bakhsh Jarnail Khan.
- After the sudden demise of Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, Fateh Ali Khan became so heartbroken that he was overcome with depression and stopped singing. He started singing again after 2 years and joined Hamid Ali Khan and Asad Amanat Ali Khan.
- He had great respect and love for his elder brother and singing partner Ustad Amanat Ali Khan. In an interview, when he was asked about the happiest moments of his life, he replied with tearful eyes,
When I used to sing with my brother Amanat Ali Khan!”
- After the death of Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan, he was buried in the same cemetery where his elder brother Ustad Amanat Ali Khan and his nephew Asad Amanat Ali Khan were buried.
- The ancestral house of Ustad Fateh Ali Khan has been converted into a music school.
- Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan was greatly inspired by the singing style of Ustad Ashiq Khan, who was the son of ‘Colonel’ Fateh Ali Khan, a friend and singing partner of his grandfather Jarnail Ali Baksh Khan. He used to call Ustad Ashiq Khan as “Taya”.
Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan
- Ram Sakh, a prominent raga of Patiala Gharana, was a favorite of the duo Amanat Ali and Fateh Ali Khan.
- In an interview, Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan told that in 2001, French diplomats had arranged for his private performance for King Zaheer Shah in Kabul. At that time Kabul was liberated from the Taliban, but the war was still going on. Hearing the loud thunder, Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan became worried and informed the king about his uneasiness, to which the king replied,
Aap Darbari Gaiya, bomb to girte rehte hain” (You start singing Raga Darbari, bombs explode all around here).
- Eminent music expert Dawood Rahbar called him the contemporary ‘Taan Kapta’ (Dean of Tanas).
- In their first performance at the Calcutta Music Conference, the Amanat Ali-Fateh Ali duo performed the raga Puriya Dhanashree, and the theme was “Sultan e Alam Nizamuddin Auliya”.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn