My memories of Aftab-E-Sitar Ustad Vilayat Khan (player may think time tonight) - By Enayet Hossain




Ustad Vilayat Khan with Enayet Hossain on stage.

I have been following this newsgroup and the threads on Ustad Vilayat Khan for some time now...and thought I would share my experiences with him for those of you who truly loved the master...This is my personal experience with him, so please guys, take it with a grain of
salt...you can say this is biased...but isnt every perception we have as human beings a bit biased?

I came to this the U.S. when I was only 4 years old...My father is a well known music teacher based in he East Coast, Hamid Hossain...My grandfather was a musician in West Bengal, Ustad Kader Buksh...So, I started my learning of the tabla at 6 years...Well, needless to say, I was not very interested in music, especially Indian Classical music...But I was forced to play, it being a family tradition...What changed me was when my dad gave me a recording of Vilayat Khan Sahab at the age of 9...It was the YAMAN recording on the EMI label, which I
think was published in the 70s...I was totally in love with the recording and played it over and over for the next 20 years of my life...Even at that point I remember the only dream I had was to accompany Khan Sahib...To make a long story short, I eventually met him in the 1987 from which time him and his family became our close friend...My dad had played with him in several concerts in the East Coast...Two years later, he gave me a chance to accompany him in a concert in Washington D.C...Being an average tabla player and only 17
at that time, it is needless to say how overwhelmed I was and how scared I was...I still remember practicing in the green room playing the teental theka when (ABBA) looked at me and said to play an uthan as my first piece...I was so terrified that I couldnt remember
anything at all...at which he put his sitar down and looked into my eyes and said Beta, tonight on stage, think of yourself an equal to me...that is what I want you to do...and he also added humourously, dont keep thinking that once we are off the stage...His encouraging words made me feel so empowered, that the performance went through without a hitch...and ever since that no matter where and how I played with him he always made me feel an equal...he always encouraged me to play or try kaidas, gats, uthans that he felt would do the music justice...

I have such wonderfull memories of the man...He was very moody...and I remember when I was preparing for a concert in 1998, being in college with the usual exams and things, he would demand that I go and practice with him once a week...This was soo hard for me, being that I lived in Baltimore and he lived in princeton...Khan Sahab would expect me to be there by 8:00am on a weekday...so I had to leave at 5:00am from my house...Many a times I would go there and he would not practice with me...and the times I couldnt come because of exams, he would scold me that I wasnt taking music seriously...Only a few months
ago before he left for India, he had told me that I would regret not taking advantage of him being here...and to say I regret it is a gross understatement...To his personal friends he was without any walls...and we all had access to him at anytime of the day or night...we could simply walk into his house and talk about anything...he would always feed us, talk to us and comfort us...even with his moods and often unreasonable requests, Abba was a loving
person...

Everyone has their opinions of whom they think is the most virtuous, great, accomplished sitar player...You are all entitled to your opinions...But to me he was the very icon of indian music and he left forth a legacy that will ensure the future generations of lovers of Indian Music will not forget him and his accomplishments...He was my idol and a person that was soo close to my heart...Khan sahab could talk on and on about indian music, cars, politics, the world in general...but even as he talked about his various other hobbies and likes...I could always see him counting out matras on his right hand...he was always thinking and breathing music and may God bless his soul and forgive all his sins...He was a "one of a kind" and I feel very very very fortunate to have known him in such a personal way...please pray for his soul to rest in peace..

humbly yours,
enayet

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This Article is written by US based accomplished tabla player Enayet Hossain.







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