„A Tribute to Ali Akbar Khan“- IM OnAir’s radio show in December 2015 honours one of the Legends on the Sarod, the Johann Sebastian Bach of North Indian Classics or simply Khansahib as Ali Akbar Khan was called in India affectionately.
Ali Akbar Khan died in the morning on 18th of June 2009 at the age of 87, within his family circle at home in San Anselmo, California. Since 2004 Ali Akbar Khan was dialysis patient. In 2006 last time he visited India for a performance at the Dover Lane Music Festival (Music Conference) in Kolkata…
Tribute (extract) by Ustad Zakir Hussain (Tabla Maestro) on the burial day (June, 21st -Mt. Tamalpais Cemetary (2500 5th Ave, San Rafael, CA 94901))
(Source: Kamla Bhatt @ Youtube, 26th June 2009)
Beside annual world concert tours and as film composer he worked for more than four (4) decades particularly as an outstanding music teacher – in the Ali Akbar College of Music (AACM) which was founded by him.
dates of broadcasting…
13th December 2015 – 05:00 pm EST (11:00 pm CET) @ Radio FRO (A)
(premiere: 20th July 2009 – 10:00 pm METZ @ Tide Radio)
broadcasting plan | streaming (Internet Radio & Mobile Radio) | podCast
Khansahib was an exception at the firmament of Indian music. He understood music as an universal language. Music as food of the soul, a musical sound affecting everybody’s heart and spirit.
For Ali Akbar Khan the Indian Ragas are of timeless eternity, into which the life is embedded with its short moments. In an interview with Gautam Chatterjee of the Indian daily news paper The Hindu, in the issue on 17 February 2006 Khansahib describes as following:
„The bliss, the joy of Ragas one experiences if one dies for it. Death is the condition for this blessedness. For a Raga we live, and we die for it. That is the whole secret, which it concerns in the teacher pupil relationship, Guru Shishya Parampara.
The musical, the emotional effect of a Ragas develops from the understanding for the temporal interspace – between the notes. On a note for one moment to remain, it is as if one would inhale deeply, in order to understand that the pause between the next two notes is to be considered as the time for breathing in and out. To walk from one note to the next is difficult enough, to arrange it with a disruption is almost impossible. One may succeed only by indulging oneself in this task a whole lifelong.“
How about the invaluable legacy of Ali Akbar Khan? – Khansahib leaves seven sons and 4 daughters form three marriages. His oldest son Aaashish Khan is a renowned Sarod player, two further sons, Alam and Malik play also the instrument of their father. The family Khan feel constrained resuming the Ali Akbar College for Music (AACM) and the Ali Akbar Khan Library.
Ali Akbar Khan leaves us an immeasurable fund of audio documents. Since 2007 with conveyances more than 1000 concerts with 1500 hours play time and approx. 6000 documented lessons are reformatted for the structure of a digital library. Until today approx. 2000 hours audio material are archived.
IMC OnAir delivers to you smoothing your ears some beautiful tunes: the ragas Chandranandan, Darbari Kanra, Gauri Manjari, Medhavi, Manj Khammaj, Sindhi Bhairavi and Jogiya Kalengra.