He won the applause and admiration of all present there. At the age of 15, Jagjit shared the stage with Surinder Kaur and Asa Singh Mastana in his hometown where he presented a self-composed song, “Ki Tera Aitbaar”. The celebrated ustads put him through rigorous and strenuous riyaaz of classical ragas and compositions.Īs a prodigious youngster, he performed with his elder brother Jaswant Singh at a largely attended religious function in Sriganganagar and won prize money. The maverick maestro Jagjit Singh merits this distinction.Ĭoming from a modest Dhiman family of Sriganganagar in Rajasthan, Jagjit trained in classical vocal music for 12 years under Ustad Jamal Khan Saheb of Senia Gharana there, and later by Guru Sohan Singhji of Agra Gharana at Jalandhar during his college days. Very few performers are gifted and blessed to induce a scintillating reverie among their audiences. His success also paved the way for younger ghazal singers like Pankaj Udhas, Anup Jalota, Peenaz Masani and Chandan Das.THE intuitive seers of music opine that Hindustani classical and light classical music, in the truest sense, is the serene, sacred and sweet language of the immortal soul and, as such, any musical performance should invariably be in tune with celestial peace and tranquility. The singer's golden voice drew fans in droves. It was a big gamble for the record company but it paid off. Till then the singer had only managed a 33/13 RPM EP. Impressed by the huge fan following Mehdi Hassan and Ghulam Ali found in India, HMV had launched Singh as a potential Indian ghazal icon. He did this by bringing in western instruments like the guitar into ghazals, introducing instrumental interludes, experimenting with non-traditional rhythm patterns and simplifying the tunes to make them very melodic,” says singer Talat Aziz, who was mentored by Singh back in the late 1970s (he composed Aziz's first album). “He was a pioneer because he broadened the base for ghazal, took it to lay music lovers. You had to be a curmudgeon not to enjoy Meri zindagi kisi aur ki, Koi paas aayaa sawere-sawere or Badi haseen raat thi. This is not to say that it was lightweight or shallow but it could engage and befriend the listener. That, perhaps, was the secret of Jagjit Singh's huge popularity-his music was totally accessible. “I would say that Jagjit Singh's biggest contribution to ghazals was that it drew the masses to the style, masses who till then only patronised filmi ghazals,” says Rekha Surya, a disciple of Begum Akhtar.
It wasn't the classicist's cup of tea but it clicked.
The album came as a rare and refreshing experience because the compositions were catchy and contemporary, the singing was flawless and the ghazals themselves eminently hummable. Till then, Indian ghazal lovers had only two options-the filmi stuff which could be very good or mediocre and the unalloyed classical singing of the kind Begum Akhtar took to great heights. So popular was the ghazal that listeners and live audiences would join Singh in the refrain "ahista, ahista" with great gusto.
One of the ghazals by Amir Meenai went on to become something of an anthem: Sarakti jaye hai rukh se naqab. Each of those songs was marked by a rare freshness and lilt, his voice deep and golden, hers clear and sharp There were 10 ghazals in the album, sung by a couple called Jagjit and Chitra Singh. In 1976, when music debuts were not marked by noisy promos, an album of ghazals by the name of The Unforgettables quietly sailed into the LP racks of music shops.