Some recollections

Mushtaq Ali Khan: I had a chance to listen to his recording broadcast in AIR Delhi. I was completley moved by some of his eloquent phrases in Bageshwari that night. He moved you with very simple phrases which others could hardly do even with elaborate preparation and ground work and technique. I think only that recording is available with AIR. I had another person mentioning that recording of Bageshwari and he also told me the impact created by his simple statements. I later learnt that he is the Guru of Debu Chadhury who is very a well known sitar player. Debu is also a very good Guru and had trained a number of students in Delhi.

Wahid Khan: I have heard his National Programme on AIR. He had a very interesting method of progression which may appear to untrained ears as calculated permutations and combinations. However he had deep understanding of the moods of the ragas he had experienced and never was over emotional and he let the note combinations do its bit on the listeners. I was told that Amir Khan saheb was so impressed with his music, he modelled his gayaki on the basis of the style of Wahid Khan saheb. Interestingly both Wahid Khan and Abdul Karim Khan saheb were from Kirana gharana. HMV has released one recording of this master which unfortunately does not represent his greatness.

Abdul Sulaiman Khan: Initially I did not respond to Kumar Gandharva's music which I felt was too out of focus. Later I realised that he simply did not care too much for grammar. I started enjoying his ragas based on Malwa folk music and found it very refreshing. Later I became his fan. I distinctly remember one of his national programmes. He was accompanied by a tabalchi named Abdul Sulaiman Khan from Indore. It was a recital to remember and cherish. Normally Kumar is accompanied by Vasant Achrekar on the tabala. I did not know anything about the Abdul Sulaiman Khan. He played vey well and I felt sad that I did not know anyhting about this tabalchi.

As luck would have it, when I was auditing at a place called Chalisgoan I was sitting inside my room at about 7 pm., when I heard a rhythm being played on a tabla in the hall. I was surprised that the sound was very good and I could comprehend it to be tabla bols. Then I rushed out and found a person called Shaligram (who had come to assist us in processing and taking print-outs of the general ledger and books of accounts) was playing the bols on the tabla. I was fascinated and asked him where he had learnt to play the tabla. He was surprised about my interest in tabla and told me he had learnt from one of the great masters named Dulji Khan who had specialised in playing a bol 'Dhir Dhir Kidathaka'. Unfortunately people outside Indore do not know about this master. His son was Abdul Sulaiman Khan. Then I felt good that I managed to know something about the tabalchi who had accompanied Kumar the other day.