Kerala - Thrissur   

`Maintain purity of gharanas'

By K. Santhosh

Ustad Fayyaz Khan

THRISSUR, DEC. 29. The veteran tabla-player Ustad Fayyaz Khan has called upon young percussionists to maintain the purity of gharanas (styles).

Mr. Khan, a contemporary of Ustad Allah Rakha and Kishen Maharaj, told The Hindu that today's tabla players attempted a combination of different gharanas and this augured badly for Hindustani percussion art.

``The ensuing homogeneity will affect the quality of music. The greatness of Hindustani music has been its diversity. We have had great performers playing the same instrument in their own styles. Take the case of Ustad Allah Rakha, Ahmed Jan Tirakwa and Kishen Maharaj,'' Mr. Fayyaz Khan said.

Mr. Fayyaz Khan was initiated into music by Ustad Nazir Khan, a practitioner of the Delhi style, and later trained under Ustad Inam Ali Khan and Ustad Hidayat Khan.

A former staff artiste of All India Radio, Mr. Fayyaz Khan has accompanied almost all the great artistes of Hindustani music, including Ustad Amir Khan, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Mallikarjun Mansur, Omkarnath Thakur, Amjad Ali Khan, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shivkumar Sharma. Mr. Fayyaz Khan is a visiting professor at Washington University in the U.S. and the World Music School in Holland.

Mr. Fayyaz Khan's favourites among the younger generation of musicians are Ustad Shahid Parvez and Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee (sitar), Ustad Rashid Khan and Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar (vocal) and Rakesh Chaurasia (flute). ``Among tabla-players, I like (Ustad) Zakir (Hussein). Most of the new players tend to imitate Zakir,'' Mr. Fayyaz Khan said.

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