New Delhi: For sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan`s promising sons Amaan and Ayaan, donning the writer`s robes is not new but authoring a tribute-cum-musical journey of 50 of India`s greatest musicians ever is something the siblings really enjoyed and were left ecstatic.
Amaan and Ayaan just released "50 Maestros, 50 Performances," a chronicle of 50 best performances by legendary classical musicians. Published by HarperCollins, the anthology is filled with personal anecdotes and musical appraisals, and accompanied by a CD selection of some of the finest recorded performances.
It is also interspersed with some rare photographs from the Khan siblings` personal collection as well as descriptions and details of every recording they have discussed.
"This book is not only about musicians, it is about institutions. These 50 musicians are institutions. They are the ones who have shaped us to be the musicians that we are today," says 32-year-old Amaan.
"We have grown up surrounded by legendary musicians and their inspirational music. What is played nowadays by the young generation is only inspirational," Amaan told reporters.
His 30-year-old brother Ayaan joins him in saying, "The music we both play is not our own. It`s our father`s."
In their tribute to the masters of Indian classical music, the brothers take the readers through their encounters with musicians from Begum Akhtar to Bhimsen Joshi, Enayat Khan to Ravi Shankar, Bismillah Khan to Shiv Kumar Sharma and Semmangudi Iyer to MS Subbulakshmi.
Attending concerts helped them a lot in compiling the book. They had written a biography of their father, "Abba: God`s Greatest Gift to Us" in 2002.
"We got the opportunity to interact with the greats of Indian music during these concerts and we tried to put our experiences in the book in the best way we could.
"Our father`s knowledge of the artistes` also helped us a lot," says Amaan.
According to them, the experience of writing the book has been ecstatic as they had the opportunity to relive the sheer magic of their music.
The Khan brothers, who represent the seventh generation of the Senia Bangash school of music, say it isn`t easy to shortlist the works of only 50 artistes in Indian music.
Ayaan Ali says, "However, there were a few who were the pillars of their time and who have today become responsible for shaping the very existence of Indian classical music." They say the whole idea of the book was of the publishers.
"After HarperCollins came to us with the proposal, we were excited. And to be honest, we were able to do justice with the project due to our unsuccessful Bollywood venture," says Amaan, adding his brother Ayaan put in more effort in seeing the book getting published.
The brothers were supposed to act in a JP Dutta film and according to the contract could not perform in concerts for a year. But the project failed.
According to the siblings, they tried to present Indian classical music as one entity and not as Carnatic and Hindustani.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, December 23, 2009, 14:10
