Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan was born in 1927 in Jaora (35 km away fromRatlam, Madhya Pradesh) as the son of Jaffer Khan, a versatile vocalist, sitarist andbeenkar. He belonged to the Beenkar Gharana of Indore and was an All India Radio artiste since the early 1940s.[3] A few years before theBeatles metRavi Shankar, in 1958, Khan collaborated with jazz pianist and composerDave Brubeck. Brubeck who was in Bombay through the U.S. State Department sponsored Jazz Ambassadors Program was impressed by the improvisation in Indian music and said that the experience accompanying Halim Jaffer Khan led him to play in a different way. Brubeck says of that meeting, "We understood each other." Khan also performed with the noted English classical guitaristJulian Bream in 1963.[4]
Khan is known for his own styleJafferkhani Baaj.[5] He describes it as, "a synthesis of precision in technique, systematic thought"[6] with a vigorous playing style. Cultural anthropologist and reader at the University of Mumbai, Dr. Kamala Ganesh states: "His music making is full of eclectic yet deeply informed choices. He is a thinking musician but puts across his complex views with a simplicity and feeling which demarcate the articulate performer from the articulate theoretician.... In him, one gets an unmistakable sense... a syncretic tradition".[7] The Indian santoor playerShivkumar Sharma remembers of Khan's performance of the raga Chhayanat: "It was probably in 1955–56, I was relaxing in my terrace in Jammu. In the stillness of the night I heard the notes of Raga Chhayanat on the sitar emanate from my neighbor's radio. I immediately noticed that the tone of the sitar was completely different and the style of playing radically unique. I rushed to switch on my radio.... I was totally engrossed and was very curious to know who this maestro was."[6]
Khan has been credited with bringing Carnatic ragas Kirwani, Kanakangi, Latangi, Karaharapriya, Manavati, Ganamurti, and others into the sitar repertoire, rendering them through a Hindustani sensibility and in the Jafferkhani style. He was the first Hindustani musician to collaborate with Carnatic music in a performance with renowned Veena playerEmani Sankara Sastry[citation needed].
Khan was also involved with Indian cinema. Music DirectorKhwaja Khurshid Anwar introduced him to the Hindi film industry in 1946 at the age of 17 when he played sitar in the songs of filmParwana. He also composed and played for films likeMughal-e-Azam,[8][9]Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1971),Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959),Kohinoor (1960) and collaborated with noted music directors such asVasant Desai,C. Ramachandra,Madan Mohan andNaushad who has said, "he not only enriched film music, but his participation lent prestige to my songs."[10][11] Music critic for the Times of India, Amarendra Dhaneshwar described Khan's playing as, "Sitar virtuosity at its peak."[12]
In 1976, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan established Halim Academy of Sitar, India's first sitar academy in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, with Chief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan as its inaugural Chief Guest[13]
Sitarist Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan at the Halim Academy of Sitar with Chief guest, Sarodist Amjad Ali Khan, and Chair of Dr. Sushilarani-Baburao Patel Trust, Neela Shinde
^Dhaneshwar, Amarendra Reporter. "Sitar Virtuosity at Its Peak: Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan is one of the greatest sitar maestros of the country." Times of India, Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited, February 17, 2004.
^Staff Reporter. "Country's First Sitar Academy: Opening in City." Times of India, Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited, October 21, 1976.
