There are many celebrities and artists in every country, but only a handful who are true trend setters. Asad Amanat Ali Khan was one of these true blue trend setters. On April 8, 2007, Asad passed away while in London, seeking treatment for a heart condition. Just a couple of weeks before his death, Asad was granted one of the highest civilian merits, a Pride of Performance Award, by the President of Pakistan. As journalistic regrets go, not having interviewed Asad ever would be a big one for us. Here, we are taking the opportunity to highlight his musical accomplishments, so that we can make this legendary singer a part of our magazine and, through it, your memory as well.
Asad was born in the famous Patiala Gharana (family) which boasts generations of classical singers starting with the founder Ali Buksh Khan and moving on to his son Akhter Hussain, and then his sons Amanat Ali Khan (Asad’s father), Fateh Ali Khan, and Hamid Ali Khan.
The Patiala family popularized classical music starting with Amanat Ali Khan, who not only sang classical but also semi-classical in the form of ghazals. He quickly made a place for himself with a much larger audience than traditionally follows such specialized branches of music.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Asad took the popularization to a new level. He sang Punjabi folk poetry in a classical style, appealing to the large Punjabi speaking audience. He also sang Urdu ghazals with such concentration and emphasis on the vocals that you hardly saw him open his eyes and look at the audience when he was singing. A good looking man, he also dabbled in films where he didn’t find a lot of success, except as a singer. He sang many songs for movie soundtracks and gained further mass popularity; again, very unusual for a classical singer. In fact, he was among those early few artists whose talent was spotted from across the border and he got the opportunity to perform for Indian audiences as well.
Asad was paired, in the tradition of the family, with one of his uncles, Hamid Ali Khan, while singing. Hamid Ali Khan’s heavy classical style was a nice contrast to Asad who really sang outside the box, shattering the stylistic intonations of traditional classical singers and bringing out vocal variations that were not just interesting but thoroughly pleasing and thrilling for all types of music lovers. Hamid Ali Khan was an excellent companion to Asad as he let him shine in his own style instead of influencing him or dragging him back to the traditional ways.
Asad and Hamid both performed at many private musical evenings, public concerts, and TV shows. Unfortunately, the period in which they peaked was not a media-heavy one in Pakistan. With just one channel for a majority of their years, i.e. PTV, and no mass commercialization of handheld videocams and all, there are very few recordings of some of Asad’s best performances, which took place in private gatherings. His PTV shows, only a couple of which are accessible via the Internet, and his recorded albums which one can buy online, are mere indications of his true talent. Still, listening to any one of his songs, whether Punjabi folk, Urdu ghazals, or some of the classical thumris he sang with Hamid Ali Khan, will bring home the reality of this man’s talent.
Asad was a giant in Pakistani music and much like Nazia and Zoheb Hasan can be said to have changed the face of pop music forever, we can totally attribute the popularization of classical music to Asad Amanat Ali Khan. He took what his father started and made it larger than life for Pakistani music listeners, making himself and his family unforgettable.
Asad’s younger brother, Shafqat Amanat Ali is still among us and creating more waves, first as a vocalist with Fuzon and now as a solo artist. His voice and style are very reminiscent of Asad’s and we hope that more talent from this family will continue to emerge and grow.
Asad Amanat Ali Khan was a great artist and he will be greatly missed! We pray that his soul finds eternal peace and that his family finds the strength to bear with this irreparable loss. Amen.
Credit: Saturday Post