The man who played sarangi with soul dies at 88

An entire epoch is intertwined with the music of sarangi maestro Ustad Sabri Khan who passed away Monday night in Delhi at the age of 88. He had played the Vande Mataram that rang through the Parliament a minute past midnight as India ushered in Independence in 1947. He was a part of the first ever orchestra set up at the All India Radio. And the musician who was brought to Nehru's sickbed in his last days in an effort to soothe him with melody.
The ustad, who belonged to the Sainia Moradabad gharana, is credited by music historians for giving the sarangi a fresh lease of life. He had been among its first solo players, pulling it from a long, dark phase of ignominy when it was considered a "lowly" instrument that was an integral part of the courtesan culture. As an accompanist, he had played for practically every big vocalist of his time - Ustad Amir Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Begum Akhtar, Pandit Omkarnath Thakur among others. With 50 years of work at the AIR behind him, he was one of the most versatile sarangi players of his time who could play for every genre ranging from khayal to ghazal.
"The greatest thing about my father was that he defined the roots of the word sarangi - sau rangi, the instrument of a hundred colours. He could play any kind of music and bring a brilliant colour to it," says son Kamal Sabri, a well-known sarangi player himself.
Sabri Khan's collaboration with the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin had opened the doors for sarangi's huge popularity in the West. Even today, the instrument has many students in the west. Kamal estimates that between western universities and India, the ustad left behind at least 300 students.
In his own family, the legacy is being kept alive by son Kamal and grandson Suhail Yusuf Khan, who plays for a fusion rock band Advaita, but also remains firmly connected to Hindustani classical roots. The ustad remained optimistic about the many ways youngsters were rediscovering the instrument.
In an interview to this reporter four years ago, the unassuming ustad who had none of the airs of the musical stars of his era, had said he had no problems with musical experiments featuring the sarangi though he remained a purist to the end. "Ab sarangi ki poochch hai (it is in demand now). Everyone knows the sounds of the sitar and the flute - it is all over the place but the sarangi is played so rarely it immediately draws attention. And if you have classical taleem you can go ahead and experiment with it as you want," he had said.