“Kaun Kehta Hai Mohabbat ki zuban hoti hai / Yeh haqeeqat to nigahon se bayan hoti hai.” (- Who is it who can say that love can be conveyed through words / Its truth is mirrored in the eyes”).
Jagjit Singh sang this very popular ghazal many years ago with wife Chitra. For a man who is perceived as a musical legend, a blunt, outspoken enigma, you need to just look into his eyes and see the kindness, the simplicity and a childlike mischief mirrored in them.
Follow him around and you can also observe the thoughtfulness he extends to those he loves. He does random acts of kindness quietly, has a razor sharp memory and wit, and an incredible sense of humor. While he doesnt suffer fools gladly or mince words when something annoys him, those who know him well swear by Jagjit Singh’s generosity and purity of heart.
Deepak Pandit his extremely talented violinist says, ‘no one not even Lata Mageshkar looks after her musicians the way Jagjit uncle does. He insists our troupe stays with him in the same five star luxury, he takes care of our needs before his own”. When Pandit had lost both his parents in a short span of time the maestro and his wife who had lost their only son Vivek, barely a month short of his 19th birthday, in a tragic car accident around the same time, put their sorrows aside to nurture Deepak instead. When told that he had not sung two personal favorites in Atlanta, and would he please sing them now in Cleveland if there was time, he started the second half thoughtfully singing those two ghazals first.
The immensely talented, undisputed king of ghazals for close to 3 decades, Jagjit Singh took the time to complete an exclusive interview that began in Atlanta, and spanned Vancouver, Edmonton, Cleveland, Florida and finally concluded in New York. With his inimitable candor Jagjit Singh speaks of the struggles, the tragic death of his son, his music and what has made his rendition of ghazal gayaki so popular through generations.
The late Vilayat Khan sahib said his earliest memories of music were falling asleep during his father’s recital and waking up to see the color yellow around him. He was then told by his father it was the color of Rag Basant What are the earliest memories you have of music and your childhood?
I wasn’t lucky enough to be born in a musical family, where music was an intrinsic part of life and children grew up surrounded by musicians and music in their blood. My father was a government servant and we were posted in villages and small towns. In small villages in Punjab and Rajasthan, you slept on the roof during hot summer months. I was about 5-6 years old and had listened to a song by Lata Mangeshkar, which had been very popular and was singing that song in my sleep. My father heard me sing and felt I had musical talent and it should be nurtured.
My parents were the typical hard working middle class people. We were a large family of seven surviving siblings though my mother gave birth to 11, and it was really a hand to mouth existence. We didn’t even have a transistor in the house and would listen to songs and news of the Second World War while going past shops or homes of other people. I think growing up in a village makes you retain your innocence for a longer period of time. You also have to be extremely careful about how you present yourself before your elders, because everyone knows each other and news spreads if you cross the lines of etiquette.
I studied in a village school sitting on the floor and we wrote on slates called takhtis. We would study at nights with lamps, because there was no electricity. But religion was a very important part of the school curriculum. We started with the morning prayer, then yoga and then studied the life of many saints, like Surdas, Kabir and Meerabai, and I think that heritage stands you in good stead when you grow up and face life. Character formation cannot to be pinpointed to one thing. It depends on so many things, your upbringing, the values your parents teach you, the company you keep and your own life’s journey. I think in spite of a hand to mouth existence, I had a very rich childhood. These days the world revolves around computers and calculators; somewhere the spirit of our heritage is being eroded.
So did your father feel comfortable about you pursuing a musical career?
Not at all. While he appreciated my musical talent, he had no lofty expectations that I was going to be a great musical success He nurtured my musical talent but he always wanted me to study for the Indian Administrative Service exams, become a government servant and pursue music as a hobby and as something to enhance my life. I started my music training around the age of 10-11 with the local village teacher, a blind musician Pandit Chaganlal Sharma who taught me the basics and then from Ustad Jamal Khan sahib from whom I learnt at an advanced stage.
My first public success came when I was in 9th class and there was a poets’ gathering where accomplished poets used to recite poems based on religious or national themes. I was invited to sing as a local artist and sang a geet for which I composed music. It was a big success and I was showered with applause and money.
It made me realize that I must pursue music seriously. I also loved to see films, especially the ones that had high quality music, and since my father didn’t approve of films, we couldn’t ask for money, so we would either bribe the ticket collector or take discarded tickets that matched and stuck them together to make a whole and then hurriedly push through during the most crowded times! I didn’t want to waste my time on studies and sitting for the civil services exams, but wanted to pursue a musical career in Bombay at the earliest.
But you did go to college?
Yes and barely scraped through, and I always joke that these days I have a lot friends who show up every where at my concert and claim they went to school with me. The number is so immense because I spent two years in each class. In college days I was an acclaimed singer. During summer months, we used to enroll with the Punjab police for 2 months and win music trophies for them with with my team of musician friends and made money singing at private parties. My friends and I cheated our way through the exams. We would sit near each other and pass the answers around. During one exam the invigilator came to us and told us to get up. We were very scared when he escorted us out. But he just took us to another room and said-“do it here in peace, others complain when you do it there’. I just realized I was wasting my time and decided to just leave college a month before my final exams and head for Bombay. I arrived there in 1965.
How did Bombay treat you?
I didn’t know too many people, but the three four friends I knew gave me great moral support. Bombay was very different in those days. It was not as crowded. Today you get into a bus or a train and you can only get out if you are a big burly person, or unless the ocean of people sweeps you out with them whether you have reached your destination or not!
I met some really nice people who gave me a lot of moral support. There was Mr. Berry who owned a restaurant and introduced me to a lot of film people. I used to live in a hostel called Sher-e-Panjab. Each room had an iron cot in each corner so there were four people in one room. It had bed bugs and rats. One morning I woke up to find the dead skin from my feet has been nibbled away by the rats. But I could yell out from the window to the nearby restaurant and had my morning tea delivered – a novel form of room service! I ended up being a party singer. I was invited by well known film personalities Balraj Sahni, Raj kapoor, Rajinder Kumar, the Rawals and was a big hit but most of the songs went to the clique of four male singers – Manna Dey, (Mohammed) Rafi, Mukesh and Talat Mehmood. I know I could have sung those songs as well if not better than some of the singers but no one wanted to give a newcomer a chance. I composed jingles in the meantime to earn a living, but my recording career was slow. I also did stage shows, sang at mehfils and parties and survived until the early 1970s.
Then came “The Unforgettables” in 1976 and you have never looked back since then.
Yes, HMV asked me to do an LP and that itself meant I finally had made it. The album was rather a novel experiment even then and ahead of its time. I had broken away from traditional ghazal singing which went on for a minimum of 30 minutes in classical style. I don’t believe in tradition and anything that remains static. I believe traditions are made not born. Anything that has become obsolete must be discarded and replaced with some thing new and novel. I simplified the ghazal, both in rendition and melody with out taking away from its beauty and richness. I also limited the time of rendition to 6-7 minutes and used modern instruments, using double bass, guitar, piano, as well as sarangi and sitar, and while it sounded like a film song, it still had the richness and beauty of the ghazal. The album cover was also very well done. Unforgettable was very well received and to this day remains one of the most popular albums. I also realized that the vast majority prefers simpler ghazals and the ones that can be sung on stage.
Beyond Time was another album that was outstanding. What many people don’t know about you is that you are the only artist who composes, arranges and records his own music apart from singing it. You also did an amazing job with “Mirza Ghalib”. Gulzar said “ Mirza Ghalib is Jagjit Beyond Jagjit. No other composer could have achieved what he did.”
Beyond Time was was the first purely digital cd album to bear the DDD label in India. It meant it had been recorded, mixed and mastered digitally. I retreated to a residential studio in London with my musicians and it is to this day still used as a reference when sound engineers balance the sound for a concert of Indian music.
Mirza Ghalib was a big challenge because firstly it was serial that Gulzar was making and he wanted to show Mirza Ghalib in a unique light. Ghalib’s poetry was simple but full of emotion and pain. He lost all his children to death, and that pain made him a philosophic poet. I wanted to bring that out. Also so many top notch singers had already sung Ghalib – Talat Mehmood, Lata ji, Begum Akhtar. I composed music for Mirza Ghalib by immersing myself in his poetry and becoming Mirza Ghalib. His poetry provided the canvas and I painted in the musical and vocal strokes. I also made sure that the music doesn’t superimpose the poetry. Too many times musicians fall into the trap of showcasing their own virtuosity and suffocating the lyrics. I didn’t want to do that. Ghalib was a poet and not a singer – the music had to be kept simple. I even introduced the rabab to capture the essence, the scent of those times. Gulzar had to add a scene showing a rabab player just for that.
“Sajda” with Lata Mageshkar has turned out to be another feather in your cap. I heard she was in bad health, barely did non film albums and was hesitant to do a ghazal album after so many years. You had lost your son around the time. But when “Sajda” was completed, evidently Lata Mangeshkar said that there could not ever be a sequel to it – it’s that perfect.
Sajda was indeed a dream come true and remains a big favorite. I had hoped to compose for Lata bai for a long time. To work with a living legend, the voice of the century, meant coming up with lyrics and music that would do justice to her voice, and that itself was an incredible challenge. She was having health problems, but I have always felt that no matter what you are going through, once you decide to do something you have to give it your best, especially when you are making an album.
It was written in a chat interview that you said you would never sing with Asha Bhonsle.
I never said that, but frankly after singing with Lata bai, what or who else is left to sing with. Even if the opportunity arose to make an album with Asha bai, I would have to think about it. There is nothing beyond Lata bai.
You have collaborated with Gulzar, Javed Akhtar and even Atal Bihar Vajpayee, on albums. How was it working with them?
The unique thing about Gulzar is that each time we collaborate he comes up with something fresh, something new. Javed Akhtar is a routine poet. The poems of Atal Bihari Vajpayee that I selected to sing in “Samvedna” were written decades ago when he was still inspired by the legacy of our political forefathers. They were made from a different mould altogether. He still had that idealism, that sensitivity, that vulnerability and appreciation of human emotions and was really at par with any poet of reckoning. His soul was untouched by the darker side of today’s politics. I am not saying he doesn’t have them now, but he is no longer untouched or unpolluted by the kind of politics we see today. You end up trying to please everyone and end up losing yourself in that muddle. I would never select any of his poems if he was to write something today.
When you are surrounded by corruption, where can you find that integrity within you? I have always felt that not just ghazal but all of music and what we convey through it should have a meaning, a message for future generations. The poets of yesteryears wrote about life, the socio-political problems, the communal problem, human emotions, life’s experiences. The music was soulful, and to this day those lyrics and music are revered. Whether we accept it or not, every musician must either through his music or his earnings make a contribution to society.
What is the reason for the amazing success of your music? One thing that does stand out is the fact that its arrival coincided with the era of “the angry young man” Amitabh Bachchan, and for the next two decades all we saw was violence, cabarets and inane films. Except for parallel cinema and people like Yash Chopra not many film directors were going in for quality music. Even though Silsila was a Bachchan film, Yashji had the music composed by Shivkumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia.
There were people like Basu Bhattacharya, Mahesh Bhatt and Shatrughan Sinha’s company that offered me films for composing music and I have sung for Aavishkar, Arth, Saath Saath, but I had been branded as a ghazal singer by then and hence I ended up getting offers to sing in art or parallel cinema as it was known rather than commercial films.
As for Yash Chopra, he doesn’t care if its Amitabh Bachchan – he does not tolerate anything but high quality music in his films.
How has music changed over the years?
I think the standard of music has definitely changed. When I started out, every music director in the film industry was highly qualified and trained in music. The lyrics were written by poets of great literary stature. Today if songs like Ati Kya Khandala become hits why would any one bother to create music of substance? Today the media exposure and hype creates overnight stars who think they can get away with anything. The desire to work hard and perfect one’s craft is missing, but what they don’t realize is that after the initial hype ultimately it’s your work that will sustain you. So these people fade out after one release. Then there was the era of lipsyncing that people began to hate after a while, even on stage shows. My songs have survived generations also because you can sing them in the presence of your family, something I cannot say for all the songs that seem to be coming out these days.
Today because of technology, synthesizers and rhythm machines, the happening musicians of today create computerized music. I insist on sticking to the harmon-ium and performing live music, because there is something very special about the human touch, even the human mistakes. There are some musicians who have still maintained their integrity, but these days most musicians will set the rhythm in advance, then copy some latest western hit, make a track and fit in the words.
You lost your only son Vivek in a tragic accident in 1990 when he was about to turn 19. Chitraji stopped singing and turned to spiritualism and trained as a spiritual healer and found solace. You turned to music. You have both openly talked about going to spiritual mediums in India and abroad and found evidence of life after death. Your son has appeared in your dreams and talked to you and she has connected with him through mediums. There are many skeptics who would disregard all this, but there are other bereaved parents who would take inspiration from your strength. Deepak Pandit says he has not seen anyone with the inner strength and will power that you have. You even performed at a concert soon after your mother’s funeral so the organizers didn’t lose money. Where do you get that strength?
I have seen my share of tragedies in my life. I think anyone else in my place would be comatose by now. I lost a brother in an accident as well, but nothing prepares you for the loss of a child. I was devastated, and a broken man. I had finished a concert close to 2 a.m. and had come home when I got the news.
I remember rushing to the hospital wearing my pajamas inside out. I couldn’t sing for several weeks and even when I finally did get back to music and my first tour in 1991, I would cry at concerts. The lyrics I choose for my music, always showcase life’s experiences and as I would sing some couplet it would hit close to home and I would break down.
Yes, we went to all kinds of mediums both in India and abroad. These are not people who do this for commercial purposes, but have to be sought out through the right sources. Yes my son has appeared in my dream many times; he still appears in them and still talks to me. Some may call it auto suggestion, but I finally came to the realization that while we sought relief by going to mediums, it was the wrong approach in the long run.
People who lose loved ones must remember that there is nothing permanent in life other than death. We all have to die some day, and we cannot cling to those who have passed away and forget about living. The pain never goes away, but you have to learn to live with it. I have sung about that in my first CD of gurbani, Man Jeete Jagjit, which came out after his death. I think my pain has given my music better focus and richness. It has increased my creativity and concentration.
You married a very beautiful woman, who also became your singing partner. You gave her 9 ? marks out of 10 in beauty when asked by Farooque Shaikh on the show Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai and Chitraji asked now ask him where did he cut that half mark? Jokes apart, Chitraji said it took her 30 years to understand you and yet she cannot imagine her life without you. She looks up to you as her friend, philosopher and guru, because she was an untrained singer and has learnt so much from you. How easy is it for a husband and wife to be in the same field?
Well firstly every guy must keep at least half a mark to keep your madam in your hand! I’m glad that finally she has understood me after 30 years! Sometimes people don’t get it even after sharing a life time. I think people are too quick to give up on their partners. When you accept someone and make the commitment to be with them then you must accept that person in totality with all their good points and flaws. Neither of us is perfect, but I think she is immensely talented and I like her in totality as a person.
It is easier for a couple to perform together when the husband is the teacher and the wife is the disciple. The trouble begins when it’s the other way around, because our society has been male dominated and the male ego comes in the way if the wife is more talented or more learned.
So you have the soul of a poet, and you sing romantic ghazals. What is your idea of romance and what is the most romantic thing you have ever done for Chitraji?
Well I’m a small town boy. In our times, romance was just a perception of a glance! I know because I once romanced a girl. I used to take my bicycle in front of her house, and would sometimes pretend the bicycle chain was broken or that the air had leaked out. I would then pretend to fix the broken bike in front of her house just hoping to get that one glance from her. I miss the beauty of that kind of romance. It’s too in your face these days!
The most romantic thing for Chitraji I have done is to compose some wonderful music for her to sing.
Is she planning a come back? I believe after almost 13 years she is back to practicing.
Well it’s off and on. It is very difficult to get back to the same level after such a long gap. The vocal chords become weak, and age is a big factor. I have told her to take it easy and leave things as they were. People remember her voice and singing with such reverence. I want them to live with those golden memories. If she doesn’t reach the same heights it will be painful for her and her admirers.
What is it about Jagjit Singh that we don’t know? We also hear you have a penchant for horse racing and Las Vegas casinos. Your Violinist Deepak Pandit mentioned a very funny story.
Well, I can tell you in 30 seconds what flaws a particular sound system has. I am very particular about sound and I hate to play in auditoriums that don’t have a good system.
About that funny story, we were in Las Vegas and were gambling. Both Deepak and I were losing and after giving him extra money, which he again lost, I told him enough, neither of us should gamble any more.
We both said goodnight and went to our rooms which were in separate towers. After a short while I stole out of my room and took the elevator to go back to gamble. At one floor the door opened and who do I see but Deepak standing outside intending to do the same thing. We had a good laugh and went on to gamble one more time!
So what is in the works now?
I had performed in Pakistan recently and a DVD of the concert tour is in the works. Sony is also keen that I do another album with Gulzar so I will be working on it. There were times I felt I have done so much, but today I feel there is still so much left to do and so little time to do it.