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Ustad '''Vilayat Khan''' (28 August 1928{{ref|birthdate}} – 13 March 2004) was an [[Hindustani classical music|Indian classical]] [[sitar]] player,
|newspaper=The Hindu newspaper|date=28 March 2004|access-date=10 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404154543/https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/no-compromises-in-his-art/article28526199.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 April 2022}}</ref><ref name=LAT>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-mar-16-me-khan16-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times (newspaper)|agency=Associated Press|date=16 March 2004|title=Ustad Vilayat Khan, 76; Leading Indian Sitar Player, Composer (obituary)|access-date=12 October 2020}}</ref> considered by many to be the greatest sitarist of his age.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/mar/25/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries | title=Vilayat Khan | newspaper=The Guardian | date=25 March 2004 | last1=Hunt | first1=Ken }}</ref> Along with [[Imdad Khan]], [[Enayat Khan]], and [[Imrat Khan]], he is credited with the creation and development of ''gayaki ang'' (a technique that emulates the vocal [[melisma]] of [[Hindustani classical music]]) on the sitar.
He recorded his first 78-RPM disc at the age of
==Early life==
Vilayat was born in [[Gouripur, Bangladesh|Gouripur, Mymensingh]] in then [[East Bengal]] in [[British India]] and current [[Bangladesh]].
However, Enayat Khan died when Vilayat was only ten, so much of his education came from the rest of his family: his uncle, sitar and surbahar maestro [[Wahid Khan]],<ref name=NYT/><ref name=TheHindu1>{{cite news|title=Vilayat Khan, a maverick musician|url=https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/vilayat-khan-a-maverick-musician/article27581595.ece |newspaper=The Hindu newspaper|date=26 March 2004|access-date=10 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310175957/https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/vilayat-khan-a-maverick-musician/article27581595.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 March 2024}}</ref> his maternal grandfather, singer Bande Hassan Khan, and his mother, Bashiran Begum, who had studied the practice procedure of his forefathers. His uncle, Zinde Hassan, looked after his [[riyaz]] (practice). As a boy, Vilayat wanted to be a singer; but his mother, herself from a family of vocalists, felt he had a strong responsibility to bear the family torch as a sitar maestro.<ref name=NYT/>
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Vilayat Khan performed at ''All Bengal Music Conference'', as his first concert, organized by Bhupen Ghosh in Kolkata with [[Ahmed Jan Thirakwa]] on tabla. His performance at the concert organized by Vikramaditya Sangeet Parishad, Mumbai in 1944 drew the headline "Electrifying Sitar". In the 1950s, Vilayat Khan worked closely with instrument makers, especially the famous sitar-makers Kanailal & Hiren Roy, to further develop the instrument. Also, he liked to perform without a [[tanpura]] drone, filling out the silence with strokes to his [[chikari]] strings.
Some [[raga]]s he would somewhat re-interpret (Bhankar, Jaijaivanti), others he invented himself (Enayatkhani Kanada, Sanjh Saravali, Kalavanti, Mand Bhairav), but he was first and foremost a traditional interpreter of grand, basic ragas such as Yaman, [[Shree (Hindustani raga)|Shree]], [[Todi (raga)|Todi]], [[Darbari]] and [[Bhairavi (Hindustani)|Bhairavi]]. He was known for improvisation with his knack for finding the different patterns in the ragas he played.
Vilayat Khan was both a traditional sitar player and a maverick innovator in his music. He was given a lot of credit for developing a sitar style called 'gayaki ang', where his sitar attempted to mimic the sound of the human voice and seemed to give the audience a sense that the sitar was singing. He invented a technique of bending a note after the sitar string was plucked, creating a sound after-effect from it. This technique later influenced other sitar players.<ref name=NYT/><ref name=LAT/>
When he died from lung cancer in 2004, Vilayat Khan had been recording for over 65 years and broadcasting on [[All India Radio]] almost as long. He had been touring outside India off and on for more than 50 years, and was probably the first Indian musician to play in England in 1951 after independence. In the 1990s, his recording career reached a climax of sorts with a series of ambitious CDs for India Archive Music in New York, some traditional, some controversial, some eccentric. During his long career, he toured and performed in [[South Asia]], [[China]], [[Africa]], [[Europe]] and the former [[Soviet Union]].<ref name=LAT/>
Vilayat composed and conducted the score for three feature films – Satyajit Ray's ''[[Jalsaghar]]'' (1958) in Bengali,<ref name=NYT/><ref name=TheHindu4>{{cite news|title=A life well lived|author= Manjari Sinha|url=http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article31337.ece|newspaper=The Hindu|date=9 October 2009|access-date=10 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310181956/https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/music/A-life-well-lived/article16885689.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 March 2024}}</ref> Merchant-Ivory Productions' ''[[The Guru (1969 film)|The Guru]]'' (1969) in English,
==Personal life==
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==Controversy==
In 1964 and 1968, respectively, Vilayat was awarded the [[Padma Shri]] and [[Padma Bhushan]] awards – India's fourth and third highest civilian honours for service to the nation – but refused to accept them,<ref name=NYT/><ref name=LAT/> declaring the committee musically incompetent to judge him. "Pointing out that sitar and its 'Parampara' (tradition) had seen the longest ever tradition in his family and his ancestors had chiseled the 'Gayaki Ang' (style mimicking the sound of human voice),
In January 2000, when he was awarded the [[Padma Vibhushan]], the second highest civilian award, he again refused, going so far as to call it "an insult". This time he stated that he would not accept any award that other sitar players, his juniors and in his opinion less deserving, had been given before him. "If there is any award for sitar in India, I must get it first", he said, adding that "there has always been a story of wrong time, wrong person and wrong award in this country".<ref name=TheHindu/>
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==Death and legacy==
Vilayat Khan died on 13 March 2004 at [[Mumbai]], India at age 75. The [[Press Trust of India]] reported that Vilayat Khan had lung cancer, diabetes and hypertension.<ref name=LAT
[[NDTV]] (New Delhi Television) reportedly quoted the prime minister of India, [[Atal Bihari Vajpayee]], saying this in a statement, "Ustad Vilayat Khan was a child prodigy to whom goes the credit of taking the sitar beyond the shores of this country."<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/15/arts/vilayat-khan-76-musician-who-redefined-sitar-playing.html |author=Jon Pareles|date=15 March 2004|title=Vilayat Khan, 76, Musician Who Redifined Sitar Playing |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=12 October 2020}}</ref>
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