Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan and the gift of Jog

I take my listeners back to a cold Dceember night in Jalandhar in 2009, when my journey in music was enriched by a magnificent rendering of Raga Jog by sitar maestro, Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan at the Harivallabh Festival. The episode features a shabad in Raga Jog sung specially for the podcast by Hazuri Ragi Bhai Nirmal Singh Batala, the bearer of the legacy of the redoubtable Bhai Sahib Balbir Singh and one of the finest exponents of Gurmat Sangeet in the Sikh Panth. 

In the episode I reminisce about the late Gyani Dyal Singh Ji, the noted Sikh musicologist and teacher and Bibi Jaswant Kaur, who collectively kept the legacy of the legendary Rababi, Bhai Taba Ji, alive. I also write about a visit with the late master luthier, Gurdial Singh, who hand crafted many magnificent stringed instruments and was a wizard of the sitar jowari.

The episode concludes with the gat that Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan played that night, accompanied by Ustad Akram Khan, the doyen of the Ajrara Gharana.