LAHORE: The 119th birth anniversary of legendary classical singer Ustad Bare Ghulam Ali Khan is being observed today.
Bare Ghulam Ali Khan was born in Kasur into a family with a great musical lineage. Since his father, Ustad Ali Baksh Khan, was a well-known singer himself, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan was introduced to Hindustani classical music at a very young age.
After partition, Bare Ghulam Ali Khan chose Pakistan as his home, since Kasur, his hometown, was located in Pakistan. However, ten years later, he returned to India and acquired the citizenship.He gave rise to the fusion of four traditional styles –Patiala-Kasur, elements of Dhrupad, embellishments of Gwalior and the convolutions of Jaipur.
He excelled at more light-hearted ragas such as Adana, Bhupali, Hameer, Jaijaiwanti and Jaunpuri.
Bare was awarded the Padma Bhushan Award and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1962.
He died on April 23,1968, in Bashir Bagh Palace in Hyderabad after a prolonged illness had left him partially paralyzed in the last few years of his life.
