Punjabi Singer - Jagjit Singh

Jagjit Singh

born Jagmohan Singh; (8 February 1941 – 10 October 2011) was a prominent Indian Ghazal singer, composer, music director, activist and entrepreneur.[2] Known as "The Ghazal King", he gained acclaim together with his wife, another renowned Indian Ghazal singer Chitra Singh[3] in 1970's and 80's as the first successful husband-wife duo act in the history of recorded Indian music.[4] Together, they are considered to be the pioneers of modern Ghazal singing and regarded as most successful recording artistes outside the realm of Indian film music. Their combination album on HMV comprising music from films, Arth (Meaning, 1982) and Saath Saath (Together, Along, 1982), is India's largest selling combination album of all time. [5] Sajda (An Offering, 1991), Jagjit Singh's magnum opus double album with Lata Mangeshkar holds the same record in non-film category.[citation needed] He had sung in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Sindhi and Nepali languages. He was awarded India's third highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan, in 2003 for his contribution to the fields of music and culture.

Singh is credited for the revival and popularity of ghazal, an Indian classical art form, by choosing poetry that was relevant to the masses and composing them in a way that laid more emphasis on the meaning of words and melody evoked by them. In terms of Indian Classical music, his style of composing and Gayaki (singing) is considered as Bol-pradhan, one that lays emphasis on words. He highlighted this in his music for films such as Prem Geet (1981), Arth and Saath Saath (1982), and TV serials Mirza Ghalib (1988) and Kahkashan (1991). Jagjit Singh is considered to be the most successful ghazal singer and composer of all time in terms of both critical acclaim and commercial success. With a career spanning over five decades and a repertoire comprising over 80 albums, the range and breadth of his work has been regarded as genre-defining. He is the only composer and singer to have composed and recorded songs written by Prime Minister - Atal Behari Vajpayee - also a critically acclaimed poet - in two albums, Nayi Disha (1999) and Samvedna (2002).

Jagjit Singh was the first Indian composer, and together with his wife Chitra Singh the first recording artist in the history of Indian music to use digital multi-track recording for their (India's first digitally recorded) album, Beyond Time (1987).[6] He was regarded as one of India's most influential artistes. Together with sitar legend Ravi Shankar and other leading figures of Indian classical music and literature, Singh voiced his concerns over politicisation of arts and culture in India and lack of support experienced by the practitioners of India's traditional art forms, particularly folk artists and musicians. He also lent active support to several philanthropic endeavors such as the library at St. Mary's School, Mumbai, Bombay Hospital, CRY, Save the Children and ALMA.
Early life and career

Jagjit Singh was born in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan[7] to Amar Singh Dhiman, a government employee, a native of Dalla village in Punjab and his mother, Bachan Kaur from Ottallan village, Samrala in a house that was known as Pat Ram Ki Chhikari (cluster of six houses). He had four sisters and two brothers and he was known as Jeet by his family. He was raised as a Sikh by religion.

He went to Khalsa High School in Sri Ganganagar and then studied science after matriculation at Government College Sri Ganganagar and went onto graduate in Arts at DAV College, Jalandhar. He is a post-graduate in history from Kurukshetra University in Haryana.

Jagjit was initially named Jagmohan Singh. He went to meet his sister at Sahwa in Churu district where a saint of the Namdhari sect, on hearing him sing hymns, suggested to his brother-in-law Ratan Singh that he be renamed as Jagjit Singh as he had the ability to win over the world with his golden voice.[citation needed]

His association with music goes back to his childhood. He learnt music under Pandit Chagganlal Sharma, for two years in Ganganagar, and later devoted six years to learning Khayal, Thumri and Dhrupad forms of Indian Classical Music from Ustad Jamaal Khan of the Sainia Gharana school, belonging to the descendents of Tansen, the great 16th century musician from the court of the Moghul Emperor, Akbar.

The Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University and Kurukshetra University, Late Professor Suraj Bhan encouraged his interest in music. He arrived in Mumbai in 1961 in search of better opportunities for being a musician and singer. His early struggle in the music industry, though not too harsh by his own account, still had its share of trials and tribulations. He lived as a paying guest and his earlier assignments were singing advertisement jingles. Singh was first offered to sing in a Gujarati film, Dharati Na Chhoru produced by Suresh Amin.
Fame

During 1970s, the art of ghazal singing was dominated by well-established names like Noor Jehan, Malika Pukhraj, Begum Akhtar, Talat Mahmood and Mehdi Hassan. However, Singh was able to make his mark and carve out a niche for himself. In 1976, his album The Unforgetables (On HMV LP Records) hit music stores. Essentially a ghazal album, its emphasis on melody and Jagjit's fresh voice was a departure from the prevalent style of ghazal rendition, which was heavily based on classical and semi-classical Indian music. Skeptics had their own reservations; purists scorned it, but it was widely successful among listeners and the album set new sales records.

Jagjit Singh's later albums, including Hope, In Search, Insight, Mirage, Visions, Kahkashan (meaning "Galaxy"), Love Is Blind, Chirag (meaning "Lamp"/"Flame") also achieved success. Sajda (an Urdu word meaning "prostration") had ghazals sung by Jagjit and Lata Mangeshkar. His ghazals use poetry by renowned poets including Mirza Ghalib, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Qateel Shifai, Shahid Kabir, Ameer Meenai, Kafeel Aazer, Sudarshan Faakir and Nida Fazli, and contemporary writers like Zaka Siddiqi, Nazir Bakri, Faiz Ratlami and Rajesh Reddy.

Singh also sang (as playback singer) for various songs in Bollywood films including Arth, Saath Saath, and Premgeet (all from 1980s). All the songs of film Premgeet were composed by Jagjit. His compositions for the TV serial Mirza Ghalib (based on the life of the poet Mirza Ghalib), remain extremely popular among ghazal aficionados.

Compared to his earlier ghazals (sung during 70s and 80s) his later ghazals have acquired a more soulful and poignant demeanour, as in albums such as Marasim, Face To Face, Aaeena, Cry For Cry. His ghazals have been used in more recent Bollywood films like Dushman, Sarfarosh, Tum Bin and Tarkieb.

Besides ghazals, Jagjit Singh has also sung bhajans and Gurbani (Hindu and Sikh devotional hymns respectively). Albums such as Maa, Hare Krishna, Hey Ram...Hey Ram, Ichhabal and also Man Jeetai Jagjeet in Punjabi, put him in the league of Bhajan singers such as Mukesh, Hari Om Sharan, Yesudas, Anup Jalota and Purushottam Das Jalota.

Jagjit Singh's contribution in promulgating punjabi language and its poetry through singing its traditional folks, such as tappe and countryside songs, was extremely important and these songs were made extremely popular in both East and West Punjab. His songs such as "Sare Pindch Puawde Pae", "Dhai Din Na Jawani", "Chadia Di Joon Buri" are listened by both the Punjabi and non-Punjabi speaking audience. His another contribution is in bringing the poetry of Shiv Kumar Batalvi to masses through his album Birha Da Sultan. "Mae Ni Mae Main Ik Shikra Yaar Banaia", "Rog Ban Ke Reh Giya Hai Piyar Tere Shehar Da", "Yaariyan Raab Karke Mainu Paen Birhan De Pide Ve", "Eh Mera Geet Kisi Ni Gana" are few of the popular songs from his album.

On 10 May 2007, in a joint session held in the historic Central Hall of India's Parliament (Sansad Bhawan), Jagjit Singh rendered the last Moghul Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar's famous ghazal "Lagta nahin hai dil mera" to commemorate the 150th anniversary of India's First War of Independence (1857). President A P J Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and dignitaries including former Prime Ministers, Members of Parliament, Foreign Ambassadors and High Commissioners were in attendance.
Personal life

In 1967, Jagjit met Chitra, also a singer. At the time, Chitra was married and had a daughter. The marriage ended in divorce, although Chitra's husband remained a family friend, and Jagit and Chitra married in December 1969.[7] They epitomize the first successful husband-wife singing team. Successful releases of the duo include Ecstasies, A Sound Affair and Passions. While these albums were breezy, Beyond Time released in the opening years of 1990s was an experimentation with sounds.

On 28 July 1990 their only son, Vivek (19), died in a road accident. Due to damaged street-light Vivek accidentally drove into the stationery truck and was killed. The couple's subsequent album Someone Somewhere was the last album with ghazals sung by both. After that Chitra Singh quit singing
Illness and death

Jagjit Singh died on 10 October 2011.[9][10]

Before this illness, his last concerts were held on 16 September 2011 at Nehru Science Centre in Mumbai, on 17th at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi, on 18 September at Noor Mahal, Karnal (organised by HIFA) and on 20 September at The Indian Public School in Dehradun
Awards

* In 2003, Singh was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, by the Government of India
* In 1998, Jagjit Singh was awarded Sahitya Academy Award, a literary honor in India. He was awarded this literary honor for popularizing the work of Mirza Ghalib.
* Sangeet Natak Academy Award
* Sahitya Kala Academy Award by Rajasthan Government in 1998
* Ghalib Academy by Delhi Government in 2005
* Dayavati Modi Award
* Lata Mangeshkar Samman in 1998 by Madhya Pradesh Government
* D. Litt. by Kurukshetra University, Haryana in 2003
* Teacher's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006