GOLDEN SHADOWS by USTAD FAIYAZ KHAN SAHIB

This CD has been produced fom recordings dated more than 50 years old. the quality of which is obviously not perfect.
We have cleaned them, making as few changes as possible, in order not to destroy the original sound.


Golden Shadows features the great voice of one of the legendary figures of North Indian classical music of the first half of the 20th century. The CD comprises fourteen tracks originally recorded by Ustad Faiyaz Khan Sahib between 1935 and 1948 accompanied by a group consisting of second voice, harmonium, tampura and tabla, digitally remastered to unveil to fans of Hindustani music all the mysteries of a unique vocal talent that has survived the decades to reach us with all its vigour intact.

The art of Faiyaz Khan (1880 -1950) forms part of the singing tradition called khayal which because less tied to devotional classicism allows the performer space to improvise freely, unleashing the whole range of their emotional expressivity in the creative ‘now’ of the execution. The genre first became popular during the 19th century and Faiyaz Khan was without doubt one of the figures who have contributed most to its diffusion.

Faiyaz Khan’s style is based on his powerful and incisive vocal delivery to which he adds a measured dose of ornamentation and embellishment that is never excessive (even on the rare occasions when he indulges in a bit of yodelling), winning the audience over not through gratuitous displays of virtuoso technique but through the warmth of feeling he conveys to them, a feeling that grows out of the performance itself, its spontaneous play of melody and improvisation.

Faiyaz Khan was born into a prestigious family whose musical lineage dates back as far as the 16th century, yet in his own raga interpretations always tried to transcend the consolidated traditions of his forefathers, giving free reign to his taste and sensibility and endowing the music with an unprecedented freshness.

The pieces on this CD can only serve to confirm Faiyaz Khan’s artistic excellence, the way his voice effortlessly bestrides the most complex shifts in rhythm and adapts equally well to passages of languorous romanticism and frenetic speed. Even after fifty years the sense of pathos his voice expresses never descends into the tritely sentimental, while his vocal range allows him to explore the pieces’ remotest corners, teasing out those nuances that mark the difference between a mere singer and a legend.