Many people, especially young people, have started listening to sitar since George Harrison, one of the Beatles, became my disciple.
As a teen, I enjoyed Sufi music and ghazals the most. But as my career began, I drifted off to playback and other streams over the years.
My father was the artistic one. At a very young age, my father realised I had a strong voice and made me learn Hindustani vocal. I was five. I have Dad to thank for introducing me to the finer things in life.
I am very fond of ghazals. I like ghazals from Jagjit Singh and Sir Ghulam Ali.
When I began competing with the other artists in New York, I discovered classical North Indian music.
I have a taste for ghazals and I like them.
I'm interested in Qawwali and the blues.
I can't escape crooning the 'Mitwa... Kahe Dhadkan Tujhse Kya' number wherever I perform. Basically, I am a classically rooted musician.
I trained in Hindustani, and then I went to music school.
I would say that the most complex style of singing comes from India. Real, classical Indian music produces probably the best technical and natural singers in the world, just because the patterns and the inflection are so complex in how the style moves and what it requires vocally. I think the best classical singers come from India.
My basic grammar is in Indian classical music, Carnatic music, and Hindustani music, but I don't believe that that is the only form of music I will learn. I don't believe in that, because I am a very open minded person.
My roots are Carnatic music. I think everything stems from that.
Lataji defines the sound of Indian music, and I always had a secret desire of recording with her at least once.
I had been interested in Indian music and I actually started studying Tableaus before I met him.
From childhood, I had been instructed in the tablaa by my father, along with the astaais and antaraas specific to our Gharana.
The origins of Indian classical music, not unlike their western counterparts, lie in the Vedas, the ancient Hindu scriptures of 2,000 years ago.
I know what tablas sound like, because my father played a lot of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.
Indian classical music was born when time barely existed. It developed further within the structures of royal courts and a system of patronage where the ruler or the feudal master determined all.
One single raga can be performed for two hours, three hours.
I am a trained singer in Hindustani and classical music.
I love to simplify the ragas and use them in my music as much as possible.
I appreciate very much Vilayat Khan, the sitar player, and Bismillah Khan, the shehnai player; and among the tabla players, of course, Alla Rakha, Kishan Maharaja, and all these people.
I am really very fond of Indian classical music though I have spent my teenage years in Bahrain.
I started officially learning music when I was 14. I learnt Hindustani classical.
Ghulam Ali Khan saab is my greatest inspiration.
