Talat Aziz

Talat Aziz

Talat Aziz at Asanas Painting Exhibition
Background information
Born (1956-11-11) 11 November 1956
Hyderabad, India
Genres Ghazal, playback singing
Occupation(s) Singer, composer
Instruments Harmonium
Years active 1979–present

Talat Aziz (Urdu: طلعت عزیز‎) (born 11 November 1956) is a popular ghazal singer from Hyderabad, India.[1]

Early life

Born in Hyderabad, India to Abdul Azeem Khan and Sajida Abid, a famous Urdu writer and poet. He went to Hyderabad Public School when he finished his ISC and then joined The Indian Institute of Management and Commerce for his B.Com (Hons) Course.

His family loved fine arts and used to organise Mehfils in their house, inviting artists and poets like Jagjit Singh, Jan Nisaar Akhtar (the father of the famous writer Javed Akhtar) to name a few. This greatly influenced him and he started learning music from an early age. He is Sania Mirza's uncle.

Career

Talat Aziz took his initial training in music from Kirana Gharana. He was trained primarily by Ustad Samad Khan and later by Ustad Fayaz Ahmed who were famous classical music singers.

After the initial training, Talat decided to learn music from music maestro Mehdi Hassan. On many occasions, like on a concert tour of the US and Canada in 1986, he shared the stage with him on concerts in India and abroad.

His first major performance was in Hyderabad at King Kothi. He sang before a crowd of over 5,000. He sang Kaise Sukoon Paoon and some ghazals by noted shaayars of Hyderabad. Though he was nervous at his first performance in front of audience, he performed well.

After his graduation he moved to Bombay in 1976 on a suggestion from Jagjit Singh. He also trained under classical music Ustad Samaad Khan and Faiyaz Ahmed Khan, and for his ghazal training he became a disciple of Mehdi Hassan in 1978. With the help of Jagjit he released his first album in 1979, Jagjit Singh Presents Talat Aziz. But for several years he was to struggle for a living. Talat also sang some ghazals in films like Umrao Jaan and Bazaar, which were super-hit.

Talat has also composed music for TV serials and has also acted in several of them. He composed music for teleserials like Deewar, Baaz, Adhikaar, Ghutan, Sailaab, Aashirwaad and the magnum opus, Noorjehan. His acting was appreciated in serials like Sahil, Manzil, Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayee and Noorjehan a TV serial written by Nida Fazli.

Talat released many albums like Talat Aziz live, Images A team Come True, Lehren, Ehsaas, Suroor, Saughaat, Tasavvur, Manzil, Storms, Dhadkan, Shahkaar, Mehboob, Khubsoorat, Irshaad, Khushnuma, to name a few, with his latest offering in 2009 Caravan e Ghazal in which Sonu Niigaam also participated in a duet 'Qurbaton mein bhi' a ghazal written by Ahmed Faraaz.His latest solo album was A Tribute to his Master which was recorded in Los Angeles a tribute to his guru Mehdi Hasan and the tabla accomoaniment for this unique album was none other than the great maestro Ustad Tari Khan. This album got a nomination in the best ghazal album category in the prestigious GIMA Global Indian Music Awards. Recently he Pankaj Udhas Anup Jalota with a young upcoming artist Sumeet Tappoo collaborated in the ghazal album Destiny which was released by Shri Amitabh Bachchan.

The singer was the first ghazal artiste to release a ghazal music video of Tasavvur, in 1987 when a video album was not even thought of. He is often seen on the small screen in various roles as a music judge. However, his fans would love to see him on the silver screen too. He worked in a film in 1990. It was Mahesh Bhatt's Dhun opposite Sangeeta Bijlani. The film never got released for various reasons but the music was released by HMV in 1991 and was a great hit of that time featuring tracks like 'Main Aatma tu Parmaatma' a bhajan sung as a duet with none other than Mehdi Hassan and Talat and other tracks like "Yaad aane waale' Laagi prem dhun laagi", which became a rage with the young crowd.

The advent of the ghazal as a popular genre began in the late 1970s and became a rage in the 1980s when artists like Talat Aziz used to sell out albums in the hundreds of thousands of units.

Begum Akhtar had her following of ghazal lovers. Then came Mehdi Hassan's, Ghulam Ali who was equally well known. On this side of the border, the Indian couple Jagjit and Chitra Singh, the ghazal exponents did live shows and sang at private mehfils. During that period Sanjeev Kohli, son of Madan Mohan, discovered a singer called Talat Aziz, who was young, good-looking, malleable and above all, he had a good voice. Jagjit Singh had already heard Talat sing at a Mehfil in Hyderabad, so he agreed to compose his first album. In 1979 his first album titled "Jagjit Singh presents Talat Aziz" came out which was phenomenal success thus gave him a launch pad for his meteoric rise. Then came the classic ghazal "zindagi jab bhi teri bazm mein" from Umrao Jaan composed by Khayyam the ghazal from Bazaar 'Phir chidi raat baat phoolon ki' a duet with none other than the legend Lata Mangeshkar and the iconic nazm 'Aaina mujh se meri' from Mahesh Bhatt's film Daddy.

Talat Aziz has been singing in concerts for over three decades and has travelled the globe with his sell out performances. He celebrated his 25 Years Anniversary with the launch of a special audio and video album in 2004 at NCPA Mumbai where the veritable who's who of the music industry were present and the ones like Mehdi Hasan and Lata Mangeshkar who could not make it sent in their messages on video and a special documentary on his life was screened. This was released by Universal Music India as a special commemorative DVD with the audio cd pack of two released by Times Music.

A Bollywood Electro Music Festival which was held all over India and the World from November 2013.[2]

In November 2013 he started hosting a special radio show titled Carvaan e Ghazal as an RJ on 92.7 BIG FM which is relayed every Sunday 9 pm to 11 pm nationally in 45 cities all over India. This radio program was about ghazals, ghazal singers, ghazal lovers ghazals in films and was in the top 3 programs on the channel. It was a weekly and has received an amazing response. It also won the most prestigious Radio Award called the IRF India Radio Forum Awards for the best Hindi non breakfast radio show in May 2014. He had stalwarts like Ghulam Ali Saheb Gulzar Saheb Nida Fazli Saheb Sonu Nigam Asha Bhosleji Chitra Singh Pankaj Udhas Anup Jalota Hariharan Muzaffar Ali amongst a host of celebrities who came to the show at his invitation and graced it with their presence. This show got over in Oct 2015 although there was and is still a lot of demand for it.

In the month of Aug and September 2015 he toured the U.S. for a special show conceived by Bina Aziz in conjunction with Prria Haider Productions in USA who executed it for six packed concerts all over the U.S. where for the first time he sang Bollywood retro songs with Asha Bhosle ji. The highlight of this tour was that all the concerts were held at very prestigious venues like the Fox Theatre in Atlanta , the Grand Sears Arena in Chicago The Allen Center in Dallas The Arena Theatre in Houston and with a grand Finale at the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre NJPAC and they were sold out completely and set a standard of excellence. For the first time high end graphics were special designed under the supervision of Bina Aziz with VJ Tarang which were programmed for each track individually adding to the great ambience and this was highly appreciated by the audience.

Discography

Talat has released many albums. He is equally versatile while singing a popular Sufi number like "Damadam mast Kalandar" or the soul stirring rendition of "Aaina Mujhse Meri" from the film Daddy. Between 1979 and 1984 he was the top artist recording for Music India Company. In 1984, he joined HMV, the giant recording company. He also worked with Venus Records for a brief period and then released albums with Universal Music India and the latest with Saregama Music.

Some of his famous albums are

Song Movie
Zindagi jab bhi teri bazm meinUmrao Jaan
Phir chhidi raat baat Phoolon kiBazaar
Aaina mujhse meriDaddy

Main aatma tu parmaatma ( Dhun film 1991)

Lagi prem dhun laagi ( Dhun film 1991)

 Na Kisi Ki Aankh KaShararat
← Saaz e dil naghmae jaan Yatra

Television

As Actor[3]

As Contestant

References

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