Ummeed Ali Khan
(1880-1964)
About Ummeed Ali Khan
My friend, Naushad Firdausi, wrote this in the Usenet newsgroup rec.music.indian.classical (RMIC):
Ustad Ummeed Ali Khan was a true blue Gwalior. His father Ustad Meeran Baksh was the son of Ustad Boorey Khan, who was nephew of Ustad Banney Khan whose sons Ustads Jamal Khan, Misri Khan and Saindhey Khan were all renowned gharanedar Gwalior khayaliyas. Ustad Haddu Khan was the grand Uncle of Ustad Banney Khan who incorporated many traditional punjabi folk compositions into khayal bandishes. Ustad Ummeed ali’s only connection with Patiala Gharana was that he sometimes used to perform in jugalbandi with Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan. Many anecdotes of their friendly rivalry but I’ll leave them for later.
In his later years Ustad Ummeed Ali had lost his eyesight completely. Yours truly saw him travelling in a tonga many times along with Ustad Natthu Khan sarangiya to the Lahore radio station. That’s where I heard him singing all those wonderful raags like Tirvan, Champak and Neelambari (mitwa baalamwa — still rings in my ears ! ) etc. One only can hope that those recordings exist in radio archives somewhere !! For recordings try your luck with some firanghs who manage to slither into the radio archives one way or another !!
regards,
Naushad.