Legendary classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj passes away at 90

NEW DELHI: Barely a year after the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet after him, the doyen of Indian classical music Padma Vibhushan Pandit Jasraj on Monday left the material world to be a part of the cosmos. The 90-year-old passed away in New Jersey after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Born in Pili Mandori village of Haryana’s Hisar district on January 28, 1930 to classical singer Pandit Motiram and Krishnabai, Jasraj was initiated into vocal music at 14.

A major part of his youth was spent in Hyderabad though he often travelled to Sanand in Gujarat to study music from the musicians of the Mewati Gharana. In 1946, Jasraj moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) where he started singing classical music for radio.He debuted as a tabla artist in 1937 to support family. It helped him internalise rhythms which lent finesse to his singing.His first stage concert was in 1952 when as a 22 -year-old, he performed as a vocalist in the court of King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah of Nepal in Kathmandu.

During his musical career spanning more than eight decades, not only did he popularise classical music, he worked with semi-classical style as well.He wasn’t just a vocalist but a researcher and innovator too. As a researcher, he popularised Haveli sangeet style, while as an innovator he created Jasrangi. The latter is a unique form of jugalbandi in which male and female singers sing different ragas in their respective scales but at the same time merge their individual displays into one unified performance.