My Music.:.Ghazals.:.Jagjit Singh

          Jagjit Singh was born on 8th February 1941 at SriGanganagar in Rajasthan.His schooling was done from Khalsa High School at SriGanganagar. He passed his school in Science stream from Government college, SriGanganagar. He graduated in the Arts from DAV College, Jalandhar. He also acquired a Post Graduate Degree in history from Kurukshetra University, Haryana. His association with music goes back to his childhood days when he was twelve years old. He first learnt under Pandit Chaganlal Sharma for two years in SriGanganagar. After which for another six years he learnt under Ustad Jamaal Khan of Sainia Gharana, under whom he learnt all forms of Indian ClassicalMusic - Khayal, Thumri and Drupad.

         He came to Mumbai in the year 1965 in search of a career in music. At that time he met Chitra and they got married in 1969. There was a time, in the decade of seventies to be precise, when people talked about Ghazals they usually meant Noor Jahan, Malika Pukhraj, Begum Akhtar, K.L. Saigal, Talat Mahmood and Mehdi Hassan. But the perceptions changed soon; in 1976 an album by the name 'The Unforgettables' hit the music stores. Essentially a Ghazal album, it had a new feeling about it, fresh sounds and melodic lyrics being the notable features of this album.

        At the time of their upgoing popularity, tragedy struck when they lost their only son Vivek in an accident. After that Chitra quit singing with their last album together called "Someone Somewhere".

         The towering persona of Jagjit Singh braved the tragedy and continued alone treating the listeners with gems like 'Hope', 'In Search', 'Insight', 'Mirage', 'Visions', 'Kahkashan', 'Love Is Blind', 'Chirag' and a few others. Apart from singing, Jagjit Singh composed the music of a few films too. Ah, that reminds us of the splendid music he composed for the TV serial, 'Mirza Ghalib'. The sensitive poetry of Ghalib in Jagjit Singh's voice assumed a new meaning. It would not be out of place to say that till date if any artist has done true justice to Ghalib's immortal poetry, arguably it is Jagjit Singh.

         The deep timbre of his silken voice along with the stirring and crystal clear renditions are the hallmark of Jagjit Singh’s 'gayaki' music. It has a sound classical base, and he beautifully orchestrates his composition by blending traditional ragas with modern music styles. Jagjit Singh is passionately involved in the making of each of his albums - right from selecting the ghazals to composing the music including orchestration, recording and sound mixing.

         In the past few years Jagjit came out with some mind blowing albums like 'Marasim', 'Silsiley', 'Different Strokes', 'Soz'. His latest offering 'Forget Me Not' is out and once again he's back to win your hearts.