Javed Ali Quotes

From childhood, I had been instructed in the tablaa by my father, along with the astaais and antaraas specific to our Gharana.

These three elements are called Qawwali, and they've got to be there.

One single raga can be performed for two hours, three hours.

There is a conception about me that I am a playback singer and I sing for albums or for films only, but my roots are in bhajans. Even when I was in school, I used to win competitions for ghazals and bhajans.

My father gave me formal education in raagdari. He died in Lahore in 1964 when I was 13. I was in the tenth year of school, and my father's brother took me into the qawwali ensemble and started giving me formal education in qawwali.

I have been a tabla player since the age of four.

I can't escape crooning the 'Mitwa... Kahe Dhadkan Tujhse Kya' number wherever I perform. Basically, I am a classically rooted musician.

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.

I have been singing since I was a child, and I am a trained Hindustani classical singer.

I'm interested in Qawwali and the blues.

I am very fond of ghazals. I like ghazals from Jagjit Singh and Sir Ghulam Ali.

To me, the lyrics of the song define the kind of style it is.

When I write, I write the drum beat. Though sometimes I write on piano or guitar.

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.

When I sing a tune, the lyrics are important to me. Most of the standard lyrics I know well. And as soon as I hear an arrangement, I get ideas, kind of like blowing a horn. I guess I never sing a tune the same way twice.

I felt that a cappella was the improv world with music, where it's very serious, and there are groups and competition, and some people become famous, and there's a language we speak from one improviser to another.

K.G. Sathar, a neighbour, was my guru. He taught me the violin and Hindustani music.

I learned tabla for three years when in school, then started picking up the basics of the acoustic guitar when in college.

For a while, I was working on transcribing rap lyrics and then converting them into rhythmic patterns on the piano. And so in my mind, when I was taking a solo, I would be saying the lyrics and trying to play actual notes to their rhythms. Now, the influence just comes in and out in my playing.

My father taught me to play the sitar when I was seven years old. He and his elder disciples oversaw my teaching from the beginning, looking after my scale work, the poor things.

My personal favourites include J. J. Cale, R. D. Burman, Mehdi Hassan, and Ghulam Ali.

When K. Vishwanath made the film 'Shankarabharanam,' he wanted to bring back Carnatic classical music to mainstream. It's popularity was waning in those days.

From when I first started listening to music, M. S. Subbulakshmi has been one of my biggest influences. She poured her heart and life into everything she sang.

I love to simplify the ragas and use them in my music as much as possible.

My parents, Aparesh and Bansari Lahiri were very famous singers from Kolkata.