Mohammed Jaffer Khan was, in the 1990s, an accompanist at the Kathak Kendra in New Delhi. I hear that he passed away very young. He had learned from the Kirana gharana master Hafizullah Khan who was the son of the great vocalist Abdul Wahid Khan. He lived in the Darya Ganj neighbourhood of Old Delhi where I visited him on on 25 May, 1997. He had a very beautifully clean surila style inherited from his ustad. We spent a very hot but very pleasant afternoon together discussing all things sarangi, and Mohammed Jaffer played several rags, accompanied by a tabla player. The electric svarpati was a bit overpowering, but that's life. Towards the end of our sitting his 12-year-old relative did a short tabla solo.
Mohammed Jaffer began with rag Nat Bhairav:
Followed by an unusual ang of Pilu:
Then came rag Basant, a little late for the Indian Springtime.
Then some conversation and demonstrating via singing:
Next the rare rag Nauhar Todi and more talk:
Then Mohammed Jaffer's young relative was prevailed upon to give a demonstration of tabla accompanied by Mohammed Jaffer's sarangi.
My second visit To Mohammed Jaffer Khan was on the 4th of June 1997. He played a peaceful and profound alap in rag Yaman:
Some of the subsequent performance was not recorded, and he continued with fireworks and a bandish in Yaman:
This was followed by rag Sohini:
In most of my visits to sarangi players' houses, I've been impressed by the extent to which they adhere to time conventions—playing morning rags in the morning and evening rage in the evening. But after playing Yaman and Sohini, on this occasion Mohammed Jaffer proceeded with Miyanki Todi including the famous bandish ab mori naiyaa paara karata tum:
Followed by discussion during which he sang me some of the bandishes he had played earlier:
And an unusual pentatonic rag with this tonal material: Sa, Ga , Ma' tivra, Pa, Ni komal:
Mohammed Jaffer told me that he learned this rag from Hafizullah Khan, but the Ustad would not tell him its name!
