Ustad Abdul Karim Khan must have been a creative person because, in his lifetime, he made many changes to his music. These were all weaved by his subtle understanding of melodic culture without lowering the taste or quality of music in any manner.
Born in Kirana just to the east of River Jamuna in Muzaffarnagar district of the then United Province, he belonged to a distinguished line of sarangi players. His was the first switchover from sarangi to vocal music. He was following a general trend because many of the greatest kheyal singers were initially sarangi players or belonged to that lineage, like Mian Kaloo, Amir Khan and Baray Ghulam Ali Khan. They all brought the nuanced rendition of the bowed note into the vocal or kheyal gaiki ang.
This was also a time when the kheyal gharanas were consolidating the tremendous changes they had brought to the classical form by gradually weaning it away from the dominance of the dhrupad. A generation prior to Abdul Karim Khan had laid the foundation of this change. But it was left to his generation, who were born in the third quarter of the 19th century and bloomed in the earlier part of the twentieth century, to make a definitive form of the fledgling kheyal.
He was also hugely influenced by the music of the South. As we all know that in the subcontinent two systems of music have evolved: one in the south known as Carnatic and the other in the north known as Hindustani or North Indian. For a number of reasons, both have existed side by side for many centuries with the interaction between the two not huge enough to totally erase the difference between them. Ustad Abdul Karim Khan made a conscious effort at bringing the two systems together, or to put it more exactly he wanted to experience the inner musicality of the system that he had not grown up with.
It is said that his great ease and virtuosity in singing the sargam was one that he introduced to the kheyal gaiki of the North or Hindustani music under the influence of the Carnatic system.
Belonging to a family of musicians can instill traits that are not too forgiving or appreciative of the peculiarities of other music systems. Generally, the admired approach of retaining one’s peculiarity of style probably dovetailed into insularity. But Karim Khan was greatly appreciated and lauded in the former state of Mysore and he sang some of the more prominent Carnatic raags and also played them on the veena more in the Carnatic ang than in the North Indian one.
He travelled a lot and, compared to his cousin and brother-in-law Ustad Waheed Khan, was more itinerant and absorbed many influences. The latter was strict and loyal to his inherited style or what he thought was the Kirana gaiki gharana ang -- the slow progression of the movement of the raag with great emphasis on the enunciation of the shrutis or the microtones so very essential to our music. Ustad Karim Khan, it is said, also introduced the very slow progression of the raag in the vilampat lai and but then notching it up to the mudh and then to the drut lai, emphasising virtuosity. In all this, he was continuously adding to the range and individual parts without taking anything away from them.
He was also very conscious of the changes that were taking place in the manner of patronage -- the states were at one time the sole patrons but in the commercial centres of India like Bombay and Calcutta other platforms of patronage were emerging that sold their product and earned money from it. The spirit of a capitalist enterprise informed this style of patronage and it attracted a totally different set of listeners. They were mostly theatre lovers who went to theatre to also enjoy live music but what they expected there was not mere virtuosity in music but things that were more contemporary and hence popular in nature.
Ustad Karim Khan, in his extended stay at Baroda and Maharashtra, was also exposed to this changing patronage and the rise of new classes, and hence new forms of patronage of music.
He not only introduced thumri in his repertoire but became a much loved thumri exponent by the time he passed away. It was an ang of thumri that was different from Lucknow and Benarus and also the Punjabi ang that was to develop a little later. Grounded in the kheyal ang, it was evocative and mesmerising at the same time.
Everything changed with the end of the colonial period. The medieval system of patronage collapsed and the artistes had to be more conscious of the growing taste of a diverse audience that paid to listen to music than individual patrons who stressed on extreme virtuosity and peculiarity of style.
The earlier recordings of Karim Khan go back to the first decade of the twentieth century with incipient technology that forced these great ustads to sing within a very limited and constricting time frame and that too mostly the bandish in the mudh lai with a couple of taans thrown in. This did great injustice to them for they were trained to improvise and that too live, getting their music nourishment from the feedback they received from the audience.
But then one should be grateful that there is something to reference about him, unlike many ustads who refused to be recorded and hence there is no specimen of their music in whatever form.
He was also very lucky that he left behind a number of shagirds who, in their own right, became outstanding performers. Sawai Gandharva, Hira Bai Barodkar, Roshan Ara Begum, Sureshbabu Mane and Vishwanathbuwa Jadhav all took his music and standardised it for the twentieth century environment.
Ustad Abdul Karim Khan died in November 1937