Bhendi Bazar Gharana
The Bhendibazaar gharana is one of the vocal gharanas of Indian classical music, which originated in Bhendi Bazaar area of Mumbai in 1890 by brothers Chhajju Khan, Nazir Khan and Khadim Hussain Khan.
The features of this gharana include using 'aakaar' for presenting khyals in an open voice, with clear intonation, a stress on breath-control, singing long passages in a single breath, a preference for madhyalaya (medium tempo) and use of the well-known Khandmeru or Merukhand system for extended alaps.Forceful Gamak taans, sapat taans and satta taans,Presentation of Bandishes having delightful mixture of shabda, soor and laya (lyrics, notes and tempo), Dance oriented structure of singing of sargams, Ustad Chhajju Khan's son Ustad Aman Ali Khan, and Anjanibai Malpekar, are well-known exponents of this gharana. Forceful Gamak taans, sapat taans and satIndividualistic and beautiful rhythem. Inclusion of some melodious ragas of Karnatak Music,such as Hamsdhwani, Nagaswarawali, Pratapwarali.
Ustad Dilawar Hussain Khan
Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan
Kaderbaksh (Sarangi)
4th generation-
Pandit Shivkumar Shukla
Pandit Pandurang Amberkar
Master Navrang Nagpurkar
Pandit Ramesh Nadkarni
Ustad Muhammed Hussain Khan
Pandit T D Janorikar
5th generation-
Late Dayanand Dev Gandharva,manoj patel, Bipin Patel, Sangeeta Pandharpurkar, Indira Thapa, Late Anil Vaishnav,Vasanti Sathe, Suresh Trivedi, Prof. Dwarakanath Bhonsle,Prof. Ishwar Chandra Pandit, Mitali (Mukherjee) Singh and Chintan Patel.
Faiyyaz Khan,Dr. Jyoti Dhamdhere; Anupama Chandratreya
Kamal Naik, Shubha Joshi, Shaila Piplapure, Meenaxi Mukherji,Mahesh Babu, Sushilarani Patel, Ramkishan Chandeshri (Bhopal) and Shailesh Mavinkurve.
Anupama Chandratreya; Anuradha Kuber; Anuradha Marathe; Kishori Janorikar; Kumudini Mundkur; Late Sadhana Joshi; Sharad Karmarkar; Dr. Suhasini Koratkar; Late Vasundhara Pandit; Shrikant Pargaonkar; Padmakar Kulkarni;Kedar Bodas
(Late) Neelatai Nagpurkar; (Late)Upendra Kamat; (Late) Mandakini Gadre; Shubha Joshi; Shaila Pipalpure; Pramila Datar; Madhura Jasraj;
Shubha Joshi;
Those disciples who took guidance from stalwarts of Bhendibazaar Gharana for some time but developed their own style and pursued Classical or Light Music or chose to work in Film industry:
Lata Mangeshkar; Nisar Bazmi; Vasantrao Deshpande; Manna Dey; Wali Ahmed Khan; B C Chaitanya Dev; Shantilal (Harmonium); Parshurambuwa Parsekar; Mridungacharya Narayanrao Koli.Shahmir Khan; Chand Khan; Kaderbaksh (Sarangi); Mamman Khan; Zande Khan; Miyan Jaan; Wadilal Shivram.
The greatest assets of this Gharana is the wealth of Bandishes Aman Ali Khansaheb composed. They are proof enough of what his predecessors might have composed. Khansaheb and later his successors composed under the Mudra 'Amar'. His compositions have immense musical literary and aesthetic value. The subject matter ranges widely from nature, beauty, philosophy, musical grammer and various deities. Each Bandish is distinct and brings out the Raag to perfection. many a time bringing out an unexpected aesthetic facet of that Raag. The compositions are linguistically rich influenced greatly by Sanskrit and the Braj Bhasha.
The Bhendi Bazar Gayaki is a highly cultivated and rich musical tradition. It is not as well known as some other Gharanas, but it has survived the test of time and khas flourised over the years.