Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh dead

Mumbai: Renowned , who held sway over the music world mesmerising music lovers for five decades with his soulful numbers, died at the Lilavati Hospital at suburban Bandra today. He was 70.
Singh, who was admitted to the hospital on September 23 after a brain haemorrhage, breathed his last at 0830 hours, doctors said. The ghazal maestro is survived by his wife Chitra Singh, with whom he had produced several record breaking albums. Their only son Vivek Singh had died in a road accident in
1990. The ‘Ghazal King’, a winner of the Padma Bhushan award, sung in several languages including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Nepali. With hits like ‘yeh zindagi kisi aur ki, mere naam ka koi aur hai,’ ‘Hontho se chhoo lo tum, ‘Tum ko dekha’ abd ‘Hazaar baar ruke ham’, Singh made a mark during the ’70s when the ghazal scene was dominated by well-established names like Noor Jehan, Malika Pukhraj, Begum Akhtar, Talat Mahmood and Mehdi Hassan. He was born on February 8, 1941 to a government employee in Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan.Jagjit Singh, known as ‘Jeet’ to his family, had four sisters and two brothers. Jagjit learned the nuances of music under a blind teacher, Pandit Chhaganlal Sharma. He was later trained under Ustad Jamal Khan of Sainia gharana for six years and gained knowledge in Khayal, Thumri and Dhrupad forms.Ghazal maestro’s silken voice in films like Prem Geet, Saath Saath,Arth and ‘Sarfarosh’ enthralled people of India over the last several decades. However, his major work is spread over more than 60 films and non filmy albums. Popularly known as “The Ghazal King” , Jagjit Singh gained acclaim together with his wife, another renowned Indian ghazal singer Chitra Singh, in the 1970s and 1980s, as the first ever successful duo in the history of recorded Indian music. Entering the music circuit at a time when the scene was primarily dominated by Pakistani ghazal singers, Jagjit Singh created a niche for himself in the ghazal scenario.