(b Lahore, c1901; d 23 April 1968). North Indian (Hindustani) vocalist. He was born into a family of musicians and studied with his uncle, Kale Khan; like Kale, he remained independent without court appointment. In 1940 he achieved immediate fame with an appearance at the All-India Music Conference at Calcutta, and throughout the rest of his life he appeared in concerts and made recordings and radio broadcasts. He performed khayāl, thumrī and bhajan.
At Partition (1947), when Lahore, his ancestral home, became part of Pakistan, he became a citizen of that new country. He continued to perform in India, however, and after 1957 acquired Indian citizenship. Known as ‘bade’ because he was both ‘large’ physically and ‘great’ musically, Ghulam Ali willingly performed for general audiences to popularize the classical music of the élite. In 1962 he was designated Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and received the President's Award for Hindustani Vocal Music from the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
In Punjabi manner, Ghulam Ali accompanied himself on the svarmandal. His voice was sweet and elastic, easily traversing a three-octave range. Exquisite khayāl performances featured expressive, slow exploration of the rāga on the composition text, skilfully crafted bol-tān and a wide variety of types of tān. He created slow, expressive melody to the sargam syllables, a hallmark of the Patiala gharānā style, but he also used sargam for rhythm and speed. He made more use than most vocalists of the rhythmic cadence called tihāī. He was highly praised for the intense sincerity and emotion of his singing.
The Patiala gharānā style has continued through Ghulam Ali's son, the late Munnawar Ali Khan, and his grandson, Raza Ali Khan, as well as disciples from outside his family.
V.H. Deshpande: Gharāndāj gāyakī (Marathi, 1961; Eng. trans., 1973, 2/1987, as Indian Musical Traditions: an Aesthetic Study of the Gharanas in Hindustani Music)
V.C. Maudgalya: ‘Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’, Indian Music Journal, no.9 (1968), 35–6
A.D. Ranade: ‘Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan (1901–1968)’, Quarterly Journal of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, x/2 (1981), 17–21
B.C. Wade: Khyāl: Creativity within North India's Classical Vocal Tradition (Cambridge, 1984)
Ragas Darbari Kanada and Kaushi Dhani, perf. B.G.A. Khan, HMV EALP 1265 (n.d.)
Ragas Goonkali and Malkauns, perf. B.G.A. Khan, HMV EALP 1258 (c 1960)
Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, HMV EALP 1516 (1973) [thumrī in rāgas Tilak Kamod, Mishra Khamaj and Bhairavi]
For further recordings see M.S. Kinnear: A Discography of Hindustani and Karnatic Music (Westport, CT, 1985)
BONNIE C. WADE