Aziz had the range and that something-special in his voice. But, I feel he didn’t get his due - perhaps he joined the industry when the music was not at its best. I am really surprised he is not given any songs nowadays. I imagine some of today’s hits in his voice, and I feel itchy as to why he is not asked to sing all these numbers.

Music Directors, for God sake, bring back Aziz saab, Wadekar ji, Amit Kumar, and Nitin Mukesh.

Jai Hind!
Vikky

when Rafi sahab sang a most sorrow song , we feel so joy. with his only voice
quality.

I have often wondered what it was like for famous hindi film lyricists (Sahir, Shailendra, Majrooh, Shakeel, Rajah Mehdi Ali Khan, Kaifi Azmi, Hasrat Jaipuri, Indivar and several others) and composers (Naushad, Roshan, Shankar Jaikishan, SD Burman, OP Nayyar. Madan Mohan etc.) to take their masterpiece songs to Mohd Rafi and have him sing it back to them and start practice sessions before the recordings. Obviously, there is no doubt in my mind that they were all mind-blown away when they heard the master recite back their poetry and tune. If Rafi required extra time to practice and fine-tune their work, they obliged very willingly fully knowing that in return they would receive the best rendition of their creation. Since very few individuals (currently living and residing in the neighbourhoods of Mumbai and elsewhere) who were involved as musicians, recordists or assistants are willing to open up and discuss those heady days, we the fans will never know the minute details that racked the brains of Naushad, Roshan, Madan Mohan and other famous music directors.

Just to take this subject matter a bit further, a couple of years ago Kerala Film Music fans were stunned to hear the sudden passing away of ace music director Raveendran due to cancer. MD Raveendran ruled Malayalam Film Music world from 1979 onwards until 2005. A combination of Naushad, OPN, Roshan, Madan Mohan, Illaiyaraja and others all rolled into one – he composed some absolutely everlasting songs for legendary singer Yesudas. Raveendran’s compositions were nearly all raaga based and had extremely complex structures. His penchant was to test the skills of the vocalist to the extreme –and see if the singer could handle the scales, the gamakas, the swaras and all the other intricacies of the tune. As he acquired more film assignments, Raveendran fully utilized Yesudas’s magnificent bass voice and gave him some very difficult tunes, daring that the singer would be unable to reach the scales. Till the last song they recorded together, both the MD and singer tried to outdo each other – and both of them came out very even in their friendly tussles, and ultimately the music lovers were the winners fully enthralled with several delightful compositions. Commenting at the sad demise of his close colleague and friend, Dr. Yesudas commented, “Whenever we recorded our best songs together, Ravi would come to the singer’s booth and tell him – brother, I have created this tune for you only; the musicians are ready, the recordists are ready. You may take this song and fly away like a bird. Soar as high as you want and come back to earth”. Yesudas always obliged and sang some of his best songs for Raveendran.

The primary reason for Rafi Saab’s songs being immortal and still fresh as if it were just recorded yesterday is the full dedication, practice-till-perfect behavior that he imparted to every assignment that he undertook. I would assume that the MDs, lyricists, musicians and everyone involved in those recordings of yesteryears were fully willing to let the bird soar as high as he wanted….fly freely with abandonment…and then softly land back on mother earth.

Irfan bhai, thanks for sharing the links. I’m sure you know who Tendulkar was named after, so his taste for good music is not surprising.

I’ve seen Bheja Fry but I can’t remember the actor’s name. He really acted well in the film and sang a few Rafi numbers to impress the producers. I agree with his views on the Rafi-Asha masti. This is my personal bias, but I consider that pair to be one of the very best in terms of duets. I’m not going to say anything more on this topic because there are some knowledgeable people on this forum who don’t even consider Asha to be a great singer.

Anyway, I just loved the picture with Geeta and Rafi; there was so much chemistry between the two of them in the 50s and early 60s: Udhar tum haseen, Hum apke aankhon mein, Jaane kahan mera jigar gaya ji, Aankhon hi aankhon mein…. Geeta’s voice had Lata’s sweetness and Asha’s oomph. I can understand why OP started ignoring her in the 60s, but for the life of me, I don’t understand why SD didn’t use her more in that period. There’s this lilting duet from Manzil (probably 1960), “Chupke se mile pyase pyase kuchh hum kuchh tum”, but after that, SD started easing her out of the recording room. Granted that she was self-destructing herself with alcohol, but she still had so much left in her even in the 70s (listen to her Avishkar and Anubhav songs).

Given the buzz around Sonu Nigam nowadays, I recently attended a concert of his. He sang six or seven numbers but half the time he was talking while singing. The other thing I’ve noticed in the new singers is their tendency to alternate between singing and pointing the microphone towards the audience. So the audience is expected to sing half the time! Last time I heard Rafi live, he sang 17 songs, without hardly ever speaking. Last year, when I heard Manna Dey at a concert — he was 84 then — he sang for more than three hours and that too some of the best classical songs in films. And I saw this Sonu Nigam chap trying to mimic “Hari Om, man tadpat” in a video. If you want to sing such songs, you should try to sing them properly with due respect. I don’t know how people can compare Sonu with Rafi.

Again, thanks for sharing the links.

If you are not a fan of Sachin tendulkar by now, this one ought to make you for sure

http://www.mid-day.com/virtual_gallery/gallery_slideshow.asp?GalleryID=26&ID=216&CurrentPage=9

BEST REGARDS/A.T.M. SALIM