TALAT AZIZ: Celebrating 40 Years of the Legend

Talat Aziz is a legendary Ghazal maestro. A singer and a composer hailing from Hyderabad, India. His family loved fine arts and used to organise Mehfils in their house, inviting artists and poets and singers like Jagjit Singh and Jan Nisar Akhtar to name a few. Talat Aziz took his initial training in music from Kirana Gharana under the tutelage of Ustad Samad Khan and later by Ustad Faiyyaz Ahmed Khan. After his initial training, Aziz was invited by none other than the Ghazal maestro Mehdi Hassan to become his disciple and he did. Mehdi Hasan and his singing had a great impact on him and he learnt from him rare compositions which were revealed by the master to his favorite disciple. Talat debuted with his first album in Feb 1980, titled ‘Jagjit Singh Presents Talat Aziz’. Jagjit Singh composed this album titled specially for Talat. This was a runaway hit and the ghazals from this album like Kaise Sukoon Paoon, Chahenge Tujhe par... to name a few are still favourites of all ghazal lovers. Subsequently in 1981 Khayyam Saheb the legendary music director introduced Talat Aziz in the classic film ‘Umrao Jaan’ with the famous Ghazal, ‘Zindagi Jab bhi’ and followed it by Bazaar, with the immortal ghazal, ‘Phir Chidi Raat’ which he sang along with Lata Mangeshkar. He has also sung film songs composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal in the film Dhun (where he also acted as a main lead and sang a bhajan along with Mehdi Hasan). Another classic is his song in the film Daddy, ‘Aaina mujhse meri’ to name just a few. All these numbers are still most sought after in his concerts. Talat has also composed music for TV serials acted in several of them and was a favorite of the TV music industry. He composed music for teleserials like Deewar, Baaz, Adhikaar, Ghutan, Sailaab, Aashirwaad and the magnum opus, Noorjehan. He also composed the music and sang too for a feature film titled ‘Majaz-Ae Ghame’ recently in 2016. This film was was a biography of the iconic poet Majaz Luckhnawi. He has released more than 40 solo albums in his career spanning 40 years and they have all been loved by his fans. The singer was the first ghazal artiste to release a ghazal music video titled Tasavvur, in 1987 when a video album was not even thought of. He is often seen on the small screen in various roles as a music judge. Talat Aziz has been singing in concerts for over four decades and has travelled the globe with his sell out performances. He also curated a Bollywood Electro Music Festival titled Bollyboom for Percept India which was held all over India and the World from November 2013. He hosted a very popular radio show on BIG FM titled Carvaan e Ghazal in Nov 2013 and it went on to the top of the RAM charts as well as winning prestigious Radio Awards.In Feb 2016, 2017 and 2018 he released a ghazal singles titled ‘Wo Shaam’, ‘Tumhare Ishq mein’ and ‘Teri Khushbu’. ‘Wo Shaam’, the first digital ghazal audio and video reached more that 600,000 people in a time frame of two weeks through social Media like Facebook and this was corroborated by major news channels like NDTV. Talat Aziz still performs to sell out shows across the globe as well as the length and breadth of India. This is his 40th year as a singer. For more details kindly go to www.talataziz.com/autobiography