Ustad Faiyaz Hussain Khan strode the Indian music scene for the better part of the 20th Century like a much loved giant. Sporting either a pugree or a Turki cap, a prominent moustache and rows of colourful glittering medals , Khan was at once flamboyant, knowledgeable, powerful, sensitive and passionate -- qualities that made him tower over not only his contemporaries but also in many cases his peers. This court musician of the Gaekwars of Baroda could regale his audiences -- princes and commoners alike -- with a wide repertoire of music from the hoary, classical alaap and dhrupad-dhammar to popular ghazals and folk songs.

It was not that Khan lacked in competition from other musicians belonging to the old gharanas of north Indian classical music.

There were quite a few stalwarts who preceded him and many who came just after his heyday. Of these the names of Alladiya Khan of Jaipur-Atrauli, Rehmat Khan of Gwalior, Abdul Karim Khan of Kirana, Omkarnath Thakur (Gwalior) and Bade Ghulam Ali (Punjab) come to mind. They were all vocalists of great merit, but none of them had the charisma, range of repertoire or the impact that this icon of the Agra gharana did. The only singer who probably approached Khan's stature was the eclectic Pandit Bhaskarbua Bakhle.

Khan's ancestors from both his mother's and his father's side had been professional musicians for many generations. He was a grandson of Ghulam Abbas Khan of the Agra gharana from his mother's side and his father Safdar Hussain belonged to the line of Ramzan Khan Rangeele, a prominent late 18th century composer. As Safdar Hussain died before Faiyaz's birth the mother and child stayed with Ghulam Abbas Khan who brought the boy up in the tradition of the Agra gharana. And it is to his credit that the younger Khan's style became the hallmark of the gharana itself.

More importantly younger musicians from virtually all gharanas adopted elements from Khan's style and repertoire and merged them into their own vocalism even if they did not learn from him directly. So whether it be Nisar Husain Khan of Rampur-Saheswan or D.V. Paluskar of Gwalior or Mallikarjun Mansur of Jaipur or Bhimsen Joshi of Kirana, the influence of Khan should be obvious to the trained ear. While he did not have an heir, he did have many worthy disciples, the more memorable among them being Sharafat Hussain Khan and K. L. Saigal, who both died relatively young at the peak of their careers.

Khan was an ace performer who could capture the imagination of his audience by sheer instinct. The ustad was equally at home with classical music, ghazals, qawwali, thumri and daadra. Naturally, he was the target of the tawaifs' envy. Many called him Rangeela, (colourful) -- after his great grandfather Ramzan Khan Rangeele's nom de plume and Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah Rangeele.

Khan was a generous man. There are many tales about his magnanimity as a musician and as a host -- his parties were legion and in a time when musical compositions were guarded as state secrets, he taught who approached him. When almost all gharana ustads opposed the efforts of Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande to notate traditional music compositions, Khan gave him rare compositions.

Although the recording companies came to India in 1904 and the earliest 78 rpm recordings we have are those of the courtesan singers Gauhar Jaan and Zohrabai Agrewali 1907, they never could get the real great masters to record for them.

The radio which came some two decades later fared better in this regard and the better recordings of Khan come to us from the air archives. Somehow Khan's genius could not be captured on disc till his very last days when he was already suffering from TB. But listen to his meditative Ramkali, his energetic Nat Bihag or Bhairavi daadra and his range and passion will strike you. Half a century after his death (1950)Khan still inspires.