Talat Aziz


Talat Aziz is a popular ghazal singer from Hyderabad, India.

Early life

Aziz was born in Hyderabad, India to Abdul Azeem Khan and Sajida Abid, a famous Urdu writer and poet. He attended Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet and then joined The Indian Institute of Management and Commerce for his B.Com Course.
His family loved fine arts and used to organise Mehfils in their house, inviting artists and poets like Jagjit Singh and Jan Nisar Akhtar. This greatly influenced him and he started learning music from an early age.

Personal life

Aziz is married to Bina Aziz, a famous painter and art curator. They have two sons, Adnan Aziz and Shayaan Aziz.

Career

Talat Aziz took his initial training in music from Kirana Gharana. He was trained primarily by Ustad Samad Khan and later by Ustad Faiyyaz Ahmed Khan.
After the initial training, Aziz learnt music from the Ghazal maestro Mehdi Hassan. On many occasions, like on a concert tour of the US and Canada in 1986, he shared the stage with him on concerts in India and abroad. Mehdi Hasan Saheb once remarked on Talat's purity of voice and how well he learnt and imbibed Mehdi Saheb's knowledge and gayaki and yet carving his own path. He released his first album in Feb 1980, under the baton of Jagjit Singh. Jagjit Singh composed this album titled 'Jagjit Singh presents Talat Aziz'. This was a runaway hit and the ghazals from this album like Kaise Sukoon Paoon, Chahenge Tujhe par... to name a few which 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. Rajesh Roshan 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 and has also acted in several of them. 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 dil' recently in 2016. This film was produced by Shakeel Akhtar and was a biography of the iconic poet Majaz Luckhnawi.
As an actor he has acted in serials like Sahil, Manzil, Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayee and Noorjehan a TV serial written by Nida Fazli. He also acted as the main lead in the film 'Dhun' directed by Mahesh Bhatt where his co stars were Anupam Kher and Sangeeta Bijlani with the music by Laxmikant Pyarelal and lyrics by Anand Bakshi. The music album was released by HMV in 1991 at a glittering event where all the who's who of the Indian Film industry were present. The music album was a hit. Songs like 'Yaad Aane wale', 'Laagi Prem dhun laagi', 'Main Aatma' are still remembered by music lovers. One interesting fact is that Mehdi Hasan sang a bhajan along with Talat "Main aatma tu Parmaatma" for the first time in an Indian film.
Recently Aziz acted in the feature film Fitoor produced and released by Disney in 2015 where he had a cameo. This film, directed by Abhishek Kapoor, had Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Tabu, and Rahul Bhat in key roles.
Talat released many albums like Talat Aziz live, Images A team Come True, Lehren, Ehsaas, Suroor, Saughaat, Tasavvur, Manzil, Storms, Dhadkan, Shahkaar, Mehboob, Khubsoorat, Irshaad, Khushnuma, Caravan e Ghazal in which Sonu Nigam also participated in a duet 'Qurbaton mein bhi' a ghazal written by Ahmed Faraaz. He also recorded an album 'A Tribute to his Master' which was recorded in Los Angeles as a tribute to his guru Mehdi Hasan and the tabla accompaniment for this unique album was none other than the great maestro Ustad Tari Khan. This album got a nomination in the best ghazal album category in the prestigious GIMA.
The singer was the first ghazal artiste to release a ghazal music video of 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. On 31st Dec 1999 he was invited by the Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee to perform specially for him and his close family at the Taj Garden Retreat Kumarakom Kerala. He sang a special number written by Janab Nida Fazli for the occasion titled Vrindavan ke Krishn Kanhaiyya Allah Hoo which was deeply appreciated by everyone specially the PM.
In 2003 he was invited by the King of Morocco Mohd XI to Marrakech as his special guest to celebrate the New Year along with a host of celebrities from around the world including none other than Sir Sean Connery.
In 2007 he was invited by Shri L.K. Advani the deputy PM at that time to sing in Delhi. He sang the famous song from the film 'Daddy' which is Shri L.K. Advani's favourite.
He celebrated his 25 Years Anniversary with the launch of a special audio and video album at the NCPA Tata auditorium Mumbai where the veritable who's who of the music industry were present and a special documentary on his life was screened. This documentary featured video bytes from the likes of legends like Mehdi Hasan Lata Mangeshkar Asha Bhosle Ghulam Ali and contemporaries Pankaj Udhas Anup Jalota Hariharan to name a few and was released by Universal Music India as a special commemorative DVD with the audio cd pack of two released by Times Music.
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.
In November 2013 he started hosting a special radio show titled Carvaan e Ghazal as an RJ on 92.7 BIG FM which was relayed every Sunday 9 pm to 11 pm nationally in 45 cities all over India. This radio program was about ghazals, ghazal singers, ghazal lovers ghazals in films and was in the top 3 programs on the channel. It was a weekly and received an amazing response. It also won the most prestigious Radio Award called the IRF India Radio Forum Awards for the best Hindi non breakfast radio show on the 31st of May 2014. He had stalwarts like Ghulam Ali Saheb Gulzar Saheb Nida Fazli Saheb Sonu Nigam Asha Bhosleji Chitra Singh and friends like Pankaj Udhas Anup Jalota Hariharan amongst a host of celebrities who came to the show at his invitation and graced it with their presence. This show got over in Oct 2015 although there was and is still a lot of demand for it.
In fact the great doyen Dilip Kumar Saheb was so impressed by this show that Saira Bano ji invited Talat and his wife Bina to their home as Dilip Kumar Saheb a fan of Talat wanted to congratulate him in person.
In the month of Aug and September 2015 he toured the U.S. for a special show titled 'The Iconic Tour' conceived by Bina Aziz in conjunction with Prria Haider Productions in USA who executed it for six packed concerts all over the U.S. where for the first time he sang Bollywood retro songs with Asha Bhosle ji. The highlight of this tour was that all the concerts were held at very prestigious venues like the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, the Grand Sears Arena in Chicago The Allen Center in Dallas The Arena Theatre in Houston and with a grand Finale at the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre NJPAC and they were sold out completely and set a standard of excellence. For the first time high end graphics were special designed under the supervision of Bina Aziz with VJ Tarang which were programmed for each track individually adding to the great ambience and this was highly appreciated by the audience.
In Feb 2016 he released a ghazal single titled 'Wo Shaam' the first digital ghazal audio and video release and it reached more that 600,000 people in a time frame of two weeks through the social Media like Facebook.
He also recorded two tracks with young upcoming artists like Piyush Shankar, Teesha Nigam for the new year 2017 titled "Meri Dua- A prayer' and another song with another talented upcoming singer Siddharth Slathia for Valentine's Day 2017. These songs were written composed and sung by him in collaboration with youngsters. Released worldwide on Facebook of all music lovers.
He recently toured the US in Sep/Oct 2017 titled 'Dil Se', performing in nine cities.

Discography

Talat has released many albums. He is equally versatile while singing a popular Sufi number like "Damadam mast Kalandar" or the soul stirring rendition of "Aaina Mujhse Meri" from the film Daddy. Between 1979 and 1984 he was the top artist recording for Music India Company. In 1984, he joined HMV, now Saregama Music the giant recording company. He also worked with Venus Records for a brief period when he released a number of hit albums
Some of his famous albums are

Television

As actor