Nikhil Banerjee

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Nikhil Banerjee

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Biography

Nikhil Banerjee (Bangla: নিখিল ব্যানার্জী) (14 October 1931–27 January 1986) was one of India’s most prominent sitar players of the second half of the 20th Century. He never achieved the glamour of Vilayat Khan or his gurubhai Ravi Shankar, but Nikhil Banerjee did win great critical acclaim and the hearts of many music lovers. He is remembered as a musician’s musician.

Along with Ravi Shankar, Vasant Rai, and Ali Akbar Khan, he was trained by “Baba” Ustad Allauddin Khan of the Maihar gharana (school).

Beginnings

Nikhil Banerjee was born in Calcutta into a Brahmin family, where music as a profession was discouraged, although his father, Jitendranath Banerjee, an amateur sitariya, taught him to play the instrument. Young Nikhil grew into a child prodigy, won an All-Bengal Sitar Competition at the age of 9 and soon was playing for All India Radio. At the time, his sister was a student of khyal great Amir Khan, who became a life-long influence. Jitendranath approached Mushtaq Ali Khan to take the boy as a disciple, but was turned down; instead Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, the zamindar of Gouripur in present-day Bangladesh, was responsible for much of Nikhil’s early training.

In 1947 Banerjee met Allauddin Khan, who was to become his main guru.

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  • aguaespejo_

    its mah man NIKKY B [3]

    14 May 7:53am Reply
  • d-_

    greatness

    17 Feb 1:19pm Reply
  • reort

    its mah man NIKKY B [2]

    3 Dec 2012 Reply
  • megajosh2

    its mah man NIKKY B

    5 Jan 2012 Reply
  • megajosh2

    Why does this man have no plays in my library? I need to fix this immediately.

    2 Jan 2012 Reply
  • ERIXWORX

    thank you, Lastfm! maybe never would have heard this wonderful music by this talented man if not for 'mixradio'...

    13 Jul 2011 Reply
  • DevouredDog

    Probably among my top 3 Indian classical musicians ever!

    11 Mar 2011 Reply
  • seserotegui

    muy bueno!!!

    25 Jul 2010 Reply
  • rameshhp

    He is a spark from the eternity... Such uplifting music! Sad he died so early.

    6 Apr 2010 Reply
  • quora

    beautiful music.. as for me - one of three great sitar masters (along with Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan)

    27 Nov 2009 Reply
  • tifaniz

    Divine music. He is my most popular Indian musician in the world! I love Nikhil Banerjee!!

    27 Jun 2009 Reply
  • NikhilCC

    "Kuch bajega!" I'll call from the peak - "something will ring!!"

    12 Jun 2009 Reply
  • nihilismexe

    Yes! Such amazing music.

    18 Apr 2009 Reply
  • sudibasu

    Wow!

    30 Mar 2009 Reply
  • -tgt-

    Best thing to subvert the carnatic tag is for more people here to tag him as hindustani. and yes fahey even composed his own ragas based on existing ones.

    17 Mar 2008 Reply
  • schizodanny

    People who criticize the raga should be aware that John Fahey was influenced by this stuff. Okay, the roots of his sound were in American primitivism, but his playing does retain elements from it. Robbie Basho? Even more so!

    14 Mar 2008 Reply
  • mosesxan

    Why is he tagged as carnatic?

    27 Jan 2008 Reply
  • Aman

    Who tagged this as emo? haha...

    3 Apr 2007 Reply
  • gautam3

    supreme

    21 Feb 2007 Reply
  • auricstormcloud

    Amazing.

    18 Aug 2006 Reply
  • All 21 shouts