From wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ustad_Sultan_Khan

Ustad Sultan Khan is a renowned Indian sarangi player and singer, specializing in the Hindustani Classical music tradition. He is known for his melodic control and capabilities. He is one of the members of the Indian fusion group Tabla Beat Science, along with Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell.

He has taught big-time music producers such as Sukshinder Shinda and Ram Gopal Varma (who provided the music for his film, Deyyam) to play the sarangi. Belonging to the Indore Gharana, Khansahib's sarangi and gayaki ang (singing) make his presentation of Indian Classical Ragas unique and pleasing to critics. He has two well-known disciples -- Ustad Ikram Khan (another sarangi player) and Anand Vyas-- his only student who plays the sitar (transposing his Guru's music for the sitar gives Vyas a highly lyrical style). He is also the sitar player for the musical ensembles Arrows of Agape and Global Circus. The former group was co-founded by Vyas and Justin Benigno in 2008[citation needed].

Ustad Sultan Khan gave his first performance at the All-India Conference at the age of 11, and since then has become to be recognized on an international scale, performing along with Pandit Ravi Shankar, George Harrison’s 1974 Dark Horse World Tour.[1] He has won numerous musical awards, including being a recipient twice of the Sangeet Natya Academy Award, also know as the President's Award, as well as being a recipient of the Gold Medalist Award of Maharashtra, and the American Academy of Artists Award in 1998. In 1997 Sultan Khan had the honor and privilege of having to perform at Prince Charles 50th birthday celebrations[citation needed].

He is also the Ustad of Deeyah the Norwegian born singer, he performed on her debut album I Alt Slags Lys in 1992

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Ustad Sultan Khan with Ustad Zakir Hussain



Do catch the sublime rendition of a Rajasthani Holi Song at 0.56
Amazingly earthy vocals....

One song of Ustadji that i love most is Piya Basanti re.... he had sung it with Chitra. Infact that whole album is a treat for music lovers..

Chandni si raat is an unheralded gem .. Do lend an ear.. The soulful sarangi & ustadji's sublime sur .. WOW!!

Sarangi is one of the most melodious players. Unfortunately its vanishing now. After the advent of Harmonium use of sarangi reduced.

Ustaad ji is too good and he was best in the fast part of the ragas. His tracks are too melodious to listen to. Great virtuosity!!!!

I agree with Bhaskar on the fact that sarangi is not used as much today, specially since the harmonium is being used increasingly. While I personally love Sultan Khan's playing, the person who actually made sarangi huge in classical music is Pandit Ram Narayan - both solo and as an accompanist. Apart from that there was Sabri Khan, and in the younger generation Kamal Sabri, and Ram Narayan's daughter Aruna. But in the last 50 years or so, most classical musicians have preferred to use the harmonium as an accompaniment. Even here, there are great harmonium players like Appa Jalgaonkar and Purushottam Walawalkar among the seniors (they were a treat to watch live) and Arvind Thatte, Seema Shirodkar and Jyoti Goho in the next generation. Some vocalists like Jasraj and Kishori Amonkar have in more recent years used violin accompaniment of Kala Ramnath and Milind Raikar respectively. I guess each of these three instruments has its own charm.

Was listening to a live Ghulam Ali album called Farmaaish (earlier released as Mast Nazrein) for the past two days. Sultan Khan is on sarangi and what a fantastic job he's done. Throughout, his sarangi envelopes the golden voice of Ghulam Ali in a manner that's unbelievable.