Faiyaz Khan

Faiyaz Khan was born at Sikandara, near Agra, on 8 February 1886. His father, Safdar Hussain, died four months before his birth, and he was brought up by his maternal grandfather, Ghulam Abbas, who taught him music until he was twenty-five. He also studied with Mehboob Khan "Daraspiya", who was his father-in-law, with Natthan Khan, and with his uncle Fida Hussain Khan.

He served for many years as a court musician to Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the Maharaja of Baroda, where he received the title "Gyan Ratna". In 1908 the Maharaja of Mysore gave him the title "Aftab-e-Mausiqi", the sun of music. He performed widely at the music conferences of Lucknow, Allahabad, Calcutta, Gwalior, Bombay and Mysore, and at Jorasanko Thakurbari, the Tagore household in Calcutta.

An attack of typhoid in 1945, followed by tuberculosis, forced him to lower his singing pitch, and almost all surviving recordings date from these later years. He died of tuberculosis at Baroda on 5 November 1950.

He composed bandishes under the pen-name Prem Piya, among them the thumri Baaju band khul khul jaye that remains his best-known piece. Contemporaries called him Mehfil ka Badshah, and the musicologist Ashok Ranade said of his singing that "there was no chink in his armour"; he is generally credited with blending the manners of his several teachers into a new direction for the Agra gayaki. In 1912 the Baroda court seated him at the Maharaja's right hand during official functions. His tomb at Vadodara was attacked and badly damaged during the riots of 2002.

His specialities were dhrupad and khayal, and he also sang thumri and ghazal; his best-known thumri is "Baaju band khul khul jaye". He is described as having blended the styles of his teachers and given the Agra gayaki a new direction. He composed bandishes under the pen-name "Prem Piya".