Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan (18 February 1927 – 4 January 2017) was an Indian sitar player. Khan received the national awards Padma Shri (1970) and Padma Bhushan (2006) and was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 1987.

Early life
Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan was born in 1927 in Jaora (35 km away from Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh) as the son of Jaffer Khan, a versatile vocalist, sitarist and beenkar. He belonged to the Beenkar Gharana of Indore and was an All India Radio artiste since the early 1940s. A few years before the Beatles met Ravi Shankar, in 1958, Khan collaborated with jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck. Brubeck who was in Bombay through the U.S. State Department sponsored Jazz Ambassadors Program was impressed by the improvisation in Indian music and said that the experience accompanying Halim Jaffer Khan led him to play in a different way. Brubeck says of that meeting, "We understood each other." Khan also performed with the noted English classical guitarist Julian Bream in 1963.

Career
Khan is known for his own style Jafferkhani Baaj. He describes it as, "a synthesis of precision in technique, systematic thought" with a vigorous playing style. Cultural anthropologist and reader at the University of Mumbai, Dr. Kamala Ganesh states: "His music making is full of eclectic yet deeply informed choices. He is a thinking musician but puts across his complex views with a simplicity and feeling which demarcate the articulate performer from the articulate theoretician.... In him, one gets an unmistakable sense... a syncretic tradition". The Indian santoor player Shivkumar Sharma remembers of Khan's performance of the raga Chhayanat: "It was probably in 1955–56, I was relaxing in my terrace in Jammu. In the stillness of the night I heard the notes of Raga Chhayanat on the sitar emanate from my neighbor's radio. I immediately noticed that the tone of the sitar was completely different and the style of playing radically unique. I rushed to switch on my radio.... I was totally engrossed and was very curious to know who this maestro was."

Khan has been credited with bringing Carnatic ragas Kirwani, Kanakangi, Latangi, Karaharapriya, Manavati, Ganamurti, and others into the sitar repertoire, rendering them through a Hindustani sensibility and in the Jafferkhani style. He was the first Hindustani musician to collaborate with Carnatic music in a performance with renowned Veena player Emani Sankara Sastry.

Khan was also involved with Indian cinema. Music Director Khwaja Khurshid Anwar introduced him to the Hindi film industry in 1946 at the age of 17 when he played sitar in the songs of film Parwana. He also composed and played for films like Mughal-e-Azam, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1971), Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959), Kohinoor (1960) and collaborated with noted music directors such as Vasant Desai, C. Ramachandra, Madan Mohan and Naushad who has said, "he not only enriched film music, but his participation lent prestige to my songs."

In 1976, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan created the Halim Academy of Sitar in Mumbai, India.

Death
Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan died on 4 January 2017, at his home in Mumbai, India, from cardiac arrest, aged 89.

Works and awards

Select awards
 Tagore Fellow of Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2012
 Hanumant Sanman Murari Bapu, 2010
 Godavari Gaurav Kusumagraj Pratishthan, Nashik, 2010
 Padma Bhushan Government of India 2006
 Pillar of Hindustani Society TACCI, Mumbai, 2006
 Lifetime Achievement Award, Legends of India, 2005
 Giants International Award, 2004
 Kala Ratna Mumbai, 2003
 Swarsagar Award (PCMP), Pimpri-Chinchwad, 2003
 Acharya Pt. Ramnarain Foundation Award, Mumbai, 2002
 Sharda Ratna Mumbai, 2002
 Tansen Samman, Gwalior, 2000
 Sangeet Research Academy ITC-SRA Award, Mumbai, 2000
 Srestha Kala Acharya, 1998
 Nada Nidhi Avadhoota Datta Peetham, Mysore, 1998
 Haafiz Ali Khan Award Haafiz Ali Khan Memorial Trust, 1992
 Swar Sadhana Ratna Award, Mumbai, 1992
 Shikhar Samman Government of Madhya Pradesh, 1991
 Gaurav Puraskar, Government of Maharashtra, 1990
 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Delhi, 1987
 Ustad Allauddin Sangeet Ratna Bhopal, 1986
 Civil Medal awarded by the Mayor of Bombay, 1985
 Tantri Vilas, Sur Singar Samsad, Mumbai, 1984
 "Silver Tanpura," AICC Delhi, 1975
 Padma Shri , Government of India, 1970
 Hzt Amir Khusrau Gold Medal, Hyderabad, 1959
 Gold Medal, Bombay State Music Conference, 1956
 "Silver Sitar," Hyderabad, 1955
 Gold Medal All Bengal Music Conference, 1953

Video
Narrated by violinist Yehudi Menuhin, Deben Bhattacharya's film Raga features a young virtuosic Halim Jaffer Khan playing raga Sindh Bhairavi.

Select discography
 75th Celebration Swar Sadhna (Raag Zila Kafi)
 70th Birthday Release (Raag Tilak Kamod, Raag Jaijaiwanti, Raag Sindhi Bhairavi)
 Columbia (EP) (Raag Mand, Raag Ahir Bhairav)
 Enchanting Sitar (Raag Aarabi, Raag Multani)
 Guzra Zamana (Live in Concert- 1968) (Raag Abhogi) 
 His Master's Voice (EP) (Chakra dhun, Thumri in Deepchandi taal)
 Immortal Series: Vol 1 (Raag Pahadi, Raag Kedar); Vol 2 (Raag Kirwani, Raag Jaunpuri)
 Instrumental Classical: Sitar (Raag Jaijaiwanti, Raag Sindhi Bhairavi)
 Lilting Strings (Raag Bhairavi, Raag Gaud Sarang, Raag Kamod, Raag Rageshri, Raag Shyam Kalyan, Raag Yaman Kalyan)
 Live in Jaipur 1968 
 A Night at the Valley (Raag Kirwani, Raag Marwa, Raag Pahadi, Chakradhun, Thumri)
 Sangeet Suman (Raag Patdeep, Raag Shyam Kedar)
 Sitar Quintet (Raag Chandani Kedar, Raag Mazamiri, Raag Khusravani, Raag Sharavati, Raag Kalpana, Raag Miya ki Malhaar)
 Sitar Through the Ages [Soofiyana rang, Raag Bhimpalasi, Raag Zila Kafi, Raag Farghana] 
 Sitar Ecstasy [Raag Hemavati, Raag Jaitshri, Sufiana Sama (dhun)]
 Theme on Strings (Raag Saraswat Ranjani, Sitar Anjuman, Hulban)
 Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan (Raag Champakali, Raag Chhaya Nat, Raag Mishra Pilu)
 Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan (Raag Jaunpuri, Raag Rajeshwari, Raag Anand Bhairav, Thumri)
 Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan (Raag Araj, Raag Madhyami)
 Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan (Raag Marwa, Raag Pahadi)

References

Further reading
Jafferkhani Baaj: Innovation in Sitar Music. Khan, Abdul Halim Jaffer. Jafferkhani Baaj: Innovation in Sitar Music. Kohinoor Printers, 2000.

External links

The Beenkar Gharana, ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata, 2001.
 JafferKhaniBaaj - Official Website
 The Sitarist's Sitarist

1927 births
2017 deaths
Hindustani instrumentalists
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts
Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Sitar players
Musicians from Madhya Pradesh