Talat Aziz thinks there’s no point in following the same old world

Singer Talat Aziz, in a recent interview, expressed his feelings about old music and how it can never be redone. He remembered poets like Bashir Badr, Nida Fazli, Qateel Shifai and others.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, he said, “In modern times, I don’t see any lyricists (of their caliber) in the field of ghazal. It is a very specialized form of poetry which has bandish, misra, beher, kafia. It is said that do misre mein sari kainath sama jaati hai, so writers who best understand Urdu and ghazals are very few now.

Talking about his career, he said, “I also did a show in Bhopal and met him. He is now 88 years old and suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Over the past 40 years I must have recorded over 30 ghazals written by him. So I have selected six of them and after the re-recording I will release them digitally titled Yaadein with Ujaley apeni yadon ke humesha saath rahe… as the title track. I reprogram them with the same melody but a new age treatment and arrangement so that the younger generation can identify with the ghazals.

He concluded: “I haven’t been here for over 40 years and now I’ve lost count of how many shows I’ve done in Lucknow. This one was special because he was to receive the Naushad Samman.