BENJO STRUMS UP POPULAR APPEAL                       
                                                   
Music lovers in Dubai will soon be able to learn to play classical music on the musical instrument, benjo, from Ostaad Mumtaz Ali Sabzal, who hails from the Gharana of the inventor of benjo and claims to be the only classical benjo performer in the Indian sub-continent.

Sabzal has mastered playing classical music on benjo and does that regularly on the Pakistan Television program, Raag Rang. The program exclusively features the outstanding exponents of classical music and Sabzal is the first and the only musician to introduce and play benjo to this program.

Now, he plans to move to Dubai and start offering classical music classes here. "My aim is to make benjo a popular instrument the world over and to transfer my skills to others," Sabzal said.

Sabzal said in an interview in Dubai that his family, originally from Balochistan province of Pakistan, has been living since 300 years in the Lyari area of Karachi in the Sindh province.

He said that in 1919, benjo was made by Ostaad Gul Mohammad Khan, the elder brother of his grandfather Ostaad Khaliq Dad. He did that by modifying and enlarging the length to three feet and the width to 10 inches and adding Sur (melody) to a small and simple Japanese musical instrument (Japanese harp) invented by Morita Goro in the early Taisho period beginning 1912.  It is still sold in Japan under the name of Taishogoto.  The name benjo was given to the instrument as it produces a special Ba-aj (melodious tune).

Sabzal's grandfather Khaaleq Daad improved on the quality of melody to the extent that its level reached between sarod and sitar. He was the solo classical benjo artist at Radio Pakistan Karachi for 35 years and has a long list of students residing in several countries.  Sabzal's father, Ostaad Sabzal Baloch, improved on the design of benjo in the mid-1960s giving it a modern look.

The Journal of Association for Indian Music Study (No. 5) has carried a research report by Murayama Kazuyaki on Taishogoto and Benjo, which it also calls Bulbultarang, in South and West Asia, along with the photographs of Sabzal's family for their contribution to benjo. It describes Taishogoto as a 60 cm long and 15 cm wide resonant box painted black. Two metal strings are installed like typewriter-style keys in the same pitch and create three-octave chromatic scale. It became popular at homes as it could be handled and played easily after short practice.

Sabzal started playing benjo under the supervision of his grandfather at the Mian Mubarak Ali Khan Gawaliar Gharana Art Circle in Karachi in 1979.  He used the medium of TV to play benjo for the first time in 1987 as a classical music instrument in the Raag Rang programme and plays all classical Raags on benjo. Before that, benjo was played on the TV as a folk music instrument.

Sabzal is considered to be an outstanding classical performer on the PTV. In 2001, he received the Best Solo Classical Benjo Artist Award from PTV. In 2004, he was given the Pakistan film industry's respected Nigar Award in the same category. Sabzal gives classical benjo recitals regularly at programs organized by foreign missions in Pakistan.

He has been appreciated among others by Sarod player Ali Akbar Khan, music director Nisar Bazmi, famous film personality turned politician Member of Parliament Shatrughan Sinha, and classical singer Ostaad Fatah Ali Khan, to name a few.

Sabzal said that rock 'n' roll, Spanish, Arabic to folk and classical, all kind of music can be played benjo.

Kazuyaki said in his research that in South Asia, especially in India and Pakistan, benjo occupies very unique position as a musical instrument. 

Balochi music, in Pakistani and Iranian Balochistan province, has very rich tradition of benjo music in various types of performance style, he said. He has devoted a chapter on benjo in Balochi music in Pakistan. 

He said that in India, benjo was popular as a home use musical instrument until 1960s. Nowadays, its popularity is reducing and barely local musicians in Assam, West Bengal and M.P. are known as player of benjo in their musical styles.

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