Hossain, Khalid
Hossain, Khalid (1945-2019) a glittering star of Bengali music, especially in the Nazrul Sangeet arena. He was simultaneously a devout artist and a famous music teacher. No artist can be a good teacher without having the quality of devotion, sincerity, and patience, as he had. He passed all talents and glories on to the future generation in music. His father’s name is Munsi Muhammad Shamsuzzoha and mother Rahima Khatun. His father was a businessman. He was born in College Street, Kolkata, on 4 December 1945. Amongst nine brothers and sisters, he was the second. He spent most of his early childhood in his ancestral home, in Krishna Nagar, West Bengal where he was brought up. At his early stage of musical practice, he started with modern Bengali music like Hamdh, Naat, Geet, Gazal, etc.
Later, he started to be involved in practice with Nazrul Sangeet. He studied at CMS Saint James School at Krishna Nagar. He spent his adolescence in College Street, Kolkata. He completed his Intermediate from Mitra Institution. His early childhood and adolescence were spent in a variegated ambience, where he grew up surrounded by art and culture. He attended school programs where he sang songs and performed recitations. His Bengali teacher poet Krishna Dayal Basu and Bhudeva Bhattyachariya taught him recitation with great care. He had a passion to collect postal stamps from many different countries from his early childhood. He loved to play football. He established a ‘Naba Jug Sporting Club’ along with his friends.
He often said that Kushtia is his second birthplace. He was born in a conservative Muslim family; however all of his family members were music enthusiasts. At that time, the family had all the musical instruments, radio and record player (gramophone) at home. But, practicing music with harmonium and tabla was difficult then in the conservative Muslim family.
His first music teacher was reverent Osman Gani. Later, he took music lessons from Abu Bakar Khan, who came from Medinipur. Abu Bakar was a legend in modern music in that era. He composed great music like ‘Sei Champa Nadir Teere’, ‘Katha dilam aaj raat-e’, which created a huge audience for him. Artist Khalid Hossain had sung the song ‘Sei Champa Nadir Teere’, which turned into a milestone and keeps him popular to music lovers even today. Most of his songs were written by poet Azizur Rahman and Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal. The composition master Abu Bakar died at a very early age of only 27. Then, Khalid Hossain took lessons about classical music from PC Gomes, Dhaka.
Staying in Kushtia, he attended programs from there till 1964. At the end of 1964, he shifted to Dhaka permanently. For livelihood, he opened a pharmacy named ‘Pharmaco’ at Awlad Hossain market situated in Airport road. It had to be closed due to lack of time for supervision. In 1956, the radio center was on Nazimuddin road. There he sang the modern songs, Nazrul Geeti, Rabindra Sangeet in three to four sittings in a day. He practiced Rabindra Sangeet and retained it for a long time. Later, he was attracted deeply to Nazrul Sangeet and became a metaphorical legend among all famous Nazrul songs singers.
He came into contact with some famous music artists like Dhananjoy Bhatachariya, Hemanta Mukhapadhaya, Shyamol Mitra, Shatinath Mukhapadhaya, Manabendra Mukhapadhaya, Gyanprokash Ghosh, Alpana Bandapadhaya, Pratima Bandapadhaya, Utpala Sen, and Krishna Chandra De. Next, he got in touch with some of the legendary singers of Bangladesh like Ostad Mastan Gama, Ostad Gul-Muhammad Khan, Ostad Ayat Ali Khan, Pandit Barim Majumdar, Akhter Sadmani, Abul Ahad, Khadem Hossain, Sohrab Hossain, Abed Hossain Khan, Sudhin Das, Samar Das and many more.
Khalid Hossain’s father had a good relationship with the famous folk-lore singer, Abbasuddin. In that capacity, a relationship developed with him. After listening to his song once, Abbasuddin stated that he would be a great singer. This had a great inspiration for his life.
Khalid was a music artist, Director of Bangladesh Radio and Bangladesh Television. He had served Government Music College for 30 years as a music teacher, producing a good number of student artists. They are now established as prominent music artists at different places. Yakub Ali Khan and Leena Taposi Khan are to name but a few. He joined the Music College in 1974 from where he retired as Vice Principal and Chairman of the Music Department in 2009.
He had served as a music instructor in different institutions like Hindol, Nazrul Academy, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, and Nazrul Institute. He was the President of Nazrul Sangeet Shilpi Shongstha. He sincerely served many institutions bequeathed with music such as National University, University of Rajshahi, Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, University of Dhaka, Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, and the Bangladesh Textbook Board.
He worked hard for finding the authenticity of the original melody notation of Nazrul Sangeet as a member of the special committee for the task and of the Nazrul Trustee Board.
Many audio cassettes and music CDs have been released from Nazrul Institute, His Masters Voice, and Columbia Recording Organizations. He added a different dimension especially in Islamic song, though he sang modern songs and devotional songs, popular old songs for which the people would ever remember him. He was very much cautious on the preservation policy of source of authenticity, originality, and melodious purity of Nazrul Sangeet.
For his dedication to music, he has been honoured with many awards such as ‘Ekushey Padak’, ‘Nazrul Institute Padak’, Jatiya Nazrul Samaj Swarna Padak’, ‘Anada Dhara Swarna Padak’, ‘Nazru1 Academy Padak’, ‘Biswa Sangeet Padak’, ‘Kabi Talim Hossain Trustee Padak’, ‘Begum Zebunnesa o Kazi Mahbubullah Trustee Padak’, ‘Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Padak’, ‘Kobiteertho Churuliya Nazrul Academy Padak’, ‘Jatiya Press Club Padak’, ‘Channel-i Padak’, lifetime award from IFIC Bank, BTV award, Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, University of Dhaka, and Northern University award.
Khalid Hossain visited many places of different countries in the world such as London, Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Multan, Islamabad, Rawalpindi to perform in musical shows. The Father of Nation Bangabandhu Sheik Mujibur Rahman had great admiration for him.
His spouse Shahana Hossain is a fascinating personality. Her inspiration to Khalid Hossain made him even more glorious in his artist life. They had one son named Asif Hossain.
Singer Khalid Hossain was a high-profile Nazrul Sangeet artist and teacher as well. He led a very simple life. The great artist and Nazrul Geeti singer of the country, Khalid Hossain breathed his last on 22 May 2019. [Leena Taposi Khan]
