Sayeeduddin Dagar

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Hussain Sayeeduddin Dagar, known among musicians as Saeed Bhai, was an Indian singer from the dhrupad tradition. Dhrupad is the oldest surviving form of North Indian classical music, Hindustani classical music. He was born in 1939 in Alwar in Rajasthan and died in 2017. He belonged to the Dagar family and was the nineteenth generation in that line. His cousins, among them the so-called Senior and Junior Dagar Brothers, were also famous dhrupad singers.

Music and breakthrough

His father was Hussainuddin Khan Dagar, who died in 1963. At the age of six Sayeeduddin began to learn from him, later also from his uncle Rahimuddin Khan Dagar. He was president of the Dhrupad Society in Jaipur and in Pune and himself lived in Pune. He also appeared in the well-known Indian television series Bharat Ek Khoj.

Influence

Dhrupad sounds very different from pop music. It is slow, restrained and meditative, and a singer builds a raga from long, calm notes, often accompanied by a stringed instrument and a drum. Saeed Bhai belonged to the last representatives of a tradition handed down from father to son. His work shows where Indian classical music comes from.

Listening