Kundan Lal Saigal, the singer par excellence has hogged a lot of my listening these days. I had never been a ghazal admirer other than enjoying some ghazal inspired numbers in the 1980's Indian cinema. I did not get into either our home grown legend Jagjit Singh nor the legend from across the border, Mehdi Hassan. Eventually, it had to be this almost prehistoric (for some people) figure who made me enjoy ghazals.
I feel one of the great attributes of a ghazal singer is to make the listener enjoy the language. Saigal does exactly that and I say this even though I don't understand much Urdu. The beautiful diction, the pauses and the ease with which Saigal executes a ghazal is sheer brilliant. It's the sort of singing that makes you want to speak the language. Also a major effect of the ghazal genre is its almost relaxing effect which I notice a lot of singers try hard to achieve. Saigal achieves that without even trying, it seems.
Anyway, here's a playlist of Saigal sahab that I often to listen to. It has some great film numbers and bhajans as well. Enjoy if you will.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCsRaZFEl7JNIVlTvxUJPKze9OX3l2lY3
Here's a sample gem from the playlist:
