Real name: Master Ibrahim (1915-1980)

Master Ibrahim (1915-1980) started learning the clarinet at the age of 11. A prolific musician, Ibrahim (often also spelt as Ebrahim), seems to have been equally at home as a Hindustani classical musician (he recorded both for AIR and HMV) and as a film musician. Unlike many of his contemporaries in the film orchestras, his name was well-known amongst the general public because HMV also released many records of his instrumental versions of popular film songs. Searching on the Internet, I came across an extract from a dissertation paper by a New York-based clarinetist Shanti Raval titled 'The Adaptation of the Clarinet to Hindustani Music: The Playing Style of Master Ebrahim'. In her paper, Raval claims that Master Ebrahim 'remains to this day, the only Indian clarinetist to play on the Boehm system.' The Boehm clarinet, Raval explains, is used by 'the majority of Western classical musicians.... Master Ebrahim, however, was able to convey many of the inflections of Hindustani music on a Boehm clarinet.' Another admirer of Master Ibrahim was the young Ruskin Bond: "I was also fond of the clarinet (turj) playing of an Indian musician, Master Ibrahim, and I had some of his recordings which transported me back to the streets and bazaars of small-town India. Light, lilting and tuneful, I preferred this sort of flute music to the warblings of the more popular songsters."