Aziz Nazan

Mostly remembered as Indian qawwali singer and composer, but also a big name as playback singer in Bollywood, born 7 May 1938 in Mumbai, died 8 October 1992. Being from Malabari heritage – a Muslim family from Kerala – his mother tongue was Malayalam, he was schooled in Gujarati, so he had to master Urdu to become a "qawwal". The range of his voice was very broad and he could sing in high octave till C to C sharp gracefully. An important musical influence was Ismail Azad – he began as chorus singer in his "Party". In his early career he followed him, but soon he developed his own style which got a significance with time. Later he was inspired by Ustad [a1174967] and [a729665] and he gave a classical touch to the qawwali singing.