walking upstream…
Lata Mangeshkar
photo: bollywood hungama · cc by 3.0 ↗Lata Mangeshkar
sourcesWikipedia
Lata Mangeshkar began singing to support her family after the early death of her father, the classical vocalist and Marathi theatre star Deenanath Mangeshkar, and rose through the late 1940s to become the most recorded and most revered female playback singer in Indian history. Across more than half a century she defined the sound of the Hindi-film heroine's voice: pure-toned, precise, classically disciplined and emotionally restrained. Her dominance was so complete that generations of composers wrote with her voice in mind.
the sound in question
1964
Lag Ja GaleLata Mangeshkar
walk the tributaries ↓
Noor Jehan1950s · Filmi / Playback singing / Ghazal
As a young singer Mangeshkar consciously modelled herself on Noor Jehan, the reigning voice of 1940s film music; Mangeshkar recalled that Noor Jehan heard her as a child and told her to practise hard. Noor Jehan's ornamented, full-throated romantic style is audible in Lata's earliest hits before she pared her tone down.
listen: upstream & here
1946
Awaaz De Kahan HaiNoor Jehan
1949
Uthaye Ja Unke SitamLata Mangeshkar
listen forPlay Noor Jehan's 'Awaaz De Kahan Hai' then Lata's 'Uthaye Ja Unke Sitam' and listen for the same swooping, sob-laced romantic phrasing and generous vibrato Lata borrowed before refining it into her own cleaner line.
Deenanath Mangeshkar1930s · Natya Sangeet / Marathi theatre music / Hindustani classical
Lata's first and most important teacher was her father, Deenanath Mangeshkar, a Hindustani classical vocalist and Natya Sangeet star; the raga-based discipline and precise, ornamented phrasing he drilled into her as a child underpins the classical command that set her apart.
listen: upstream & here
1930
Shura Mi VandileDeenanath Mangeshkar
1961
Jyoti Kalash ChhalkeLata Mangeshkar
listen forFollow Deenanath's stately natya-geet 'Shura Mi Vandile' with Lata's raga-based 'Jyoti Kalash Chhalke' and hear the same rigorous classical intonation and careful, note-perfect ornamentation passed from father to daughter.
K. L. Saigal1930s · Filmi / Ghazal / Hindustani classical
Mangeshkar idolised K. L. Saigal from childhood and paid tribute across her career by recording versions of his songs; his soulful, unhurried, ghazal-tinged film singing was a formative model for how a screen song could carry deep feeling.
listen: upstream & here
1946
Jab Dil Hi Toot GayaK. L. Saigal
1949
Aayega AanewalaLata Mangeshkar
listen forSet Saigal's mournful 'Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya' beside Lata's early 'Aayega Aanewala' and hear the shared slow, keening melodic drift and the way each voice leans into a note's ache before releasing it.