His family loved fine arts and used to organize Mehfils in their house, inviting artists and poets like Jagjit Singh, Jan Nisaar Akhtar the father of the famous writer Javed Akhtar to name a few. This greatly influenced him and started learning music from an early age. He is Sania Mirza's uncle.
Talat Aziz took his initial training in music from Kirana Gharana. He was trained primarily by Ustad Samad Khan and later by Ustad Fayaz Ahmed who were famous classical music singers. After the initial training, Talat decided to learn music from music maestro Mehdi Hassan. On many occasions, like on a concert tour of the US and Canada in 1986 he shared the same stage with him on concerts in India and abroad. His first major performance was in Hyderabad at a place called King Kothi. He sang before a crowd of over 5,000. He sung Kaise Sukoon Paoon and some ghazals by noted shaayars of Hyderabad. Though he was nervous at his first performance in front of audience yet he performed well.
After his graduation he moved to Bombay in 1976 on a suggestion from Jagjit Singh. He also trained under classical music Ustad Samaad Khan and Faiyaz Ahmed Khan, and for his ghazal training he became a disciple of Mehdi Hassan in 1978. With the help of Jagjit he released his first album in 1979, Jagjit Singh Presents Talat Aziz. But for several years he was to struggle for a living. Talat also sang some ghazals in films like Umrao Jaan and Bazaar, which were super-hit. Talat has also composed music for TV serials and has also acted in several of them. He composed music for teleserials to name a few like Deewar, Baaz, Adhikaar, Ghutan, Sailaab, Aashirwaad and the magnum opus, Noorjehan. His acting was appreciated in serials like Sahil, Manzil, Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayee and Noorjehan a TV serial written by Nida Fazli. Talat released many albums like Jagjit Singh presents Talat Aziz, Talat Aziz live,Images A team Come True Lehren, Ehsaas, Suroor, Saughaat,Tasavvur, Manzil, Storms, Dhadkan, Shahkaar, Mehboob,Khubsoorat,Irshaad, Khushnuma, to name a few with his latest offering in 2009 Caravan e Ghazal in which Sonu Niigaam also participated in a duet 'Qurbaton mein bhi' a ghazal written by Ahmed Faraaz.
The singer was the ghazal artiste to release a ghazal music video of Tasavvur, in 1987 when a video album was not even thought of .He is often seen on the small screen in various roles as a music judge. However, his fans would love to see him on the silver screen too. He worked in a film in 1990. It was Mahesh Bhatt's `Dhun' opposite Sangeeta Bijlani. The film never got released for various reasons but the music was released by HMV in 1991 and was a great hit of that time featuring tracks like ' Main Aatma tu Parmaatma' a bhajan sung as a duet with none another than Mehdi Hassan and Talat and other tracks like 'Yaad aane waale' Laagi prem dhun laagi' which became a rage with the young crowd
The advent of the ghazal as a popular genre began in the late seventies and became a rage in the 80" when artists like Talat Aziz used to sell out albums in the hundreds of thousands of units. Begum Akhtar had her following of ghazal lovers. Then came Mehdi Hassan's, Ghulam Ali who was equally well known.On this side of the border, the Indian couple Jagjit and Chitra Singh, the ghazal exponents did live shows and sang at private mehfils. During that period Sanjeev Kohli,son of Madan Mohan, discovered a singer called Talat Aziz, who was young, good-looking, malleable and above all, he had a good voice. Jagjit Singh had already heard Talat sing at a Mehfil in Hyderabad, so he agreed to compose his first album.In 1979 his first album titled "Jagjit Singh presents Talat Aziz" came out which was phenomenal success thus gave him a launch pad for his meteoric rise. Then came the classic ghazal ' zindagi jab bhi teri bazm mein " from Umrao Jaan composed by Khayyam the ghazal from Bazaar ' Phir chidi raat baat phoolon ki' a duet with none other than the legend Lata Mangeshkar and the iconic nazm 'Aaina mujh se meri' from Mahesh Bhatt's film Daddy.
Talat Aziz has been singing in concerts for over three decades and has traveled the globe with his sell out performances . He completed his 25 Years Silver Anniversary with the launch of a special audio and video album in 2004 at the NCPA Mumbai where the veritable who's who of the music industry were present and the ones like Mehdi Hasan and Lata Mangeshkar who could not make it sent in their messages on video and a special documentary on his life was screened. This was released by Universal Music India as a special commemorative DVD with the audio cd pack of two released by Times Music.
Since then he has many albums . He is equally versatile while singing a popular sufi number like "Damadam mast Kalandar" or the soul stirring rendition of "Aaina Mujhse Meri" from the film Daddy. Between 1979 and 1984 he was the top artist recording for Music India Company. In 1984, he joined HMV, the giant recording company.He also worked with Venus Records for a brief period and then released albums with Universal Music India and the latest with Saregama Music.
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