Lal Chand Yamla Jattਲਾਲ ਚੰਦ ਯਮਲਾ ਜੱਟ

Early life

Lal Chand was born on 28 March 1914 at Chak number 384 in Lyallpur district, in what is now Pakistan. His parents, Khera Ram and Harnam Kaur, were poor, and the boy grew up in the world of the Punjabi village: its harvest songs, its fairs, and its wandering minstrels. Music found him early. He began singing alongside his younger brother, and his raw, plaintive voice marked him out.

He trained in vocal music under Pandit Dyall and Chaudhry Majid, while a scholar named Sunder Das Aasi honed his skills as a lyricist. In 1930 he married Ram Rakhi; they would have five sons and two daughters. The family lived the precarious life of village musicians until Partition forced them, like millions of others, to start over. They resettled in the Jawahar Nagar area of Ludhiana, in Indian Punjab.

The recording career

Yamla Jatt's first recording for HMV came in 1952, and he would remain with the label for the rest of his career, a loyalty almost unheard of in the music business. His songs drew on the deep wells of Punjabi folk: the tragic romances of Dulla Bhatti, Shahni Kaulan, and Puran Bhagat, which he popularised for the gramophone age, and his own compositions, written in the earthy idiom of the village.

His most beloved numbers, "Das Main Ki Pyar Wichon Khatya" and "Satguru Nanak Teri Leela Nyaari Ae", are still sung across Punjab. He recorded duets with Mohinderjit Kaur Sekhon of All India Radio Jalandhar, performed across the world, and shared stages with the great Alam Lohar of Pakistan, who became a close friend. Much later, his music would be sampled by the British-Asian star Panjabi MC, carrying the old folk melodies onto global dance floors.

The tumbi and the style

What set Yamla Jatt apart was his sound: a high, keening voice accompanied by the soft strumming of the tumbi, the single-stringed folk instrument of Punjab. Before him the tumbi was a humble village instrument; in his hands it became the signature sound of Punjabi folk music, and every singer who followed, from Kuldeep Manak to the bhangra stars of today, owes something to his example.

His look was as distinctive as his sound. He tied his turban in the traditional "turla" style, with a sharp, upright fold that became his trademark. Among his fellow singers he was revered as "Ustad Ji", the master, while audiences everywhere knew him simply as Yamla Jatt. He was, in the judgement of many, the doyen of Punjabi music, the artist who laid the foundation of the modern Punjabi song in Indian Punjab.

Honours and final years

Recognition came from the highest quarters: Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru awarded him a gold medal in 1956, and in 1989 the National Academy of Dance, Drama and Music in Delhi honoured him with a lifetime contribution award. He sang into old age, his voice barely dimmed, and remained a revered figure in Ludhiana.

His final days were cruel. A fall at home fractured his hip, and the injury, complicated by diabetes, turned gangrenous. On 20 December 1991, the very day his leg was to be amputated at a Ludhiana hospital, Lal Chand Yamla Jatt died. He was seventy-seven. The tumbi fell silent, but the foundation he laid under Punjabi music has never shifted.