Azam Khan is truly one of a kind: Shermin Ahmed Minni

Azam Khan is one of the pioneers of Bangladeshi pop music. His work later inspired the spread of band music across the country. His companionship and cooperation later resulted in many stars being born in the music scene of Bangladesh. 

Apart from this, Azam Khan has been a part of the life of many music artists. One of them is Shermin Ahmed Minni, who is a female guitarist now.  

As she is a fan of Azam Khan's songs, she also got Azam Khan's support in her musical life. Some incidents of Azam Khan's life have come out through her memoirs. In an exclusive interview with The Business Standard, Sharmin shared tales of Azam Khan.

"I personally met Azam Khan for the first time nearly forty years ago. I met him through my elder brother, who used to p-0lay guitar for Azam Khan's band. I remember visiting his home. He was always courteous enough to offer me food every time I visited," said Shermin.

Shermin wasn't short of praise for the 'PopGuru' as she claimed that it was Azam Khan who was the first to introduce the pop and rock genre into the contemporary Bangladeshi music scene. 

"Today there may be many new accomplished artists in the music scene. But his memory cannot be forgotten.", added Shermin.

Back in 1983, when she was about to leave for Turkey on a tour of the National Children's Academy, she had no guitar of her own. She immediately turned to Azam Khan for help.

Azam Khan on the other hand had only one guitar at the time but he selflessly gave it to her for her to perform properly. His guitar was worth thirty thousand rupees at that time. 

"Azam Khan was not only a great musician but also a great-hearted human being. He is undoubtedly one of the best people I have met in my life and truly one of a kind," she added. 

Shermin further opened up about her plans of covering Azam Khan's famous track "Papri keno bojhena". 

"I have lent vocals to this multiple times throughout my career in different shows. I plan to cover a number of Azam Khan songs for my own band."

Shermin also shared a heartbreaking tale of a concert where Azam Khan was supposed to perform. However, as fate turned out, his ailing sickness did not allow him to fly to the US and the concert never happened.

"I was living in America in 2010. Azam bhai was scheduled to perform in a show over there everything was set in order for the concert but unfortunately, we got the sudden news of Azam Khan being diagnosed with cancer. Everything fell apart after that. The show never happened. I raised around Tk7 lakh in funds for his treatment and sent the money back to Bangladesh," shared Shermin with a broken heart.

After Azam Bhai's departure, no one bothered to work on his songs the way he needed to, she said.