Ustad Amir Khan (pronounced [əˈmiːr xaːn]; 15 August 1912[1] – 13 February 1974)[4][5] was an Indian singer and musician in the Hindustani classical tradition.

[2][1][3][a] His father, Shahmir Khan, a sarangi and veena player of the Bhendibazaar gharana, served at the court of the Holkars of Indore.

Amir Khan was exposed at an early age to many different styles, since just about every musician who visited Indore would come to their house, and there would be mehfils at their place on a regular basis.

Following his father's advice, in 1936 he joined the services of Maharaj Chakradhar Singh of Raigadh Sansthan in Madhya Pradesh.

He performed at a music conference in Mirzapur on behalf of the Raja, with many illustrious musicians present, but he was hooted off the stage after only 15 minutes or so.

[5] This unique style, known as the Indore Gharana, blends the spiritual flavour and grandeur of dhrupad with the ornate vividness of khyal.

Unlike other artists he never made any concessions to popular tastes, but always stuck to his pure, almost puritanical, highbrow style.

He presented an aesthetically detailed badhat (progression) in ati-vilambit laya (very slow tempo) using bol-alap with merukhandi patterns,[7] followed by gradually speeding up "floating" sargams with various ornamentations, taans and bol-taans with complex and unpredictable movements and jumps while preserving the raga structure, and finally a madhyalaya or drut laya (medium or fast tempo) chhota khyal or a ruba'idar tarana.

His performances had an understated elegance, reverence, restrained passion and an utter lack of showmanship that both moved and awed listeners.

This attempt to introduce classical music to the masses through films significantly boosted Khansahib's visibility and popularity.

Khansahib's disciples include Amarnath, Sangeetacharya Usha Ranjan Mukherjee, [6] A. Kanan, Ajit Singh Paintal, Akhtar Sadmani, Amarjeet Kaur, Bhimsen Sharma, Gajendra Bakshi, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Kamal Bose, Kankana Banerjee, Mukund Goswami, Munir Khan, Pradyumna Kumud Mukherjee and Poorabi Mukherjee, Kamal Bandhopadhyay, Shankar Mazumdar, Shankar Lal Mishra, Singh Brothers, Srikant Bakre and Thomas Ross.

His style has also influenced many other singers and instrumentalists, including Bhimsen Joshi, Gokulotsavji Maharaj, Mahendra Toke, Prabha Atre, Rashid Khan, Ajoy Chakrabarty, Rasiklal Andharia, Sanhita Nandi, Shanti Sharma, Nikhil Banerjee, Pannalal Ghosh, the Imdadkhani gharana, and Sultan Khan.