New Delhi, Feb. 27 -- Listening to Pankaj Udhas, who passed away in Mumbai on Monday at age 73, felt as if he was perpetually singing and the world had just fortuitously chanced upon his soft, reassuring voice.

The widely popular ghazal and occasional playback singer was at the vanguard, along with Jagjit Singh, Anup Jalota, Hariharan and Talat Aziz, of popularizing the ghazal genre of music during the last four decades and more.

Udhas chose his ghazals with a keen eye for their potential popular appeal and delivered them unencumbered by the showiness of his craft. His voice had a certain disembodied quality where it often felt as if he might as well have existed just as a voice.

Soft-spoken to a fault, Udhas brought to bear his long y...