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thanks.

- moazzam

i believe i'd originally started by asking for recommendations for qawwali performers beyond nusrat.

Beyond Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan there is Abida Parveen, Aziz Mian, the Sabri Brothers, and Rizwaan Muazzam. But I do not like Aziz Mian so much, his voice is too raspy and his style too pop oriented.

Qawwali to me is one of the greatest musical carriers to Divine Ecstasy. It has brought so many tears of bliss and uplifting expereiences that they are now uncountable. But listening to too musch Qawwali can make one person become too active in energy that one becomes restless. It is good to combine calm soothing Raga music with Qawwali.

I like "Chadtha Suraj" qawwali by Aziz Nazan. (shefali had requested for the qawwali). It has some hard hitting lyrics.

www.coolgoose.com - link to dl mp3

One needs to register (it's simple) on that site to download the songs.

link to Lyrics - Chadtha Suraj Dheere dheere

Hindi Lyrics:

hue naam oye benishan kaise kaise
zameen kha gayi naujawan kaise kaise

aaj jawani par itaranae wale kal pacthtayega - 2
chadhta suraj dheere dheere dhalta hain dhal jayega - 2
dhal jayega dhal jayega - 2

tu yahan musafir hain,yeh sarah fani hain
chaar roz ki mehmaan teri jindagani hain
teri jindagani hain teri jindagani hain
jan zameen jar zevar kutch na saath jayega
khali haath aaya hain khali haath jayega
khali haath jayega khali haath jayega

Thanks Vai,
I had managed to hear the song and painstakingly write down all the lyrics..
the person who has done this one seems to have made a few errors...

the first line...
Hue Nam OYE (????)
Its actually Hue Namwar ...
:-)

the beauty of qawwali - borrowing from all four corners of memory of literature.
the line zameeN kha gyi asmaaN kaise kaise is from Momin's most famous ghazal. the most famous couplet of that ghazal is:

na gor-e sikandar, na hai qabr-e dara
miTe naamiyoN ke nishaaN kaise kaise

Momin was Ghalib's contemporary.

- moazzam

I am listening to the qawwalis from Barsaat ki Raat: Na to caravan ki talash, but also the two others: nigahe naaz ke maron ka haal kya hoga and jee chahta hai choom loon apni nazar ko main.

How representative are these of "pop" qawwali? They are clearly very different from Nusrat's music, and also don't seem spiritually inclined, but are still very competent and well-composed. The singers apart from Rafi and Manna Dey are Batish and Bande Hassan. Were these well-known qawwals that Roshan brought in for the film?

In the film there are a series of competitions that these qawwalis are performed for. Was this/is this common? I just realised I know very little about the social context of this music form.

the organic brew
qawwali blog.. ish

murli-king of qawwali
(click on 'more' too)

Frangipani,

I think I had mentioned this in the original thread. Although the qawwalis sound different from NFAK and other traditional qawwals, I would like to mention that the compositions do not, because the compositions are actually by NFAK's father Fateh Ali Khan, and Roshan had used them with permission. ( I wish the present music directors also did that instead of blatantly lifting the tunes)

The FAK/NFAK equivalents are:

Na to budkade ki talab mujhe, na to haram ke dar ki talaash hai, jahaan lut gayaa ho sukoon-e-dil usi rehguzar ki talaash hai, and

Sahar kareeb hai taaron kaa haal kyaa hoga, ab intezaar ke maaro kaa haal kyaa hoga.

I think the Sahar kareeb hai qawwali is available in India under T-series label , the album is Ishq Ka Afsana.

So you can see even the lyrics were adapted from the original.

Both qawwalis were made into a "filmi" style. Since I mainly listen to traditional qawwali, I find it amusing when I hear the female chorus going AAHAA after the line nigah-e-naaz ke maaro kaa hal kya hoga.

But yes, I would call these as completely "pop" or "filmi", apart from the composition part. One more thing you would notice while comparing qawwalis from Bollywood films and the traditional ones is the extemporeneousness you would see in the traditional performances, both from the lead qawwal and other soloists. There is a lot of singing by soloists in traditional qawwalis, esp in the case of NFAK, and his followers like Rahat Ali Khan, Moazzam Rizwan and many others.

When you listen to the filmi qawwali it is well-orchestrated or arranged, while the traditional ones are more "crude".


The competition part is purely Bollywood.

hey thanks, CB,

I am going to look for these traditional qawwalis. I take your point about the "arranged" format of the filmi qawwalis. But these are still pretty "well-arranged"! At least they give the sense of some of the improvisation involved in the real ones.

I just realised I have never actually seen a live qawwali performance, and would love to.

If you read this again, recommendations for good, traditional qawwali albums will be much appreciated!

Upthread Moz wrote:

Some other qawwals I can think of:

1. Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
2. Rizwaan Moazzam
3. Faiz Ali Faiz

4. Mehr Ali and Sher Ali
5. Sabri brothers
6. Aziz mian
7. Nizami brothers
8. Badar Miandad (same as Badar Ali Khan)



1, 2 and 3 have a style similar to NFAK's since they are also related to his family or party. RNFAK is his nephew (I think people also know him from Bollywood, Mann ki lagan and Jiya dhadak dhadak?). Rizwan and Moazzam are sons of Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan who was the cousin of NFAK and sang in his party. Faiz Ali Faiz is Rehmat Ali's nephew. Rehmat Ali was a harmonium player and soloist in NFAK's party.


I don't listen to a lot of qawwals, but out of the qawwals "beyond" NFAK I like Mehr Ali Sher Ali. They have their own style, and have nice compositions.

Aziz mian was a great scholar and when I listen to him I am amazed by the fact that he knows so many verses, but his qawwali is more about delivery of verses rathar than music. He would take long breaks in the melody and deliver verses, and I am not a fan of his style, atleast from the point of music.

Nizami brothers (Delhi) are good.

Fran,

I'm assuming you're ok with recommendations of NFAK's traditional work? Here are two of my favourite albums:

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan En Concert A Paris vol. 1 (Ocora Radio France)
and
Qawwali: The Vocal Art of the Sufis [II] (JVC World Sounds)

Individual songs worth hearing are "Allah Hu" "Ya Hayo Ya Qayyum" (or something like that) and "Mein to Piya se Naina Mila aayi re" (see http://www.geocities.com/karachiiterulez/meintopiya.html for words, this one is not in the albums I listed above)

Poorvi

thanks, Poorvi! Traditional is what I was looking for.

Frangipani - If you want to see live Qawwali then next time your in Delhi head for the tomb of Nizamuddin where there are regular perfomances every thursday evening. I'm not an expert but I carried away by the music and setting.

Ajit,
sorry for the belated reply.

the word naamvar makes sense, meaning famous, not a person with a famous name, such as yours because you could have a very common (and at a given moment a very famous one) but not that's not like being the actor Aje(i)et or Ajit Agarkar

- moazzam

thanks, beebah; i will be in delhi next week and will try to go there.

a lovely qawwali in raga gawoti by NFAK and party . very old. lovely.

I went for a Sufi Qawwali sung by Rais Anis Sabri - he's 12-year old, a sixth standard student and it was quite amazing - he has an excellent voice - powerful and what a range - but it was his confidence and showmanship that had the audienc charmed. Would be interesting to see how he evolves as he matures. It was a high energy performance and every now and then he would stop and make these comments - for e.g. he gave this long analogy about mobile phones and said that every earthquate or tsunami was a missed call, urging us to remember Allah. Then he made cracks about how the devout are fixated on the remote and serials, or on filmy music (did this parody of Aashiq Banaya), and are more clued in about cricket stars than about Imam Hussain. I found it a bit disconcerting, though that just as he was warmed up and fully in the swing, there was a continuous (literally every second minute) procession of people coming onto the stage to give their nazranas - many gave through little kids, but a lot of elders stood on the stage carefully counting out the notes - he didn't skip a beat though and salaamed graciously and kept the money aside, singing all the while, or bowed down, when many of them tossed notes, one by one, on his head. My more knowledgeable companions said it was common practice. Is this a typical ritual, or only in India?

Beyond Nusrat there are many. Some of the Qawwals who are based in Karachi and sing in Urdu, Purbi and Persian are:

Farid Ayaz Qawwal and Brothers
Bahauddin Qawwal
Niazi Qawwal (Manzoor Niazi group)
Saami Qawwal Brothers
Zaki Taji Qawwals
Amjad Sabri (son of the late Sabri)

The first four names above are from the Delhi Gharana and were known as Qawwal Bachey before partition. The four brothers who came from India settled behind the shoe market in Karachi and made four different groups. They florished in Karachi but had a tough period during the Zia era when music and art were discouraged. They have since died but their children and grand children recite qawwali to this day and prosper doing it. They mostly sing unadulterated qawwali using traditional instruments like tabla, dhol and harmonium. No saxophone, keyboards or other fusion stuff.

Farid Ayaz and brothers have recently received the "Pride of Performance" award from the Government of Pakistan. His father the late Munshi Raziuddin, who was also an ustad of classical khayal gaikee was also the recipient of the same award. Raziuddin sahib died in 2003 at the age of 94 and performed until he was 92. You can learn more about them at http://www.qawwal.com

I suggest that you listen to

1. "Rung" (a set of 2 CDs) produced about ten years ago, in which you can listen to several of the above qawwals, sing in the classical style.

2. " Qawwali Music of Pakistan" a set of three CDs available through Virsaonline. http://www.virsaonline.com/Productions/Productions.htm &

3. "Spirit of the Sufis" - The latest qawwali (set of 2 audio CDs ) produced by Kabir Cultural Centre.

A sample of the qawwali in video is below:


You may order # 3 through KCC. They are for $20 for a set of two plus shipping $8 for USA/Canada or $10 for Europe. The payment would need to be made to the "Kabir Cultural Centre".
472, ave. Grosvenor
Westmount, QC
H3Y 2S4

In India there are two excellent qawwal groups that I have heard:

1. Warsi Brothers (from Rampur)

2. Nizami Brothers (from Delhi) Ghulam Sabir and Ghulam Waris

You can find Warsi recordings on khazana but the Nizami ones are available through http://www.qawwalnizamibrothers.com/

Then there must be the disciples/sons of the late Jafar Husain Khan sahib somewhere in Badayun who I suspect are also great singers.

Since qawwali has a somewhat limited appeal in present day India, they do not get as much exposure or encouragement as they deserve. Yeh Hindustan ki saqafat key liye ek barda nukhsaan hai.

Much of hindi qawwali is indeed fast fading. However, punjabi qawwals are still in demand during the marriage season (Nov-March) when new material tends to come out.

Anil, look out for the yearly Khusrau Festival organized by Muzaffar Ali. You will hear some great Urdu/Hindi Qawwali there. Worth following. Also in the music store of India it is easy to find lot of music from these festivals.

My favourites are Nusrat Fateh Ali and Abida Parveen.

Some of their songs are available at:

http://ghazal.110mb.com/nusrat-fateh-ali-khan.html
http://ghazal.110mb.com/abida-parveen.html

A truly wonderful evening that I will remember for a long time to come was on my last trip to Delhi.
Every time that I am in Delhi (A very infrequent event lately) I have made it a point to go to Nizamuddin,
where I reverently lay a garland of flowers at the mazhar of Amir Khusrau ( to my mind one of the greatest gifts to India).
That particular evening there was a singer who sang like a beatific angel,a man who will probably never see a concert stage,but sang to and for the genius that has been gone from us for several centuries.
THAT will remain with me for a long time to come.
Peace.

Back to NFAK. Wanted to share this wonderful qawwali with you all and especially moazzam...Shams-ud-Doha Badar-ud-Doja

Click: Khuda Ka Nur tujh mein hoobahoo hai.....

kya baat the Nusrat ki. Kya andaaz hai. Sung in the pure style with the right instruments. Bohat khoob!

Hope you enjoy it too.

I'm listening to 'Lal Shahbaz Qalandar' here. Amazing.

Does anyone have access to the full version of any of the songs from the Qawalli Flamenco CD?

Lovely isn't it? One of my favourites.

Hima, It is wonderful. I enjoyed it very much. While I do not have the full version of that but you may like to listen to these three versions of Mast Qalandar here.

One is by my favorite singer the late Jafar Husain Khan who had a very melodious voice and sang at a slower pace with focus on tarrannum. I just love his style and the way he sings with such emotions and feeling.

The second version is by Sabri brothers in their rich voices that have this lovely khannak, and the third version is by Farid Ayaz and Abu Muhammad which is also beautiful. I'll try to add the one by NFAK to the same playlist later.

Dear All

We are doing Sufi music promotion from Pakistan with the world's
famous Sufi music artist.

We are introducing you our world's famous Qawwali Artist by the name
of Rizwan Muazzam Ali Khan Qawwali group (Nephew of ustad nusrat fateh
Ali khan)

They had perform all over the world and worked with womed
international,Real world record UK.
They have worked with Peter Gabriel 5 years.Rizwan Muazzam had
perfomed also in Vancouver Folk Music Festival 2004.

We had just performed in Malaysia from 18 nov-22 nov 2007

And performed in World tour of MYSTICAL Journy in Canada
October 11,2007
The Canadian Tour

Note: We are also promoting other Sufi music artist and qawwali artist.

If you requir any type of detail about us then let us know.

Take good care of your self.

Regards

Mian Azeem
Love is Rhythm, Life is Rhythm
International Manager
Rizwan Muazzam Qawwali Group
Pakistan.
Cell # 92-321-9664817
Cell # 92-300-9664817
sufimusic786@gmail.com
sufimusic786@hotmail.com

there is quite a variety of traditional qawwalis at the following blog:

http://qawwal.blogspot.com/

perhaps some of the qawwals will be new to you.

you will find recitals in urdu, hindi, punjabi, purbi and persian (farsi).
some beautiful poetry to go with it. a few have translations as well as the nastaleeq versions.

hope you enjoy them as much as i do.