Hiding in the tangled back streets of Pakistan’s greatest urban centre, Karachi, is a locale known as Qawwal Gali (Qawwal Lane). Actually, it is far more than a single lane. The small neighbourhood, which includes several streets and galis, each named for a feted qawwal, is home to a community of singers dedicated to keeping the subcontinent’s unique Islamic devotional music alive.
Recently, several Pakistani nationals – a mix of resident and non-residents, drawn together through Facebook and their love of qawwali – created an informal "collective" with the aim of documenting on film some of Pakistan’s best and brightest qawwals. Through the wonder of email, several members of the group contributed to a fascinating discussion with Scroll.in on the current environment of qawwali and the hopes for their soon-to-be-released film.
What is the state of qawwali in Pakistan today?
Qawwali is enjoying great popularity among certain segments of society and not doing so well in others, so it’s a mixed bag. As the population of Pakistan has exploded so has the audience for qawwali.
There are three main groups of listeners for qawwali today: Devotees of the various shrines dotted across Pakistan’s landscape, music aficionados with an interest in Classical and Sufi music, and the lay-listeners. The numbers of all three groups have increased over the last few years.
In Pakistan alone, there are more than a hundred qawwal parties, including the half a dozen or so more famous ones who are on the international circuit.
As the sectarian attitudes in society harden, is the basic tolerant and Sufistic message of qawwali something that is attractive to listeners or is it a threat to the performers?
Being the kind of music that brings a message of love and devotion to eternal Higher Powers, it is needed now more than ever to comfort those looking for a soulful experience and seeking a spiritual anchor.
The practitioners of qawwali have been sensitive to the changing environment and have navigated these changing times very skilfully. It's a lot more common to hear the kind of poetry that would be easily accepted by larger audiences belonging to a wider variety of schools of thought. This means that in public gatherings you will hear more of the pure Sufiyana poetry such as Hamd, Naatiya poetry and manqabats to Hazrat Ali or the various Sufi saints and Auliya. A few of the ghazal elements in the qawwali repertoire are sung at dargahs. However, in smaller gatherings with a select audience you still get the whole spectrum of qawwali including raag ragni and thumris and ghazals within the qawwali genre. So far, the hardening sectarian attitudes haven’t seemed to have a major effect on qawwals specifically. Qawwali as a form is sufficiently flexible to accommodate the changes of audience tastes, circumstance and occasion.
Ustad Ameer Ali Khan
Charkha
Charkha is a famous “kafi” by Baba Bulleh Shah and is sung here by Ustad Ameer Ali Khan. Ameer Ali Khan’s family migrated from Kapurthala after partition and his father and uncles established a wonderful qawwal party in Pakistan. Ameer Ali Khan performed in his family qawwal party and was also a shagird [disciple or student] of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He currently leads his own party which includes his brothers and their sons. The youngest – and most animated – member of the party is Ameer Ali’s youngest son Raees Ali Khan – named after the famous Sitar player. Ameer Ali’s performances show a wonderful synthesis of his father’s as well as Nusrat style. It’s a style rooted in the folk-based Sufi music of the Punjab.
Qawwali seems to be a fairly well defined form of music with a long, glorious history, precise ways to perform it and a certain environment in which it is performed. (Of course, there is filmi qawwali which is something altogether different.) Has qawwali changed over the years? Is the music and style of Farid Ayaz, for example, different than that of earlier generations?
Qawwali has indeed evolved over the last 40 years, especially since the tremendous fame of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He put qawwali on the world map. His early years were spent reciting qawwali in its traditional form. However as he experimented with fusion qawwali mixing with western instruments, he gained fame both within the country and in the West. With his concerts abroad, especially in Paris and New York, he became a household name. Nusrat is idolised by younger qawwals who followed. So much so that many gharanas sadly abandoned their own unique styles to emulate Nusrat and his entire repertoire of famous tracks. So yes, qawwali has evolved but not all for the better. Traditionally qawwali was meant as a form of spiritual inspiration that was employed under the direct supervision of the Sufis at shrines across the subcontinent. Over the last few decades it has changed its focus somewhat towards pop and bombast.
On the other hand we have some amazing practitioners both in the Punjab and in Karachi who have beautiful and robust voices and continue to charm listeners with their voices and to scrape a living off it. The performers we’ve featured in our film are unique in that they’re trying to keep alive the traditional Classical/khanqahi style of qawwali and have been fairly successful in gathering an audience.
If anything the style of Farid Ayaz and the other performers featured in our project is somewhat closer to that of earlier generations. Though he too has his days when he simply sings for the crowds in his well-known intense and passionate manner. On these occasions, the focus is on more up-tempo, crowd-pleasing pieces rather than the traditional style of qawwali. Despite these concessions, Farid is remarkable in his mastery over traditional raagas and poetry that is the legacy of his tradition. On a “good” day he can enthral his audience with his weaving of music and poetry into powerful, evocative performances.
Subhan Ahmed Nizami qawwal and Brothers
Khabaram Raseeda Imshab
Khabaram Raseeda Imshab is a famous ghazal in Raag Bageshri by Hazrat Amir Khusrau of Delhi. The singers are: Subhan Ahmed Nizami qawwali and brothers. Subhan is the grandson of Ustad Iftekhar Ahmed Nizami who migrated to Karachi soon after 1947. He is a young qawwal known for his attention to the classical raag-based idiom and has gathered quite a following abroad, especially in Europe. This performance is languid, deliberated and a careful expose of Khusro’s poetry. I would imagine this is about as close as you can get to the expression handed to us by the tradition that is over 700 years old.
Your film (trailer) shows a "school" scene where students are practicing and learning. Are there sufficient interested teachers and students? Is qawwali training as rigorous and as long and as demanding as classical music? Is there a basic ustad/shagird relationship?
The trailer demonstrates a shagird or disciple reciting in the presence of the Ustad while he encourages and makes suggestions. This isn't necessarily exactly how the training process works in real life though. More often the kids are taken into the inner circle of qawwal parties and made to join the public recital as they grow up. At some point the lead qawwals will spot special potential in some of the disciples and allow them prominence by bringing them to the forefront and influence the course of a performance. So it is a combination of learning with guidance and of learning through performances in front of audiences.
I think the qawwali training is as long as classical but quite different as it focuses more on the performed kalaam and its deeper meanings rather than the form of the raag. So the focus is the bandish, creating an atmosphere of feelings and emotions, not necessarily attaining absolute perfection in raag. The qawwal treats the ragas more as his musical grammar and rare is the performance where a qawwal stays within the confines of a single raga. In khyaal and other forms of classical music, the integrity of the raag has to be maintained and that requires an altogether different discipline of the performer. While qawwali is expansive, classical training is somewhat more focussed and requires the more sustained and deeper (or more subtle) exposition of a raaga. Qawwali focuses more on beautifying the recital through taankari, bolbaant and cleverly linking one poet’s philosophy to another's via girahbandi. In qawwali there is a lot more interaction with audiences feeding off the singers and vice versa coupled with expressive body language, so a young qawwal has to master this art as well.
With Coke Studio and digital technologies there seems to be a lot more space for music of all types to be made and consumed by Pakistani audiences. Is that true of qawwali, or is it still primarily a live experience not really suited to "MP3" files?
Of course the live experience cannot be replaced, be it a gathering at a shrine or a small and intimate setting. However like all other music, much of qawwali is now heard over the Internet. It's simply so easy to reach an audience of thousands in a short space of time. Besides people take pleasure in listening to their favourite qawwali repeatedly which is otherwise virtually impossible in a live setting.
In terms of Coke Studio, do you think the show has expanded qawwali’s audience and given the form new life, or is it detracting attention and audience away for the "real" qawwali?
Coke Studio has not just helped increase qawwali audiences but those of all genres with its presentation of fusion music. It casts a wide net with its pop-based sound which easily engages younger audiences. People who may not consider qawwali as "cool" in its pure traditional form come back to it when they hear modern takes on an ancient art form. Coke Studio also has a special appeal due to their attractive presentation.
On the other hand, we go back to the basics in our presentation to something a lot simpler, but in some ways more sophisticated as it focuses on unadulterated voice quality and the beautiful poetry. It has an earthy feel to it minus the razzmatazz. You may have noticed that our recitals were unplugged and we used a few simple collar microphones for recording the audio and directional microphones to capture the percussion for a sound that is as close to the type of an intimate gathering as possible. Mahera (film maker) has been a great asset to help us achieve that.
By focussing on the traditional, we hope to keep alive the roots of qawwali. Without the roots thriving there will be a deterioration of the evolution of this musical form, whether as fusion music or as any other more popular form.
Taj Muhammad & Shad Muhammad Niazi qawwal
Al Ishqu Deeni ma Dum'tu Haiyya
A very rare piece which the performers claim is from the period when “Semaa” was sung during the era of the famous Sufi, Hazrat Junaid Baghdadi (830-910 C.E). The singers are Taj Muhammad & Shad Muhammad Niazi qawwal of the Atrauli Gharana. Their late father Ustad Moin Niazi established a big name for himself in the 60s when he was awarded the Pride of Performance, the highest award for such artists by the government of Pakistan. He was also the first qawwal to have a street named after him in Karachi. The street incidentally is home to more than 35 families of qawwals and is locally known in Karachi as “qawwal gali”. Taj and Shad are another group of promising qawwals deserving of wider exposure.
What is the motivation for this film at this time? Where is the financial backing coming from?
The motivation is multifold.
Firstly, it is to expose some of our amazing singers, especially some younger ones, to the larger community of listeners. It would be really satisfying for us if as a result some of them were invited to recite on the concert venues in India and overseas. These people have devoted a major part of their lives to learning and practicing the art yet many of our own young music lovers don’t know of them. So we hope to fix some of that deficit.
We also wish to bring out some of the older poetry and classical-based arrangements that haven't been sung for a while and help revive them. Familiarity will breed a special love for music and our objective is to present it in the simplest of ways with the use of just traditional instruments.
A few individuals with a common love for music got together to make this journey happen. The main initiators were Arif Ali Khan from Montreal and Asif Hasnain from Vienna both of whom have long been qawwali lovers, and have established contacts with the musicians. Others from within Pakistan readily joined to play major roles. Mahera Omar, who is a budding documentary film-maker, joined in as a participant and director/editor. An interesting point is that most of us had only known each other online due to our mutual love for qawwali and it was the first time we were meeting each other physically.
The funding for the project was contributed by the participants themselves. We have solicited private sponsors and have had some degree of success, however we are hoping to generate more funds from the corporate sector as well as from individuals with a taste for qawwali who are willing to contribute.
When will the film be out and will it be distributed outside of Pakistan, especially India?
We are regularly releasing the performances recorded during our journey. This film itself shall be released on a number of platforms including digital and physical media. We aren’t certain about the release date presently. Initially, we had planned to finish it by the end of 2015, however the participants are planning another "Dream Journey" in December 2015 and plan to include parts of that in a final film we expect to finish in 2016. Of course, our ability to raise monetary contributions for the work involved in editing and the post-production of the main documentary will be a critical factor in the release date.
We have recorded more than 20 hours of music and interviews across a number of cities in Pakistan, mostly in very intimate settings (including the residences of the qawwals themselves) and we are releasing the performances, one at a time, on our Facebook and YouTube pages. From our own experience, we can attest that qawwali has rarely been recorded or presented in a manner like ours. Hopefully these performances will serve as a valuable record for lovers of qawwali as well as students of Islamic Studies, Sufism and listeners who are curious about our wonderful heritage.
Ustad Farid Ayaz & Ustad Abu Muhammad
Kaliyan Sang Karat Hai Rang Raliyan (Raag Bahar)
Kaliyan Sang Karat Hai Rang Raliyaan is a bandish in Raag Bahar famously sung by Pandit DV Paluskar in the film Shapmohan in 1955. The singers are Ustad Farid Ayaz & Ustad Abu Muhammad, also winners of Pride of Performance. They have sung it beautifully in a unique qawwali style, giving it a whole new character, being sung with Farid’s usual verve and energy. The accompanying taranas are especially noteworthy.
You can check out more about the "Dream Journey" collective on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
Recently, several Pakistani nationals – a mix of resident and non-residents, drawn together through Facebook and their love of qawwali – created an informal "collective" with the aim of documenting on film some of Pakistan’s best and brightest qawwals. Through the wonder of email, several members of the group contributed to a fascinating discussion with Scroll.in on the current environment of qawwali and the hopes for their soon-to-be-released film.
What is the state of qawwali in Pakistan today?
Qawwali is enjoying great popularity among certain segments of society and not doing so well in others, so it’s a mixed bag. As the population of Pakistan has exploded so has the audience for qawwali.
There are three main groups of listeners for qawwali today: Devotees of the various shrines dotted across Pakistan’s landscape, music aficionados with an interest in Classical and Sufi music, and the lay-listeners. The numbers of all three groups have increased over the last few years.
In Pakistan alone, there are more than a hundred qawwal parties, including the half a dozen or so more famous ones who are on the international circuit.
As the sectarian attitudes in society harden, is the basic tolerant and Sufistic message of qawwali something that is attractive to listeners or is it a threat to the performers?
Being the kind of music that brings a message of love and devotion to eternal Higher Powers, it is needed now more than ever to comfort those looking for a soulful experience and seeking a spiritual anchor.
The practitioners of qawwali have been sensitive to the changing environment and have navigated these changing times very skilfully. It's a lot more common to hear the kind of poetry that would be easily accepted by larger audiences belonging to a wider variety of schools of thought. This means that in public gatherings you will hear more of the pure Sufiyana poetry such as Hamd, Naatiya poetry and manqabats to Hazrat Ali or the various Sufi saints and Auliya. A few of the ghazal elements in the qawwali repertoire are sung at dargahs. However, in smaller gatherings with a select audience you still get the whole spectrum of qawwali including raag ragni and thumris and ghazals within the qawwali genre. So far, the hardening sectarian attitudes haven’t seemed to have a major effect on qawwals specifically. Qawwali as a form is sufficiently flexible to accommodate the changes of audience tastes, circumstance and occasion.
Ustad Ameer Ali Khan
Charkha
Charkha is a famous “kafi” by Baba Bulleh Shah and is sung here by Ustad Ameer Ali Khan. Ameer Ali Khan’s family migrated from Kapurthala after partition and his father and uncles established a wonderful qawwal party in Pakistan. Ameer Ali Khan performed in his family qawwal party and was also a shagird [disciple or student] of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He currently leads his own party which includes his brothers and their sons. The youngest – and most animated – member of the party is Ameer Ali’s youngest son Raees Ali Khan – named after the famous Sitar player. Ameer Ali’s performances show a wonderful synthesis of his father’s as well as Nusrat style. It’s a style rooted in the folk-based Sufi music of the Punjab.
Qawwali seems to be a fairly well defined form of music with a long, glorious history, precise ways to perform it and a certain environment in which it is performed. (Of course, there is filmi qawwali which is something altogether different.) Has qawwali changed over the years? Is the music and style of Farid Ayaz, for example, different than that of earlier generations?
Qawwali has indeed evolved over the last 40 years, especially since the tremendous fame of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He put qawwali on the world map. His early years were spent reciting qawwali in its traditional form. However as he experimented with fusion qawwali mixing with western instruments, he gained fame both within the country and in the West. With his concerts abroad, especially in Paris and New York, he became a household name. Nusrat is idolised by younger qawwals who followed. So much so that many gharanas sadly abandoned their own unique styles to emulate Nusrat and his entire repertoire of famous tracks. So yes, qawwali has evolved but not all for the better. Traditionally qawwali was meant as a form of spiritual inspiration that was employed under the direct supervision of the Sufis at shrines across the subcontinent. Over the last few decades it has changed its focus somewhat towards pop and bombast.
On the other hand we have some amazing practitioners both in the Punjab and in Karachi who have beautiful and robust voices and continue to charm listeners with their voices and to scrape a living off it. The performers we’ve featured in our film are unique in that they’re trying to keep alive the traditional Classical/khanqahi style of qawwali and have been fairly successful in gathering an audience.
If anything the style of Farid Ayaz and the other performers featured in our project is somewhat closer to that of earlier generations. Though he too has his days when he simply sings for the crowds in his well-known intense and passionate manner. On these occasions, the focus is on more up-tempo, crowd-pleasing pieces rather than the traditional style of qawwali. Despite these concessions, Farid is remarkable in his mastery over traditional raagas and poetry that is the legacy of his tradition. On a “good” day he can enthral his audience with his weaving of music and poetry into powerful, evocative performances.
Subhan Ahmed Nizami qawwal and Brothers
Khabaram Raseeda Imshab
Khabaram Raseeda Imshab is a famous ghazal in Raag Bageshri by Hazrat Amir Khusrau of Delhi. The singers are: Subhan Ahmed Nizami qawwali and brothers. Subhan is the grandson of Ustad Iftekhar Ahmed Nizami who migrated to Karachi soon after 1947. He is a young qawwal known for his attention to the classical raag-based idiom and has gathered quite a following abroad, especially in Europe. This performance is languid, deliberated and a careful expose of Khusro’s poetry. I would imagine this is about as close as you can get to the expression handed to us by the tradition that is over 700 years old.
Your film (trailer) shows a "school" scene where students are practicing and learning. Are there sufficient interested teachers and students? Is qawwali training as rigorous and as long and as demanding as classical music? Is there a basic ustad/shagird relationship?
The trailer demonstrates a shagird or disciple reciting in the presence of the Ustad while he encourages and makes suggestions. This isn't necessarily exactly how the training process works in real life though. More often the kids are taken into the inner circle of qawwal parties and made to join the public recital as they grow up. At some point the lead qawwals will spot special potential in some of the disciples and allow them prominence by bringing them to the forefront and influence the course of a performance. So it is a combination of learning with guidance and of learning through performances in front of audiences.
I think the qawwali training is as long as classical but quite different as it focuses more on the performed kalaam and its deeper meanings rather than the form of the raag. So the focus is the bandish, creating an atmosphere of feelings and emotions, not necessarily attaining absolute perfection in raag. The qawwal treats the ragas more as his musical grammar and rare is the performance where a qawwal stays within the confines of a single raga. In khyaal and other forms of classical music, the integrity of the raag has to be maintained and that requires an altogether different discipline of the performer. While qawwali is expansive, classical training is somewhat more focussed and requires the more sustained and deeper (or more subtle) exposition of a raaga. Qawwali focuses more on beautifying the recital through taankari, bolbaant and cleverly linking one poet’s philosophy to another's via girahbandi. In qawwali there is a lot more interaction with audiences feeding off the singers and vice versa coupled with expressive body language, so a young qawwal has to master this art as well.
With Coke Studio and digital technologies there seems to be a lot more space for music of all types to be made and consumed by Pakistani audiences. Is that true of qawwali, or is it still primarily a live experience not really suited to "MP3" files?
Of course the live experience cannot be replaced, be it a gathering at a shrine or a small and intimate setting. However like all other music, much of qawwali is now heard over the Internet. It's simply so easy to reach an audience of thousands in a short space of time. Besides people take pleasure in listening to their favourite qawwali repeatedly which is otherwise virtually impossible in a live setting.
In terms of Coke Studio, do you think the show has expanded qawwali’s audience and given the form new life, or is it detracting attention and audience away for the "real" qawwali?
Coke Studio has not just helped increase qawwali audiences but those of all genres with its presentation of fusion music. It casts a wide net with its pop-based sound which easily engages younger audiences. People who may not consider qawwali as "cool" in its pure traditional form come back to it when they hear modern takes on an ancient art form. Coke Studio also has a special appeal due to their attractive presentation.
On the other hand, we go back to the basics in our presentation to something a lot simpler, but in some ways more sophisticated as it focuses on unadulterated voice quality and the beautiful poetry. It has an earthy feel to it minus the razzmatazz. You may have noticed that our recitals were unplugged and we used a few simple collar microphones for recording the audio and directional microphones to capture the percussion for a sound that is as close to the type of an intimate gathering as possible. Mahera (film maker) has been a great asset to help us achieve that.
By focussing on the traditional, we hope to keep alive the roots of qawwali. Without the roots thriving there will be a deterioration of the evolution of this musical form, whether as fusion music or as any other more popular form.
Taj Muhammad & Shad Muhammad Niazi qawwal
Al Ishqu Deeni ma Dum'tu Haiyya
A very rare piece which the performers claim is from the period when “Semaa” was sung during the era of the famous Sufi, Hazrat Junaid Baghdadi (830-910 C.E). The singers are Taj Muhammad & Shad Muhammad Niazi qawwal of the Atrauli Gharana. Their late father Ustad Moin Niazi established a big name for himself in the 60s when he was awarded the Pride of Performance, the highest award for such artists by the government of Pakistan. He was also the first qawwal to have a street named after him in Karachi. The street incidentally is home to more than 35 families of qawwals and is locally known in Karachi as “qawwal gali”. Taj and Shad are another group of promising qawwals deserving of wider exposure.
What is the motivation for this film at this time? Where is the financial backing coming from?
The motivation is multifold.
Firstly, it is to expose some of our amazing singers, especially some younger ones, to the larger community of listeners. It would be really satisfying for us if as a result some of them were invited to recite on the concert venues in India and overseas. These people have devoted a major part of their lives to learning and practicing the art yet many of our own young music lovers don’t know of them. So we hope to fix some of that deficit.
We also wish to bring out some of the older poetry and classical-based arrangements that haven't been sung for a while and help revive them. Familiarity will breed a special love for music and our objective is to present it in the simplest of ways with the use of just traditional instruments.
A few individuals with a common love for music got together to make this journey happen. The main initiators were Arif Ali Khan from Montreal and Asif Hasnain from Vienna both of whom have long been qawwali lovers, and have established contacts with the musicians. Others from within Pakistan readily joined to play major roles. Mahera Omar, who is a budding documentary film-maker, joined in as a participant and director/editor. An interesting point is that most of us had only known each other online due to our mutual love for qawwali and it was the first time we were meeting each other physically.
The funding for the project was contributed by the participants themselves. We have solicited private sponsors and have had some degree of success, however we are hoping to generate more funds from the corporate sector as well as from individuals with a taste for qawwali who are willing to contribute.
When will the film be out and will it be distributed outside of Pakistan, especially India?
We are regularly releasing the performances recorded during our journey. This film itself shall be released on a number of platforms including digital and physical media. We aren’t certain about the release date presently. Initially, we had planned to finish it by the end of 2015, however the participants are planning another "Dream Journey" in December 2015 and plan to include parts of that in a final film we expect to finish in 2016. Of course, our ability to raise monetary contributions for the work involved in editing and the post-production of the main documentary will be a critical factor in the release date.
We have recorded more than 20 hours of music and interviews across a number of cities in Pakistan, mostly in very intimate settings (including the residences of the qawwals themselves) and we are releasing the performances, one at a time, on our Facebook and YouTube pages. From our own experience, we can attest that qawwali has rarely been recorded or presented in a manner like ours. Hopefully these performances will serve as a valuable record for lovers of qawwali as well as students of Islamic Studies, Sufism and listeners who are curious about our wonderful heritage.
Ustad Farid Ayaz & Ustad Abu Muhammad
Kaliyan Sang Karat Hai Rang Raliyan (Raag Bahar)
Kaliyan Sang Karat Hai Rang Raliyaan is a bandish in Raag Bahar famously sung by Pandit DV Paluskar in the film Shapmohan in 1955. The singers are Ustad Farid Ayaz & Ustad Abu Muhammad, also winners of Pride of Performance. They have sung it beautifully in a unique qawwali style, giving it a whole new character, being sung with Farid’s usual verve and energy. The accompanying taranas are especially noteworthy.
You can check out more about the "Dream Journey" collective on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube
