Sindh Club Session

“Hazrat kay samnay pesh karthay huay hum bohoth darthay hain …” 

[We feel terribly afraid to sing before the revered one].

This was Fareed’s first reaction I asked him to sing at Abba’s chambers at the Sind club for this performance.

This concert was held in February 2005, to commemorate Abba’s 90^th birthday.  It was held one month after the Abba’s actual birthday.  In January of that year, a birthday bash was held at the Club, organized by his many friends and admirers.  I could not make it to Karachi for the party, since the obligations of profession and work intervened, keeping me in Vienna or maybe on the road to another country.  So I came to Karachi as soon as I could and this concert was organized by way of atonement….

I was somewhat surprised at Fareed’s remark.  Truly, Abba had a keen ear and knowledge of music, surpassed by few.  However he was the kindest, most non-judgmental of people and invariably sought the good in others rather than dwell upon their weaknesses.  He dealt with the meek and the mighty with equivalent humility, gentleness and attentiveness.  This characteristic was reflected in his comport as musical audience.

Two beloved friends in a state of hypnosis.  The Late Mehdi Hasnain Sahib and the Late Bilal Dallenbach

This was the first session we held after Munshi Raziuddin’s passage in 2003.  His absence created a large void, and I suppose Fareed and Abu Mohammad felt some apprehension at attempting to satisfy Abba’s discerning taste without their father’s guidance and stewardship of the performance, as had been the case thus far.

The setting was simple, informal and intimate with a few close friends, family, and the qawwals in Abba’s room.  Fareed and Abu Mohammad presented the recital with virtuosity that reflected firm resolve to preserve and build upon the rich legacy of knowledge and training bequeathed to them by their father.

I really do not know how to describe the performance … the atmosphere was marked by a creative tension that is palpable throughout the performance.  The tension is borne from the discipline exercised to stay in the classical form, at least for the first hour or so of the performance.  Despite the studied expose of the raga, the first three pieces are neither conventional Khyaal nor are they rendered as “conventional” Qawwali.  They have not sung some of the pieces like this (to my awareness) before or since …

The tenor of the music is marked by Darbari, the Raaga with which Fareed opens the recital, and they go on to sing several variations and bandishes of Malkauns for the first part.  Some of these pieces have attained considerable popularity since they have sung them in various episodes of the Pakistani Coke Studio series of musical programmes that were brilliantly developed and orchestrated by Rohail Hayat.

Returning to the performance, Fareed’s apprehensions were quite dispelled.  Abba and the rest of the audience were mesmerized by the shear uniqueness and the mastery of the classical rendition by Abu Mohammad and him.  The singers were matched by the audience in the concentration in exploring and grasping the soul of the music

While the listener is familiar with Fareed and Abu Mohammad’s classical qawwali, this session, veering towards Khyaal, represents their musical foundation.  Looking back at this session, I am so impressed by Fareed’s range, Abu Mohammad’s sweetness of voice and of the alto voices of the younger ones in the ensemble.  The careful, detailed expose and vocalization of the earlier pieces are a joy. —Asif Mamu

2005 Playlist:

1.     Bandish in Darbari

2.     Taraana Biya Biya

3.     Bandish in Malkauns

4.     Manqabat: Mun Kunto Malua

5.     Raag Maru Bihag / Ay Dil Bageer e Daaman e Sultan e Auliya / Tarana

6.     Ghazal in Anandi: Ay Sarv e Nazaneen e Mun

7.     Chaap Tilak / Padaro Maro / Paiyan Paroon Gi / Aao Piya Darron Main Tope

8.     Baro Ghee Kay Diye Na / Haryala Bana / Phool Rahi Sarson

1994 Mehfil - Munshi Raziuddin & Sons

We were in Karachi on home leave.  Abba and I fixed an impromptu session at one of Abba’s long time friend Shamin Malik’s house near the Quaid-e-Azam’s Mazaar.  Shamin is a prominent businessman based in London and Karachi.  His house is a pre-partition building that he has restored to its pristine glory, with taste and respect for the original that is found rarely in Karachi.  The high ceilings and tiled flooring created very good resonant acoustics and the “concert hall” effects can be heard as picked up by the indestructible Akai cassette deck.




The acoustics were complimented by a great deal of enthusiasm and energy in this session which can be perceived from the very first track, a sound test in which they sang a Tarana in Tilak Kamod. Ayaz and Abu Mohammad were getting their confidence as performers.  The special familial bond had been reinvigorated recently when they made their first trip to Vienna in November 1990.

Talking of the Vienna trip, Abba was in his element, exchanging reminisces with Munshi Raziuddin of the Vienna trip and his past joy of their music.  We have included these conversations in this posting, not least to give the listener a feel of the beauty of the melody, vocabulary and idiom of Munshi Sahib’s language, all of which are not found in contemporary conversation in the subcontinent.  As with many victims of modernity, the beautiful imagery of everyday Urdu expression has also succumbed to the vicissitudes of time and expedience.  The hue and colour of Munshi Raziuddin’s language is unlimited when it comes to communicating and radiating affection.

The rendition of the Qaul Mun Kunto Maula has an unusually beautiful alaap in Shyam Kalyan, deliberate and drawn out.  The section from 3:17-7:10 is so full of ihteraam (respect) for the musical notes, and with a full-blooded expansiveness.  Ayaz's son, who I heard the first time, adds a pretty falsetto voice and timbre to the choral ensemble (he comes into his own from 11:20 onwards).

The overall temper of this session was set in the Kalyan thaat predominantly, established by the Man Kunto Maula alaap and the third piece Sawan ki Sanjh.

The rendition of Phool Rahi Sarson was the high point in my opinion.

I only fully appreciated this composition of Ameer Khusro’s after experiencing the winter in rural UP, in Jaunpur District.  In December 1984, when Juni was a tad above a year old, we went on home leave to the subcontinent.  My mother-in-law took us to her ancestral home where she was in the process of restoring her maternal grandfather’s haveli and farming the land that was her inheritance. This part of rural UP has a distinctly feminine beauty in its gentleness, a contrast to, say, the rugged handsomeness of the Pothwar region in Pakistan.   It was cold, crisp and sunny.  I would walk though the fields every morning to savour the flat, open countryside that seemed to go on forever.  A strip of yellow from the mustard flowers, in full bloom, with a carpet of green underneath, punctuated the vivid cloudless blue of the morning sky.  One morning, some peacocks in the near distance broke into full dance and the riot of colour was breathtaking with the lush blues, yellow and greens of this scene.  Quite spontaneously the phrase of this song and the tune of raaga Bahar filled the head…it seemed such an intimate echo of the fertile majesty before me.  A joyous moment and one thanked God for his bounties, not least for the gift of our son.

Around 8:00 Ayaz changes tempo, delightful galakari.  And what a masterful transition of tempo without breaking the beat! The Taraana (about 12:40)...fabulous!

They had a mental construct of where they wanted to go from the Bahar, however Abba challenged them by asking for the switch to Shankara.  A spontaneous request and change in the flow is not easy for the ordinary performer to accomplish, but they did it brilliantly, taking it all in stride.  Abba often talked about how he first heard this raaga, during his childhood in Banur in Patiala, our family’s ancestral home of some seven centuries.  Abba was 12 at the time (this must have been 1927), and ever since then had a haunting association of Shankara with Banur, a wonderful childhood and his lost home.

My visual image of Shankara—which is such a sensual raaga—is that of a haughty, beautiful princess, carried rhythmically by her palanquin bearers, wonderful whimsy in her look, an arrogance yet fundamental care for humanity, tenderness that cannot be allowed to express itself because of her stature in a highly stratified class consciousness society.

Despite the effortlessness in entering the Shankara, I feel the tarana they added at the end did not go with the stellar performance of the main raaga, and it offers a somewhat tentative attempt to round it off.

By the time they got to the subsequent Hameer they had recovered their musical composure.  We have various renditions and have written about the raaga in another posting on this blog; suffice it to say that this rendition has its characteristic beauty.  To play on an old saying, you have not lived if you have not heard Hameer or savoured its mood!

And the Maru Behag, another favourite, what a beauty!  They start with an ethereal, slow classic alaap reiterating the root notes around 5:50.

This entire session is characterized by brilliant transitions.  In the Mere Bane ki Baat, for instance, around 7:20 there is brilliant interlude to Maand and a return to it around 11:50 for a couple of moments.  Also notice how the Chaap Tilak (raaga Des) is flirtatiously interspersed brilliantly with raaga Kalawati and other raagas. Around 27:00, Ayaz switches from Abu Mohamad's Tilak Kamod detour into raaga Basant Mukhari with the comment Aik thaat reh gaya tha mein ne kaha woh bhi paish kar doon.  Pretty much all the major thaats are covered in this one piece!

This is one thing that is beautiful about masterful Qawwali that no single raaga is adhered to in any given piece.   Here there is an exquisite transition from Maru Behag to Bilawal...so smooth and emotive.  That is what music is all about!

Aey Daiya Kahan Gaey Ve Logh, soulful poetic bandish, suits the temper of the raaga, a wistful and plaintive melodic mood.  This bandish in Bilawal becomes evermore more poignant for me at this stage in life, when loved ones, lifelong companions, dear friends leave for their eternal destiny.  May they have eternal peace.  Their presence in life has made it such a rich and beautiful affair.  They will always live in our hearts and minds.

After the conversation interlude between Munshi Raziuddin and Abba they returned to Tilak Kamod, where they had started this evening.  The energy of the evening and their performance is that after all these hours of singing, both Ayaz and Abu Mohammad could embark on brilliant galakari, heard from 6:00 onwards.  The bandish is rather unusual ‘Piaray pardesi ghar aa ja saavan mein'.  A powerful piece of poetry directed at me, expressing their love and the desire to see me back home.  I have since returned to a Pakistan that is very different to that which I left 38 years ago, and to the realization that home is a state of mind, people and circumstance rather than a place.

The last part of this session entails my son Ali doing his impersonation of Michael Jackson.  He was eight at the time, and full of beans.  He took up the microphone and proceeded to Do His Thing.  Even till today he hasn’t yielded the fantasy of being a pop star.  This performance seems to have lived in the Qawwal’s minds.  At my niece Niya's concert in 2008, commemorating her first birthday, Ayaz remembered this one when he said Hamaari nazrain Ali par theen magar in ka khyaal kaheen aur tha.  It was Ali’s cuteness, rather than his talent, that probably left the indelible impression. — Asif Mamu.

The Qawwalis sung were:

01 Tarana (Raaga Tilak Kamod)
02 Sazeena (Raaga Tilak Kamod)
03 Qaul - Man Kunto Maula
04 Sawan Ki Sanjh (Raaga Shyam Kalyan) - Tarana (Raaga Gaud Sarang)
05 Mein Kaisi Karun
06 Baro Ghee Ke Diyena Bhaile Aamana Ke Lallana
07 Mare Bane Ke Baat Na Puchcho
08 Mun Bhajras Har Dum Ali Ali
09 Phool Rahin Sarsoon (Raaga Bahar)
10 Kagawa Bole Mori Atariya (Raaga Shankara)
11 Raaga Hameer
12 Rasiya Ao Na (Raaga Maru Bihag) - Aey Daiya Kahan Gaey Ve Log (Raaga Bilawal)
13 Chaap Tilak Sub Chehney
14 Chaleya Re Pardesi Naina Mila Ke - Bara Jori Nahi Re - Tarana (Raaga Bhairavi)
15 Conversation between Abba and Munshi Raziuddin
16 Ab Ke Sawan Ghar Aaja (Raaga Tilak Kamod)
17 Mangal Karan Soondhar (Raaga Tilak Kamod)

1984 Mehfil - Munshi Raziuddin & Sons

Munshi Raziuddin was largely out of circulation in the Karachi 'society' circles, during the late seventies.  His patrons began to pass away, or fade from prominence, audiences were demanding the more rock 'n roll type of Qawwali.  Above all, the break-up of the Manzur Qawwal group left him without accompanists, as Abu Mohammad and Fareed Ayaz were not yet mature enough to come out on their own.  He was, as one saw, going through a hiatus, although he bore his difficulties with grace and equanimity.

My elder brother and I were visiting Karachi, and Razi Mian came over one day to call on our father.  We talked and he told us that his sons were performing these days.  An appointment was set, and since our mother was a bit under the weather, we arranged a session at a friend's house in Defense.  This was a stag session.

Most (unpleasantly) memorable was the presence of a local man of letters, scion of one of Karachi's leading 'intellectual' families.  Unfortunately, his vast knowledge of Indian classical music was exceeded only by his obnoxiousness in showing it off.  In this session, he repeatedly interrupted the singers, asking them to switch from one raaga to another, upsetting their concentration and frustrating the full exposition.  We heaved a collective sigh of relief when he prominently and loudly announced his departure, somewhere in mid session.  I remember saying, sotto voce, Janaa hai to dafaa ho, kiss ney rokaa hai?  Raziuddin and his sons took it all in stride and rendered a performance that convinced one of their mastery of the classical genre.

The Maru Behag with which they started this recital, remains my favourite.  Maru Behag holds a very special place in the heart.  In 1969, my father and I did a driving tour of the north of Pakistan, and we found ourselves in Kalaam in northern Swat.  We stayed in a rest house on a plateau above what was then a tiny hamlet.  We sat in quiet solitude after dinner, on the patio of the rest house, with the moon casting a silvery glow.  In front of us was a majestic mountain, Falakh Seher, which is about 17,000 feet high—a mere hill by Himalayan standards.  Below us was the river Swat, with its gushing white waters.  The sounds of the river and the rustle of the crystalline breeze in the pine trees providing a soothing aural backdrop.  Across the narrow valley a young shepherd boy played the flute to no apparent melody, dawdling over random notes, as young boys are prone to do.  And the simple transistor radio we had with us was receiving an All India Radio broadcast of Malavika Kaanan singing Maru Behag, in a rendition that radiated a teasing sensuality, despite the crackling of the airwaves and the puny size of the speaker in the radio.  The perfection of all this harmony caused me to tell my father that this was the moment to leave this world, since never again would one reach such a state of absolute spiritual peace.  He laughed, and told me that I had a few years ahead of me, so should perish the thoughts of an exit …

Also the Kedaara—a favourite of mine—is quite special.

The recording was made on my father's Akai cassette deck, bought in 1972—a machine that still soldiers on.  Says a lot for Akai.—Asif Mamu

The raagas sung are:

Volume I
1. Rasiya Ao Na (Raaga Maru Behag)
2. Mangal Karan Soondhar (Raaga Tilak Kamod)
3. Qaul - Man Kunto Maula (Raaga Shudh Kalyan)

Volume II
1. Jia Chahe so Kahe (Raaga Mishra Pilu) - Tarana (Raaga Zeelaf)
2. Chura Jhanake / Paiyan Paroon Gi Palaga Na Daroon Gi (Raaga Jaijaiwanti)
3. Keenay Jattan Re Ghanay/Lagi Ri Mein Tau Charran Tehare (Raaga Bilawal)
4. Ay Daiya Kahan Gaye Veh Log (Raaga Bilawal) / Teri Re Mein Tau Charan Lagi
5. Sej Nis Neend Na Aave / Ay Sukhe Daiya (Raaga Kedara)
6. Mati Malaniya/Hoon Tau Janam Chadde (Raaga Kamod)
7. Jhanjhan Jhanjhan Payal Baaje Reh (Raaga Nut-Bihag) - Jhana Jhanan Baje Bichwa (Raaga Chayya-Nut).

Volume III
1. Harva Mora Re/Guru Binay Kaisey Gun Gavain (Raaga Yaman Kalyan)
2. Preet Na Jane / Mori Bangari / Kangana (Raaga Malkauns)
3. Ali Ghar Deyo Badhayi - Aaj Badhawa Sajan Ghar
4. Hajrat Khaja Sung Khailiey Dhamaal (Raaga Bahar)



Updated on 26 August 2010: Corrected track titles per Cirrhosed's comments.  Many thanks to him for the feedback!

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References:
1. The text for this post was taken from Asif Mamu's "Notes on the Music".