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)
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)
