Qawwali
Well, as you can suggest from the title, this post is about Qawwali, so obviously, it will be heavily dedicated to Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. But, I am no expert when it comes to Qawwali or Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. I know what a Qawwali is, thanks to wiki. And I know how many songs Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has done, thanks to Google. But still, I am no expert, so ain’t going to be talking about any technicalities or Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s discography.
However, I would like to share a few youTube videos of his live performances, which I think are, (let me call up the thesaurus) phenomenal – not the exactly word I was looking for – but there isn’t a superlative that would describe how brilliant Ustad Nurat Fateh Ali Khan is at performing.
I was having a lazy Sunday – India lost one day match against Australia – Arsenal had been knocked out of FA cup after a dismissal performance – so was quite annoyed – bored of listening to my same music playlist – well, not really bored of listening to my playlist. Anyway, I was listening to Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s “Yeh Jo Halk Suroor Hain” and I thought, “I should check this song out on youTube…” And from thereon… I came across other performances of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Qawwal and Party.
[Note: It will at least take you 4 hours to get through all of these videos, but four hours will be well spent. Instead of watching a film watch these videos and you will not be disappointed. Trust me. ]
“Yeh Jo Hain Halka Halka Suroor”. This is my favorite Qawwali of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He has done a few version of this track but my favorite version is the one that features in the album Akhian Udeek Diyan.
There were a few vidoes of this Qawaali on youTube, but none of them matched the above version, so I searched on Google Videos. Fortunately, I have a better version of the Qawwali, which is One Hour and Eight minutes long, however, you do not realize how quick the time went… it is pure sublime. In between the Qawwali, he recites a lot of shayris and then switches to hindustani classical….
I stayed on Google Videos to search for more Qawwali performance of Ustaadsaab before searching youTube… and I found:
Araj Mori Sun lee (raag Gawoti) [I don't know what raag Gawoti is but the song is....]
Nit Kher Manga Hans Raj Hans had done a version of this Qawwali and I liked that, but the original version rendered by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, is something else. In the below, which is one hour and 54 minutes features a performance of that Qawwali and other gems (if you cannot be bother to check out the video, then you will be missing Nit Kher Manga and Ustad Saab doing some Hindustani Classical and everything):
Laal Meri Patt Rakhi Bala Jhoole La What can I say about this Qawwali?! How many times has Bollywood done a version of this Qawwali?! (Watch out some of the people in this song..)
Before I embed one more youTube video check out this ‘amazing improvisation’. He did that during the performance of Qawwali Sochta Hoon woh Kitne Masoom Tha
Now to the best performance by Ustat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Qawaal & Party. It is sort of a fusion between traditional qawwali and hindustani classical, i think. My understanding of music is not that good, so correct me please if I have got it all wrong. I just love this performance of him and his crew: there is so much of junoon, energy,…..
Piya Se Bhed/Thann Mann
Tags: Video
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Wow HG great
Still listening.
Since you say this post is about Qawwalis even though it looks more like a post on Nusrat fateh Ali Khan (for obvious reasons), how can I not mention my favourite qawwali from Hindi films: na to carvan ki talaash hai (can’t find it no youtube :( )
honhaar you are really honhaar
i used to listen him
yeah jo halka halka suroor hai was also my faviourate. followed by alla hoo alla hoo.
maine unke samne awwal to khanjar rahk diya, fir phir kaleja rakh diya, dil rakh diya, sar rakh diya aur arj kiya ki, mere baad kisko sataoge …. :x
a raag is a special ‘permutation and combination’ of seven swaras. some raga has 5 swaras, some 6 and some 7. >:d<
HG: quite a list that one! thanks
Neeraja: Interesting that you mention ‘Yeh Ishq Ishq’ from Barsaat ki Raat. It was originally composed by Fateh Ali Khan (Ustad Nusrat’s dad). Khaiyyam was originally offered the music for Barsaat Ki Raat but he refused after Bharat Bhushan’s brother (Chander) asked him to use this song from Fateh Ali Khan. Roshan stepped in thereafter.
There’s Youtube version available but it doesn’t start from Na To Carvan. It might be still be what you are looking for -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmtAY8uYfJo
Try his ‘Live at Royal Albert Hall’too… Night Song and Mustt Mustt album is a must have album…I got a tape of his early morning riyaz with Raahat Fateh Ali Khan, through some sindhi friends who went travelling to pakistan..although the quality of recording is very raw but it doesn’t stop his voice from creating that magic.There are many such rare recordings available in the piracy market..mainly in Pakistan. Kafi’s sung by Abida Parveen is also highly recommended. For beginners get a copy of her ‘Live in UK, June 1989′ 2-cd album… just divine!
criminal to talk about nusrat’s qawwali and not mention- sason ki mala pe simroon main pe ka naam. still remembered the first time I listened to it, took me forever to come out of it- “shaam bane hain radhika, radha ban gayi shaam”
This is absolutely beautiful.
Nusrat- Rut Sawant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF434BJ2CAU
fantastic post! Spent the last two hours locked in viewing some of the videos… just a thing which has always bothered me: does anyone with good classical knowledge feel that a few times when Khan-saab went on a high pitch there was a slight amount of “tear” in his voice?
@oz – generally true classical singing requires a voice that has not been abused by smoking of drinking. A fading great singer can still do so much with Ghazals and Qawwalis because it is about sur and taal but also about the poetry.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was astoundingly good – had a huge fan following in the West too even though Urdu Shairi is opaque even to most Hindi speakers. Too bad qawwali as a genre is fading away from Hindi cinema – used to be that almost every film had some kind of ghazal or qawwali number and now all we have hinglish songs.
My favorite number is Shamsudoha Badrudoja – I can drunk on that one:
Main hoon ghulame mustafa
Kaisi meri taqdeer hai
Simply brilliant!
The first qawalli had me in trance – I badly needed this after a bad day start at office. Thanks Honhaar.
@Neeraja,
“na to caravan ki..” stand nowhere close to these. filmi qawallis do not have such kind of liberty while performing. They have to follow a tune, which defeats the whole purpose.
it’s good to know that some of you have made time to watch these long clips…
Neeraja, I did not mention any filmi qawwali’s cos I could not find a qawwali that could match Ustad’s performance or brilliance…
vishrant.. i hope Himesh is not the reason for not listening to ustad! you seem to know a lot about raag and all..
The bicycle thief, his album Live in London, Vol.3 has all the tracks in Hindustani Classical. His album quite expensive but worth it.. i suppose
And thanks everyone for bothering to check out the videos…
Can someone explain me the Piya Se Bhad/Thann Mann song?!
HG ,
thanks for this compilation man…
soooothing!!!!!!!
@Subrat
wow! didn’t know that. Thanks.
I saw the ‘ye ishq ishq hai..’ part on youtube. I like the ‘na to carvan ki talaash hai…’ part better.
@Amit
true, they have to limit to certain tune and styles of gayaki but this song I mentioned has such awesome lyrics and of course excellent composition and singing, it’s overpowering in every sense of the word.
And I was not comparing it to the ones listed above.
DPAC, after you have watched this clips, you will not have to drink some daru to get drunk.. because some of these clips are…
of course but try it with daaru :-)
Goonda…dil khush kar ditta!!! maza aa gaya… love the fact that he is not much bothered about the ambience…looks like bad mike, shoddy set up, people talking all around n no worry about his looks. the voice works. its khuda ki awaaz!! today everything else comes first and singing last.
Exactly Phoenixnu! You know.. I never knew about people throwing money around during the performance. Plus small audience.. brings out that sort of, you know…..
@DPac
I’ll take that suggestion. What kind of daaru goes with Qawwalis?
@Neeraja
whatever is ur kinda poison
headier the better..:-)
Ok..I own up.
I’ve been a really bad follower of Qawaali, but I can’t deny that there is something very spiritual and pure about Nusret Fateh Ali Khan.
Maybe I should take the time out to hear all of them, but Honhaar, I use the net at the internet cafe which is not cheap, so i guess i’ll just skip them in places (damn my honesty!!).
Cheers man!
(listening to, and enjoying Laal Meri Patt Rakhi Bala Jhoole La btw!)
Internet cafe?! You need to stop wasting money on traveling distance to watch a crap hindi film… buy a laptop! all your problem will be solved.
Huh???
Kaunsi fillum??
Oh, ‘Darling’?? But that was an exception, and to be honest, i quite liked it.
But yup, I travel to see foreign films.
and they are worth it, besides they get me away from the crappy midlands!
I don’t mind paying for the net, but i wish I could stick something in this guys mouth as he doesnt stop asking sawaal pe sawaal, sawaal pe sawaal here at the internet cafe!!
Infact, i would pay for him to just shut the….up!!!
That ALWAYS happens…i’m gonna put on loadsa talcum powder and act british next time.
Oh hang on, i AM British!!!
Ye Honhaar bhi itna lamba lamba film ka maafik clips daala hai Steve bhai. You are not to blame. I have these qawwalis on CD’s. sab suni hui hain.but watching em all again. good stuff.
Dope goes good with qawwali.
it is all about watching qawwalis.. since last sunday i have been watching these qawwalis over and over..
.. by the way, you have got all these classical qawwalis (piya se bhed/aaraj)? In which album does these qawwalis feature? do you have Dhan Dhan Bhaag (there is an incomplete version of it online but want complete version)?
shit, I refreshed the page! and forgot I was half way thru the first clip. anyways.
I have Khan saahab, abida parveen, sultan khan, hans raj hans on lots of diff formats- tapes, cd’s , small mp3’s and stuff. so not sure if i have that one in particular. but I don’t think I wud have any album in specific except for some collaborative ones like Pukar(with Ustaad and Sultan Khan Saahab) and few of Abida’s projects. but I ll still check for that one.