Rizwan-Meuzzam Qawwali Group is a Pakistani Qawwali ensemble led by brothers Rizwan and Muazzam Ali Khan. The duo performs with their seven-member party, who provide harmonium, percussion and handclaps. The singing brothers are nephews of the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who popularised the Islamic Sufi genre worldwide before his untimely death at 48 in 1997.
Rizwan-Muazzam will release their new album, At the Feet Of The Beloved (Real World, UK) on March 14, their first release in two decades. The new album comes after last year's Chain Of Light on the same label, an album of lost recordings by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
The two brothers have an interesting backstory. Initially, their father Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan did not want them to sing in the 600-year-old musical dynasty, preferring his children focus on their studies, but they learnt anyway and won a regional music competition. After that, they began training in earnest with their father and were mentored by Nusrat as well. When I interviewed Nusrat in the 1990s, he told me a similar story of how he had to practise secretly until his father found out and began his training.
The duo's big international break came when they performed at the 1998 Womad Rivermead Festival in the UK; they released Attish: The Hidden Fire the same year, the first of several on Real World.
The new album features four scintillating tracks, two sung in Urdu and two in Punjabi. Their approach to creating Qawwali songs and new interpretations is what marks them out, as Rashid Din, Nusrat's former international manager, explains in the liner notes: "There hasn't been anybody who actually has led the legacy in this manner of working in the footsteps of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan -- even from his family, these are the only two brothers who are actually trying to follow the footsteps of their late uncle. And even within Pakistan, there are many Qawwali singers doing a good job, but Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's family tradition of Qawwali is a very popular one; nobody is doing anything new, they're just repeating and copying Nusrat songs. So, we felt the need to give new material as Nusrat is not with us any more. These two brothers are doing a great job with new lyrics and new compositions, trying to take Nusrat's message further."
The album's songs are ostensibly love songs. The opening track, for instance, is an Urdu ghazal (love poem) but it swirls around, driven by tabla, harmonium and the call and response between the brothers and the party, before cranking up to a crescendo. This segues into Ja Mur Ja, sung in Punjabi, a cautionary song about the tragedies of falling in love, which was part of Nusrat's repertoire.
Track 3 is another Urdu ghazal, Saqi Ik Jaam, which the liner notes say is an ode to intoxification -- love not liquor -- with lyrical lines like: "Now, cupbearer, bestow upon us the wine that still lingers in the goblet of your gaze." It also features amazing vocal pyrotechnics called sargams, vocalisation without words, somewhat like jazz scat singing. The album closes with Yaar Da Muhalah which showcases the outstanding vocal harmonies between the brothers.
This is a wonderful album of spiritual and uplifting music. Highly recommended.
There are plenty of interesting new releases coming out, some of which have only just arrived on the World Beat desk. I'll be reviewing them over the coming weeks.
Al Andaluz Project hit top spot on the Transglobal World Music Chart for February with their new album The Songs Of Iman Kandoussi – Traditional Arabic Andalusian (Galileo Music Communication). The band was formed in 2005, with the aim of preserving the Arab-Andalusian multicultural repertoire of Medieval Al-Andalus, centred on Moorish rule in Southern Spain and North Africa -- the influence on Mahgrebi music in North Africa was profound. The songs on this album are created by three amazing singers from Germany, Spain and Morocco. Iman Kandoussi is the Moroccan star singer and these are her interpretations. If you are a fan of Radio Tarifa, another band that delves into Southern Spanish traditions, then this one might interest you.
Also look out for Warsaw Village Band's latest release Sploty (Karot Kommando) which is part of the band's new project, Bassalyki. The band has expanded their ensemble and incorporated diverse sounds. This album is riding high on the World Music Central's chart for February.
Finally, World Beat pays tribute to singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull, who passed away last month, aged 78. She has been described as a pop singer but she seemed to be much more than that. She battled fame at an early age, drug addiction and even homelessness but somehow survived and later thrived as one of the most versatile and engaging singers (and characters) to have survived the Swinging Sixties. I saw her perform in Tokyo and she was fantastic -- her gravelly, lived in voice reaching everyone in the concert hall. A great artist. RIP Marianne.
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
