Top Ten South Asian Pieces of Music

By the sheer number of weeks it was on the top of the charts, I propose the following for honorary mention in the `South Asian` list.

Habibi, ya nour el ain

Ya Saakin Khayali

Aaasheq bakali sneen

Wala ghayrak fibali

.....

...

Dost-mitter ji your answer(#65) to Romair`s question would have been acceptable only if you were a female;)

I am outaaaaaaaaa

Sarwari,

``Aye mere pyare watan`` is from Kabuliwalah. It was sung by Manna Dey.

mohajir #67:

Sorry to quibble, but technically Bhimsen Joshi is from Karnataka, as he is from Dharwad. Also from Dharwad are Gangubai Hangal and the late Mallikarjun Mansur.

ajnabi:

...not fair...where are the rest of the installments of the novel?...


sameer:

...and then there are geets and ghazals that come to ‘personify’ the singer...it becomes their signature...

....there was one singer...s.b. john...and his immortal rendition of ‘tu jo naheeN tou kuch bhee nahiN...yeh maana kay mehfil haseeN hay jawaaN hay’...

...likewise...suraiyya multanikar would for ever be associated with ‘baRRay bay murawaat haiN yeh hus’n walay...’ just as iqbal bano with `sitaro tum tou sou jao paraishaaN raat sari hay...`

...for the rendition of khayal and dadra in the mould of late begum akhtar there is her star pupil rekha surya...don’t know if you have heard her.. or of her...she is out of delhi and comes to north america regularly in the summers for private concerts...has a set of fours cds ready for release in nov/dec...she has a very ‘pukhta’ voice...and she tells me the cigarettes you mentioned in your post were no regular cigarettes;)...

rgds,

t

Stuka #57: I am not quite sure whether Ataullah Niazi sang that song or not. I will have to check my collection.

I don`t think he killed anyone. Singers generally aren`t the killing type. I do remember hearing the story of his girlfriend/fiancee leaving him. Most of his songs are tragic and talk about being dumped by a girl. Due to this he is known as, ``dard ka safeer.`` Some of his famous hits are:

Balo Battian, Chan kittha guzari gaye raat, Bol Sanwal, Ishq mein hum tumhein kiya batain, tu bhi kissi ka payar na paye khuda karay, etc.

Mianwali`s punjabi, and hence Niazi`s singing style, is different and easily distinguishable, from regular Punjabi. They use the word, ``wat`` a lot. Esa Khel (A. Niazi`s hometown) is a very small village next to Mianwali. In the year that I spent in Mianwali, there were two striking features about the city: 1) I never saw a single female outside, other than at the bus stand catching a bus. 2) Everyone`s last name was Niazi (including the famous cricketer Imran Khan Niazi, whose family hails from that area also).

Romair,

``Speaking of Abrar, he is now a philanthrapist, attempting to build a hospital.``

....yes, him and a couple of other singers donate half (or so) of their concert proceeds to build basic health facilities and tropical diseases hospitals in far flung areas

``someone told me he used to be a teacher in Aitchison College, before he sang Billo day ghar.``

....he used to teach geography there before he hit it big w/billo day ghar

and speaking of attaullah esa khelvi (or however u spell it), i think he used to be a truck driver himself before he became famous with his songs......has anyone heard ``kameez teri kali``?

btw, i don`t think anyone`s mentioned nayyara noor...

Still pervade our musical ethos

Saeed Malik

Almost three years ago on August 16th Nusrat Fateh Ali khan, the world renowned Pakistani musician died in a London hospital, when he was proceeding to a tour of the United States. His death cast a pall of gloom was cast on music buffs, not only in Pakistan and India, but also in many countries of the world, which he toured frequently to demonstrate his melodic prowess. The Faisalabad-born Pakistani maestro stormed the world of entertainment and showbiz soon after his voice had been used by British Composer/Singer Peter Gabriel for background effects in his film. After the release of the film and especially after the release from Birmingham of the first album of his songs, Nusrat`s fame skyrocketed. He became a sought after musician in many countries including UK, Germany, France, the United States, Canada and Australia.

The State University of Washington, Seattle, in the United States invited him to teach qawwali music for one academic year to students of music. It was during that year that the late maestro from Pakistan toured several different areas in the United States and Canada, where he regaled large audiences with absorbing melodies. He is among a handful of Pakistani melodists who introduced Pakistani music in the countries of the West. But he alone succeeded in putting Pakistan on the music map of the world.

This scribe remembers his marathon performance at the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, Canada, in the year 1992, when he mesmerized a standing-room-only audience for several hours. So popular was music, especially modernised qawwalis in Western countries that music buffs fell over each other in seeking admission to the concert halls, where the late Khan Sahib was scheduled to perform.

As a medium of emotional communication, music is more expressive than poetry. Poetry symbolises words, ideas and sentiments, but there are certain feelings and moods, which even words cannot convey. It is here that music steps in. The roots of music, therefore, lie deep in the sub-conscious minds of the humans, and spring from vast hinterlands of different continents. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan`s music appealed to the sensibilities of the listeners from all over the world as it did not have to rely much on words of a language.

The late Nusrat Khan was a highly gifted practitioner of music the world has produced so far. He made original contributions, not only to the genre of qawwali, but also enriched other vocal varieties by blending sub-continental melodies with African swinging beats and Western harmony, creating effervescent sonic enchantment for millions of music lovers across the continents.

A trendsetter and highly creative artiste, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was one of the frontline musicians of the world, whose mission was to evolve an accepted mode of melodic expression which could have equal appeal to the sensibilities of the people living in all the continents. To a considerable he succeeded in evolving and practicing a genre, which the people enjoyed in different countries of the world.

No wonder the citizen of Paris bestowed upon him the highest civic award for creating a kind of music, which had much sonic appeal for the French people. He also won a UNESCO Award of Excellence and several from different cultural organisations from Australia, which he visited frequently, especially during the 1992 World Crick Cup championship. His bag of awards also included IMC-UNESCO award at Cologne, Germany and Fukuoka (Japan) Asian Cultural Prize, in addition the coveted Pride of Performance Medal in Pakistan.

A number of prestigious and world-renowned newspapers and magazines, including American TIME magazine, editorially commented on the talent and skill of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan following his death on August 16, 1998. Rich tributes to the virtuosity and superb musical sense and eloquent vocal expressions of Pakistani melodist were paid by international cultural organisations, who praised his services for the evolution of World Music.

So far the impact of Nusrat Khan`s music on Pakistani music buffs remains the same despite the passage of three years after his death. Any repeat telecast of his performance by PTV recreates the special aura of Nusrat music creating deep nostalgia about the maestro.

Here`s my list:- ( In no perticular order)

Bol- Tina Sani (Faiz Ahmed Faiz)

Mujhey tum Nazar Sey - Mehdi Hassan

Aaah ko Chahiyey - Jagjit Singh (Mirza Ghalib)

Rooney ka to Aalam Ayesa tha - Pankaj Udas

Hum key Therey Ajanbi - Nayara Noor (Faiz Ahmed Faiz)

Dashat-e-Tanhai mey- Iqbal Banoo

Yey kisney kaha tum Kooch karo - Ustan Amanat Ali khan

Kiya hey Pyar jisey humney zindagi ki terha - Jagjit Singh

Aye watan key Sajeeley Javaano - Noor Jahan

Indian Movie Fav.

Mera Kuch Saaman - Film: Ijazat

Kahania Sunati hey - Film: Rajput

Aye mere Pyarey watan -Unknown film to me

Chaltey Chaltey- Film: Pakeeza

Junoon is untouched by all, above and beyond...All its songs are great!

Pakistani non-ghazal songs:

AaNkho ko Aankhoney- Junaid Jamshed

Inteha-e-Shauq - Hadiqa Kiyani

Zara maan ko dekh- Unknown singer to me

Ajnabi- Ali Haider

Mey Bhi Khareedar hun- Sajjad Ali

Aansoo- Ali Azmat

Hoga- Awaz

English:

Bitter Sweet Symphoney

Open Road- Gary Barlow

We are the world

This used to be my playground- Madonna

Everything I do- Bryan Adams

Children of the night- Richard Marx

:) Aisha: The one who loves music

Mannyd: I think ``ussi kandgaN da mocha morhya`` is actually ``asi kandhaN tu munh cha morhya-nikki jai gal tu ??? kar chorhya`` meanig that I became angry due to your minor tease (or pretending to be indifferent towards me) and turned my face away from your wall.

dost-mittar: I mistakenly wrote Surjit instead of Surinder. My apologies. No I was not talking about Mughal-e-Azam qawwali in one of my previous posts, it was actually a pre-Kashmir problem qawwali by Noor Jehan-Zohrabai-Shamshad Begum from movie Zeenat. Did you get it? It was, ``aahaiN na bhareeN, shikwey na kiye, kuch bhi na dawa se kaam liya``.

Romair and Stuka: Yes, we are talking about same Ata Ullah Khan who sang, ``yaar ne hee loot liya ghar yaar ka``. It was after T-Series releasing many of his songs in much better quality than in Pakistan that he became somewhat known in India during late eighties and early nineties. In Pakistan, he has been well-known since late seventies. Actually some of his best folk songs are from his early years. He brought into attention some of the local Punjabi folk songs (from western part of Pakistani Punjab) which were rather unknown to even majhi Punjabi speaking central and east Punjabis. We have never heard folk songs like, kameez teri kali, sohney phullaN wali or ``tehnde (tuhade in majhi Punjabi) khoo te mahiya...........bedard dhola`` and a whole set of different couplets from Mianwali tappeys.

He was the first one in Pakistan to very successfully sang Urdu ghazals mixed with Punjabi folk and Punjabi Sufi poetry with the help of only tabla and harmonium. One could not claim if those songs were in Urdu or Punjabi. One of his 30 minute song released by T-Series was a beautiful mixture of the above mentioned literature. It was awesome and covered the whole one side of the cassette. It was famous ghazal, na haram maiN, na kaleesa maiN, na but-khaney maiN-chain milta he to saqi terey maikhaney maiN. Another of his beautiful urdu/ punjabi mixed song was, ``woh bahar ka zamana, woh haseeN guloN ke saye``. This song reminds me of another beautiful ghazal by Chanchal Singh, ?kabhi gham se dil lagaya, kabhi ashk bhi bahaye``. Incidently, Chanchal Singh was in a great position to sing Urdu/ Punjabi mixed songs after the success of ``beshak masjid mandir torho, Bukkey Shah yeh kehta`` from movie Bobby but he did not follow up on that success and soon moved to religious singing.

The story of Ata Ullah`s early infatuation with his cousin in his home village is more of a myth than reality. The fact is that he was engaged to marry her according to the decision of elders but her father reneged on the elders promise because Ata Ullah was very poor and unsuccessful during his early years. He was a waiter, a truck driver and worked at low paying job before becoming known as a singer. He married, I believe more than once and has happy married life with children.

The question as to why he did not achieve the kind of success as other famous singers, although enjoyed as much or even more fame for the last twenty years is perhaps due to a number of factors. It may have to do with poor managers, poor marketing and thus not getting the backing of the best recording studios, best musicians, and so on. He was releasing poor quality recording on cassettes when rest of the artists were heading to London or India for CD releases and better recording studios. He was even lax when recording for releasing songs. One can find a lot more obvious mistakes in his songs, sometimes forgetting the line or words in a line. He had to compete in an era dominated by NFAK and moreover he did not get the backing from famous personalities like Pathana Khan was backed by Ghulam Mustafa Khar and at earlier stages NFAK was popularized by Imran Khan and Peter Gabriel. All Ata Ullah needed was a Bally Sagoo or backing from British Oriental Star or Indian T-Series.

Despite all that, his fame is unmatched at mass level, as Romair has rightly pointed out. Around 1990, I had a collection of about 30 cassettes of his songs but over the years lost them because of more interest in CDs and more recent Punjabi music.

It was A. S. Kang who started the current Punjabi trend out of London and Kulwant Singh Bhamra and Sardar Gil of Apna Sangeet took it to zenith. Punjabi music has never been the same since then. Now it is moving, it is dynamic with so many singers and attracting large crowds. Abrar and Shazia represent this latest trend in Punjabi music where folk is mixed with practically everything and no longer limited to a singer sitting with harmonium and one or two tabla players in the back. However, the small town and village culture is still easy going with respect to music and it is Ata Ullah Khan style that touches their soul much more easily than modern innovative Punjabi music. Ata Ullah Khan still rules the truck drivers, Pakistani dhabas, small teas houses and festive gathering-between rivers Jhelum and Indus.

A sonf in a particular accent of Punjabi touches chords with the people who speak in that accent. At local level, Mansoor Malangi is very popular in and around Jhang and Pathane Khan among the Saraiki speaking people.

Re: Saigol: He was a Punjabi speaking (perhaps from Jammu) and employed in Indian railways, before becoming singer. His standard line, after recording every song was, ``gana hee te gaya hey, koi sher te naheeN marya`` when appreciated by the director or producer. He died one day before Inida/ Pakistan gained independence. He would only sing after having few or many drinks. Begum Akhtar would only sing after smoking several cigarettes and chewing paan. Bare Ghulam Ali Khan would like to sing only after being treated with 1-2 kilos of sweete-jalebis, laddos, barfi etc.

Regards,

Sameer

Romair:

Mandir dhaah de masjid dhaah de,

te dhaah de jo kujh dhehNda.

par bandeyaN da dil na dhahviN,

sohna Rabb dillaN wich rehnda.

As for as I know this couplet has been wrongly attributed to Bulleh Shah in numerous songs/movies and books. Original poet of this one is Mian Mohammad Bakhash(writer of Saif-ul-Malook)..

Mannyd: lao paahjin tusi khush rahvo:)

Ujj aakhaN Waris Shah nu[Punjabi].

Ajj aakhaN waris shah nu, kitoN kabraN vichoN bol,

Te ajj kitabe ishq da koi agla varka khol.

Ikk roi si dhee Punjab di, tooN likh likh mare vain,

Ajj lakhaN dheeaN rondiaN, tainuN warish shah nu kahen.

Ve dardmandaN dia dardia, Uth takk apana Punjab

Ajj bailey lashaN vichhiaN te lahu di bhari Chinab

Kise ne panjaN paaniaN vich ditti zahar rala

Te ohna paaniaN dharat nu ditta paani la.

Is zarkhez zameen de looN looN phuttia zehar

gitth gitth charhiaN laaliaN foot foot charhia kehar.

Veh vallissi vaa pher, bann bann vaggi ja,

ohne har ik baans di vanjhali, ditti naag bana.

Pehley dang madariaN, mantar gaye guach,

Dooje dang di lagg gayi, janey khaney nun laag.

laagaaN keele lok munh, bus fir dang hi dang,

Palo pali Punjab de, neele pai gaye ang.

GaleoN tutte geet fir, trakaleoN tutti tand,

TrinjanoN tuttiaN saheliaN, charakhare ghookar band.

Sane sej de berian, luddan dittiaN rohR,

Sane daliaN peengh aj, pippalaN ditti toRh.

Jitthe vajdi si phook pyar di, Ve oh vanjhali gayi goach

Ranjhe de sab veer aj, bhul gaye ohdi jach!

Dharti te lahoo vassiya, kabraN paiaN choan,

Preet diaN shahzadiaN, aj vich mazaraN roan.

Aj sabbhe kaidoN ban gaye, husan-ishq de chor,

Aj kitthoN liayiye labbh ke Waris Shah ikk hor.

Aj aakhaN Waris Shah nu, kitoN kabraN vichoN bole,

Te ajj kitabe ishaq da, koi agala varka phol.



Ujj AkhaN Waris Shah nu[English]:

I say to Waris Shah today, speak from your grave

And add a new page to your book of love

Once one daughter of Punjab wept, and you wrote your long saga;

Today thousands weep, calling to you Waris Shah:

(one daughter here refers to Heer)

Arise, o friend of the afflicted; arise and see the state of Punjab,

Corpses strewn on fields, and the Chenaab flowing with much blood.

Someone filled the five rivers with poison,

And this same water now irrigates our soil.

Where was lost the flute, where the songs of love sounded?

And all Ranjha`s brothers forgotten to play the flute.

Blood has rained on the soil, graves are oozing with blood,

The princesses of love cry their hearts out in the graveyards.

Today all the Quaido`ns have become the thieves of love and beauty,

Where can we find another one like Waris Shah?

Waris Shah! I say to you, speak from your grave

And add a new page to your book of love.

#55.

Gangubai Hangal is alive. Classical musical fans lost GaanTapaswini Smt. Moghubai Kurdikar (mother of Kishori Amonkar) this year (Feb, 2001).

Other singers with robust voice are Shobha Gurtu (famous for Khayals), Bhimsen Joshi. Some other classical singers I like are Kishori Amonkar, Malini Rajurkar, Anjanibai Malpekar, Kesarbai Kerkar, Ashwini Bhide, Padma Talwalkar, Prabha Atre. Looks like Maharashtrians have made a big contribution in classical music (vocal) and Bengalis in instrumental music.

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Dost mittar #54: People say no one would have known about nizam-ud-din aulia if it weren`t for amir khusro (i think i am relating them correctly). Someday people may say no one would have known about bulle shah if it wasn`t for abida parveen. I certainly fall into that category.

Bulle Shah was quite the sufi, from what I have read. Infact, if anyone is into Punjabiat, Sufism, philosophy, linking one religion to another etc., then his poetry is a must read. He was born in Bahawalpur in the 1680s, then moved to Kasur. He has written quite a bit about religious hypocrisy etc. He has been called a Vedantic Sufi by Hindu writers, i.e. because they feel his writings refer to religion and God in a very abstract form, thus combining the teachings of different religions.

``Denis Matringe puts forth the argument that many Punjabi Sufi poets make use of themes from Punjabi popular culture, which include Hindu traditions. Bulle Shah makes use of references to God as a yogi as much as he makes use of the Heer-Ranjha story. Mustansir Mir distinguishes between the critical aspect of Bulle Shah’s poetry, in which the poet criticises hypocrisy in religious practice, and the constructive aspect of poetry, which is decidedly Islamic in structure and detail......Robin Rinehart says, “The fact that Bulle Shah’s poetry has remained popular among Punjabis of different religious communities indicates that a serious study of his work may be a means of discovering common threads in the religious traditions of Punjab.” (http://www.tribuneindia.com/20010413/ldh1.htm)

``Your description of ``pabhan pbhaar`` was really poetic, especially from a military man :-).``

Why is it when someone has been in the military at some stage of their life, it is assumed they are in it for life?

``She rocks! or at least makes me rock from th waist up.``

Can I ask who makes you rock from the waist down? :-)

``Now, if only we could agree on Kashmir (sigh!).``

Very true. How about asking Bhulle Shah? See if you can find the second lines to the following two verses (i am not sure 100% if the second verse is by Bulle Shah, though). It will answer your question?

Chal Bulleah, chal uthay challiay, jithay saray annhay

?

and

Dha day masjid, dha day mandir, dha day jay kij dhainda aay

?