It seems the only thing that can awaken - at least momentarily - this
long slumbering blog from its stupor is the passing of one of the
Great Ones; the Touchstones that support the
spiritual/cultural/psychological/whateverelse-ical framework of my
life. In the past I've had to write - briefly or at length, depending
on my state of mind at that time- about my thoughts on the passing of
Iqbal Bano, Mehdi Hassan, Jagjit Singh, Shammi Kapoor etc, and one one
rare occasion, of my grandfather. It's like the only time my
thoughts crystallize into a coherent whole is when another one of my
Touchstones crumbles and I have to frantically try and balance myself
, my Self , on the precious few that remain.
Ustad Manzoor Ahmed Khan Niazi has passed away today. He was 98. He
was, both age-wise and stature-wise the senior-most Qawwal in the
Indo-Pak Subcontinent. He had one of the most instantly recognizable
and absolutely, mellifluously endearing voices in all of Qawwali. He
was the leader of the most phenomenally gifted, albeit short-lived
Qawwali group of the last century, a Supergroup which included his
cousins Munshi Raziuddin Khan. Ustad Bahauddin Khan and Iftekhar Ahmed
Nizami, and whose surviving recordings seem to date from a time and
place that's almost too phenomenally wonderful that merely listening
to them sometimes feels like an act of desecration. His last
recordings, from when he was 90 years old, still carried the same
verve, the same 'taazgi' as his recordings from the '60s
His was the voice that first sang Maulana Jami's "Naseema" and Nawab
Hilm's "Yaad Hai Kuch Bhi Hamaari Kanhaiyya" to me, and even today I
can scarcely appreciate these two canonical Qawwali kalaams in any
other Qawwal's voice. With Niazi Sb's passing closes the chapter of
the Golden Age of Pakistani Qawwali. He was a predecessor of, and
later a contemporary of Nusrat, The Sabri Brothers, Aziz Mian Qawwal,
Bakhshi Salamat Qawwal, Aziz Ahmed Warsi, Jafar Hussayn Khan Badayuni
and ALL the Qawwals of the latter three quarters of the twentieth
century. He survived them all well into the twenty-first century
before finally returning to his Maker
I hope that Manzoor Niazi Sb's legacy - in the form of the Qawwal
Bacchon Ka Gharana, of which he was the senior-most doyen - flourishes
and thrives, and keeps on serving, nurturing and promoting the art
of Qawwali that its three stalwarts; Qawwal Bahauddin Khan Sb, Munshi
Raziuddin Khan Sb and Manzioor Ahmed Niazi Sb served so nobly. His
son Abdullah Manzoor Niazi Qawwal has inherited his father's
unbelievably melodious voice and is among the foremost Qawwals of the
subcontinent today. I'm sure that Abdullah Niazi Sb, along with Farid
Ayaz & Abu Muhammad, Qawwals Najmuddin Saifuddin And Brothers, Subhan
Ahmed Nizami Qawwal and the third generation of the Qawwal Bacchay
will carry on the wonderful and unbroken 700 year old tradition that
their ancestors learnt from Hz Amir Khusrau (RA).
I shall now spend the rest of the day listening to Manzoor Niazi Sb's version of Naseema and praying for his departed soul; and I'd request the readers to do the same.
N.B. A selection of Niazi Sb's recordings can be found here.
I shall now spend the rest of the day listening to Manzoor Niazi Sb's version of Naseema and praying for his departed soul; and I'd request the readers to do the same.
N.B. A selection of Niazi Sb's recordings can be found here.
