http://www.tehelka.com/2017/08/successful-riyaaz-of-qawwali-in-americas/
Successful 'Riyaaz' of Qawwali in Americas
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Photo: Riyaaz Qawwali Group
It was from a musician friend in Canada that I first heard of them. "Riyaaz Qawwali" he said was their name. "You will love their sound and what they have done with Vaishnav Janato- singing it in Qawwali style." That night turned out to be a night of non stop listening as they have a large collection available on the net. What a sampler! From Bulleh Shah's 'Mera piya ghar ayaa',immortalised by Nusrat Fateh Ali to the evergreen poetic composition of Amir Khusro-'Chhap Tilak'. And the envelope pushes to include Sikh shabads, Guru Arjun Dev's 'Koi bole Ram Ram, koi Khudai' and compositions of Bhakti poets like Narsinh Mehta, the much touted 'Vaishnav Janato'. I played each one remarking at the creativity and wondering if I was not listening to the new sound of Qawwali? Then I came across a masterpiece- "Gayiye Ganpati jag vandan", a regular in Kathak dance concerts and an essential at Ganesh Utsavs. I needed no further proof that I had stumbled upon the American Gharana of Qawwali !
Riyaaz Qawwali was born in the city of Austin, the state capital of Texas. Home to the University of Texas flagship campus, Austin, is known for its eclectic live-music scene centered around country, blues and rock. The city's motto for long has been "Keep Austin Weird," an attempt to stave off the inevitable descent of big cities into commercialism. Thank God for this 'weirdness' that made it possible to gestate the new sound of Qawwali there. Most of the founder members of Riyaaz Qawwali are graduates of the UT-Austin. Their maiden concert was at the University itself, where the response was so encouraging that the group has remained alive, growing in strength, for over a decade.
Qawwali comes from the Arabic word 'qual' for the utterances of the Prophet, the most famous one of being'Man Kunto Maula'. Qawwali, a seven centuries old musical tradition in South Asia, is shared among many countries. In fact there was once a proposal floated by the former Secretary Culture, Government of India, Jawhar Sircar, to put in a combined South Asia regional proposal to UNESCO, seeking jointly for the recognition of Qawwali as the Oral Intangible heritage of mankind. But regional realpolitik got better of this idealistic vision.
The catalyst for our American Qawwali group that goes by the name Riyaaz Qawwali is Sonny. Pronounce it as Sunny. "The members of our group are known only by our first names. Surnames tend to put us in separate boxes, while our music is about oneness", says Sonny. "We are a group of Hindus, Muslims, agnostics and atheists, people of Indian, Pakistani, Bengali and Afghani ethnicity, trained in Indian and western music. And our message is of oneness," he says, rejecting the 'besura' buzz that Urdu, Ghazal and Qawwali are Muslim while, Hindi, Raga, and Bhajan are Hindu! "Devotion toh Mazhab ke bahar ki baat(devotion can not be bound by religion)," remarks Sonny, as if reading the thought in my mind!
Sonny "grew up in a family where Baba Bulleh Shah, Kabir and the sher-o-shayari of Ghalib were part of daily conversation. I resonate with that link between life and poetry and the message of that poetry" he says by way of introduction to my question of why choose Qawwali? "In any case it was not I who chose Qawwali, but instead it was Qawali that chose me. In my teens, I listened to Nusrat and it was magnetic. In fact, I discovered Nusrat a year after he passed away in 1998," said Sonny by way of biographical details. His journey with music started when he was but three years old."My father tells me that I went to a Mehendi ceremony when I was a small child, and when we returned home, I sang the songs I had heard there verbatim." Today Sonny has nearly 25 years of classical music training behind him. Like many of the other senior artistes of the eight member group, Sonny is trained in both Indian and western music.
Posted by: Razi Raziuddin <razi24@hotmail.com>
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