Ustad Ghulam Fariduddin Ayaz Al-Hussaini Qawwal popularly known as Fareed Ayaz was born in Hyderabad, India in 1952. In 1956 his family shifted to Karachi, Pakistan. He belongs to the Qawwal Bachchon Ka Gharana of Delhi. He and his relatives are the flag-bearers of that school of music (gharana), which is also known by the name of the city as the Delhi gharana. He performs various genres of Hindustani classical music such as dhrupad, khayal, tarana, thumri, and dadra. Ayaz leads the qawwal party with his younger brother, Ustad Abu Muhammad.
Abu Muhammad was born in Karachi on 13th September 1960. Just like his elder brother Fareed, Abu too was musically gifted and learnt qawwali from his father Ustad Munshi Raziuddin Ahmed Khan. His first exposure on stage was when he was 16 years old and since then has been the pillar of the group along with his elder brother. He is a graduate from Islamia College, Karachi University. Both Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad have received numerous awards and recognition across the globe and have travelled extensively to promote qawwali as an art form. The Pakistan Government in recognition for their contribution to art conferred the Pride of Performance award to Ustad Munshi Raziuddin Ahmed Khan (1990), Fareed Ayaz (2006) and Abu Muhammad (2020). It is rare to see that in a family lineage both the generations have received highest national literary award.
The Group
Both Fareed Ayaz & Abu Muhammad started their training in classical music and learnt the art of singing qawwali from their father, Ustad Munshi Raziuddin Ahmed Khan Qawwal. Their roots can be traced to the family tree of one of the earliest disciples of Amīr Khusrau. Munshi Raziuddin Qawwal also used to sing with his cousin Qawwal Bahauddin Khan and Manzoor Niazi Qawwal (maternal uncle of Fareed) early in his career.
Fareed Ayaz, Abu Muhammad Qawwal & Brothers are among the world’s very finest exponents of Qawwali – a hypontic, vocal-driven form of Sufi devotional music rich in poetic and mystical symbolism. Their group, in the typical style of their genre, is led by powerful vocalists, who loop through multiple verse-chorus sequences backed by other singers as well as harmonium, tabla, dholak, and hand-claps.
Fareed Ayaz leads the group, along with his younger brother Abu Muhammad, while other brothers and family members form the rest of the musical core. They also perform semi-classical forms from outside the Qawwali repertoire, including tarana, thumri, and khayal. Several decades of touring has seen the brothers sing to vast crowds all around the world, as well as making over a dozen crossover excursions into film music and Coke Studio Pakistan.
About the Album
Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim,
(In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate).
The album was recorded in March 2007 during the concert performed by us for the ‘All Pakistan Music Conference’ at Karachi. Originally it was released in Compact Disc but has been remastered by Kristian Montano at Montano Mastering, Toronto, Canada specifically for a vinyl release. We are thrilled to have this album as our first vinyl release especially since most of the qawwali’s sung on this album are written by Amīr Khusrau considered as the ‘father of qawwali’.
We would like to thank Black Groove Music India for taking up this assignment which was extremely challenging. It was their perseverance which has led to the creation of this masterpiece on vinyl. We are extremely happy to be part of this project and hope you as music lover would appreciate listening to it.
Fareed Ayaz & Abu Muhammad
