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"Sufi Passion That Rises To
Ecstasy"
NEW YORK TIMES MUSIC REVIEW
November 3, 2000, Friday
By JON PARELES
Farid Ayaz Qawwal &
Brothers
"Poetry is at the core of the
Sufi devotional songs called qawwali. The words praise saints, yearn for a
beloved (who may be human or divine) and extol spiritual ecstasy. At the
same time, the music propels listeners toward that ecstasy with steady
handclapping, incantatory refrains, surges of drumming and soaring vocal
improvisations. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the singer who introduced many
Westerners to qawwali before his death in 1997, mesmerized audiences with
long, spectacular stretches of nonverbal vocalizing. Farid Ayaz Qawwal and
Brothers, a nine-member group that made its United States debut in a World
Music Institute concert at Symphony Space on Saturday night, stayed closer
to the poetry while their songs reached crest after crest.
The group's mentor is Munshi Raziuddin, now in his 90's, whose family has
sung qawwali for eight centuries. His sons Farid Ayaz and Abu Mohammed sat
by his side, playing harmoniums and trading vocals and keyboard lines; the
drumming came from Ali Akbar on tabla and Ghayoor Ahmed on dholak, which
is played with both hands and sticks. Other members clapped hands and sang
the refrains that spur each song. In traditional style, the songs began
with drones and free-floating improvisations, with the melody slowly
emerging amid filigreed harmonium lines. Over steady hand clapping, Mr.
Ayaz intoned the couplets of poetry, then sang them with growing fervor.
Sweetly restrained, smoothly curling phrases built up to percussive
flurries of notes, each one hit with a quivering intensity; Mr. Ayaz's
gentle tone grew rougher, more eager, while he played harmonium lines
parallel to his vocals or stabbed a finger upward like a preacher. Mr.
Mohammed picked up where Mr. Ayaz paused, creating his own ascending arcs.
Though their father spent most of the concert singing along on responses,
he also had a few solo passages, revealing a precise but weathered voice.
The music gathered momentum again and again, with multiplying drumbeats
and sharp attacks on the dholak. But the group refused to let the music
lose itself in wordless euphoria. After each volley of vocal fireworks,
Mr. Ayaz eased down the group and recited the next couplet, offering
another lesson to be transformed by music."
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