Dhrupad recordings from All Pakistan Music Conference in 1961 - Mian Mehr Ali Khan of Talwandi Gharana & Niaz Hussain Shami of Sham Chaurasia Gharana

Talwandi Gharana. Lahore. Early 1920s

Here we present some Dhrupad recordings from the All Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) in march and april 1961. We downloaded these many many years ago from the Esnips and Mediafire folders of "Holistic" Ashfaq Khan, which have disappeared already many years ago.

Mian Mehr Ali Khan (1913-1976) of Talwandi Gharana was the father of Muhammad Afzal & Muhammad Hafeez Ali Khan. We have here twice the same recording, first a shorter excerpt in good sound quality, second a longer version unfortunately of very unequal quality.

On the Talwandi Gharana see our previous post.

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Niaz Hussain Shami (1924-1972) was a famous Dhrupad singer of Sham Chaurasia Gharana. This Gharana, founded in the 16th century, was till quite recently a Dhrupad Gharana. Only with Nazakat Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan and some others it turned into a Khayal Gharana. Even Vilayat Ali Khan, the father of Nazakat & Salamat Ali Khan, was apparently still a Dhrupad singer.
We have here three recordings by Niaz Hussain Shami, all three in Lalit or variants of Lalit.

On the artist see: http://www.thefridaytimes.com/03062011/page28.shtml
On the Sham Chaurasia Gharana:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sham_Chaurasia_gharana

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In all these recordings Pakhawaj accompaniment is provided by the legendary Ustad Bhai Naseera, one of the greats of the Punjab Pakhawaj Gharana.

As the original recordings have been in mp3 format we offer them here also only in mp3 format.

Muhammad Hafeez Khan Talwandi (1933-2009) - Dhrupad from Pakistan - Talwandi Gharana

Here we present two recordings by Muhammad Hafeez Khan Talwandi (1933-2009), who was, together with his late brother, the eminent representative of the Talwandi Gharana, the only Dhrupad Gharana in Pakistan. The recordings, Ragas Bageshree & Jaijaivanti, we downloaded, if I remember right, many many years ago from the website, no longer existing, of the Lahore Music Forum or from Lahore Chitrkar, also no longer existing. 

Orginally Muhammad Hafeez Khan performed with his late older brother Muhammad Afzal Khan as a duo. In 2015 we had posted a cassette by the two brothers. 

Peter Pannke recorded them for the CD "Pakistani Soul" published in 1997 by Wergo: Rag Patdeep (14:08). He also invited them for the Festival "Pakistani Soul - Musik der Sufis aus Pakistan" in Berlin and Munich, also in 1997. This was perhaps the most beautiful Festival I ever saw.

Today's representatives of the founding family of the Talwandi Gharana of Dhrupad vocalists, Labrez Afzal Khan and Ali Hafeez Khan, also known as Talwandi Brothers, are the sons of the two older brothers and are quite active, performing in Pakistan and India. On YouTube one can find a good number of recordings by them.

For a very detailed and fascinating article on the Talwandi Gharana see:

http://www.naseeb.com/journals/dhrupad-in-pakistan-111674

Another fascintaing article. Read from page 147 (page 3 of the pdf):
http://www.global.ucsb.edu/punjab/sites/secure.lsit.ucsb.edu.gisp.d7_sp/files/sitefiles/journals/volume16/no1/9-Obituaries16.1.pdf

For some beautiful recordings see:
https://harmoniummusicblog.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/an-old-tradition-in-the-land-of-the-pure-hafeez-khan-talwandiwale/

mp3

As the original recordings have been in mp3 format we offer them here also only in mp3 format.

Gharanon Ki Gaiki - Vol. 20 - Mohammad Afzal Khan & Mohammad Hafiz Khan - Talwandi Gharana

The Talwandi Gharana is the only Dhrupad Gharana in Pakistan, very different from the better known Indian Dhrupad traditions. These two singers passed away already years ago and are succeeded by their sons Labrez Afzal Khan and Ali Hafeez Khan.

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For more information see:

http://www.naseeb.com/journals/dhrupad-in-pakistan-111674

http://www.the-south-asian.com/april2001/Pakistan%20Music-Classical.htm