Unique style: devotional music of Sufism in Malaysia

By Nantha Kumar - Malaysia Star
Thursday, May 25, 2006

In between discussing the location of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s throne and the complexities involved in anointing a successor to the late and great qawwal, two foremost members of the Bakshi Jawed Selamat Qawal Malaysia (BJSQ) made no attempts to conceal their admiration for Ustad Nusrat.

This is not entirely surprising as Haider Ali, the principal vocalist of BJSQ, draws his pedigree from the same gharana (style of music unique to the northern Indian classical music called Hindustani) as Nusrat. His teachers (or ustad) were Ustad Nadeem Salamat Ali Khan, the nephew of Nusrat, and Ustad Bakhshi Salamat Ali Khan, Nusrat’s uncle and one of his mentors. It is a rich lineage that extends to the generation of Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, Nusrat’s father, and to a revered institution in the music of qawwali.

The devotional music of Sufism is now throbbing in Malaysia through the efforts of Haider and his elder brother Ravin Sikander, and in the performances of the BJSQ, last seen at KLPac in March, and the preservation of this art at the Sikander Arts Academy.

“It’s a very, very difficult style of singing. If you do not learn and know from childhood, you’d sing qawwali songs in a different feel ...,” said Haider.

“We are the first ones to (take up the cause of qawwali music) here. I’ve been in Pakistan for years (but only) got the green light to (assume the mantle of the gharana) three years ago. I’ve been performing for a very long time.”

Ravin cited the absence of teachers in qawwali music and the general neglect of northern Indian classical music as the prime reasons for its virtual non-existence here and attributed the endeavours of sitarist Samuel J. Dass for keeping the music alive. The Sikh temples, Ravin claimed, have no more than kirtans and bhajans (devotional vocal music) and while Hindustani music makes appearances at established learning spaces such as Temple of Fine Arts, they are largely committed to the preservation of carnatic (south Indian classical) music.

BJSQ – made up of the two brothers; Shabeer Ahmed Rana (vocalist); Surinderjit Singh (harmonium and vocals); A. Kesavan (flute) and Pangasaasanii Gowrisan (violin) – and the Sikander Arts Academy seek to alter the classical Indian music landscape at home.

“The (BJSQ) troupe and academy were established about a year ago. The academy is situated in Brickfields and, at the moment, we teach vocals of different styles but from the basics. We also have light ghazal for those who want to learn but are constrained by other commitments. We also have harmonium, sarangi (bowed fiddle in Hindustani and folk music) tabla and sitar classes ... we would also be concentrating on kathak (classical dance native to northern India),” revealed Ravin.

“We now have over 30 students ... from those who do not know anything about music and those who had done music and are of certain (standings). We are grounding them in Hindustani music. We will be having a lot of performances ... every month, our students, regardless of whether they are ready or not, will perform at the academy.

There is no point in completing five years of learning, for example, the tabla and then start all over again learning how to (perform on stage). Our focus is on performance instead of learning exposure ... a lot of students in this country can pick a guitar and violin; many play but none of them perform.”

The BJSQ will be helming two performances of various northern Indian classical and folk music gharanas at The Actors Studio (Bangsar Shopping Centre) on May 29 and 30. Haider admitted that the troupe are not complete yet as they are in search of at least two more vocalists and back-up personnel while Ravin was equally forthright when he remarked that they are “not even halfway there yet” in comparison with the qawwal parties in the Indian sub-continent. But he underlined the need for encouragement for their work.

“We need support from the music community here ... we are a very small community and if we could get musicians, especially senior musicians regardless of whether they are from the south or north Indian schools, to come (for the shows), it would be nice.”