This past week a friend, who is also an ardent lover of devotional songs and melodic ghazals presented me an audio-cassette, asking me to comment on its sonic quality and the melodic input of Abida Perveen, whose rendition of seven ghazals and one kafi forms the content of the cassette.
Though an old cassette recorded somewhere in the middle of the decade of 1980s, it still retains the enduring sonic quality of its content.The cassette under review is a collection of seven ghazals written by modern poets and a kafi of the Sufi saint Baba Bulley Shah.
Included in it are two ghazals by Faraz, and one each by Mir Hasan, Salim Gilani and Ibne Insha.During the past six decades ghazal-singing has acquired the status of a sophisticated vocal art form. Consequently, it is not easy for an up-and-coming vocalist any more to practise this intricate genre of vocal music without first spending a long period of apprenticeship with a seasoned musician.
To become a good ghazal singer one needs to acquire the skill for modulation of melodic notes, control over his vocals and good practical knowledge of the rudiments of classical music.
Grooming under the supervision of an inveterate vocalist is a sine-quo-non for achieving the status of a good ghazal singer. Abida Perveen's gifted voice and plentiful performing skill electrify her audiences, whom she swings with the lilt and cadence of her songs feelingly rendered for radio, television, stage and at privately sponsored soirees.
When the prospects of grooming vocalists with tuneful voices in this sophisticated art form appear bleak, it is heartening to notice the emergence of a gifted vocalist of the calibre of Abida Perveen. A rare breed among musicians, she is endowed with the ability of captivating the hearts of millions of music buffs.
The spellbinding quality of her soulful renditions and the enchanting depth of her cultured voice are her real assets, which she uses intelligently and creatively.Rarely does a human voice succeed in hypnotising listeners as completely as her's.
She renders ghazals, geets and different varieties of Sindhi and Punjabi folk music with equal ease and aplomb. However, her forte remains the singing of kafis of Sindhi (and Punjabi) mystic poets, which she renders in her emotion-charged voice, often while in a state of ecstatic trance.
Now a few words about her career! Making her debut at the young age of 13 from Radio Pakistan, Hyderabad, Abida Parveen soon made a name for herself because of her immense love for Sindhi devotional music and abundant performing skill. People from rural Sindh hinterland willingly travelled several miles to enjoy the songs of this popular vocalist from the Valley of Mehran, when she toured interior of the province.
With the passage of time she touched the apex of popularity by acquiring a high degree of professional competence. One among the very few gifted singers, who do not need much training in performing skill, Abida Perveen is an extraordinarily fine charmer.
She is a born singer, who has the ability to swing her audiences from an initial startled dumbness to an exciting and thunderous ovation with the richness and emotive force of her bass voice. Her renditions of the kafis of Sachal Sarmast, Shah Abdul Latif, Baba Bulley Shah, Khwaja Ghulam Farid and Shah Hussain, which convey the message of universal brotherhood of mankind, mesmerise in equal measures her urban and rural audiences.
A specimen of the hypnotising quality of her voice is provided by the rendition of Bulley Shah's kafi Saade Vehre Aa, the last number in the cassette under review. In her songs, she successfully displays an unbroken chain in the tradition of artistic continuity and purity, which generally pervades Sindhi ethos.
Exuding abundant devotional vigour, kafis sung by her act as an anesthetic agent for the audiences, who get lost in an endless stream of music that echoes the soulful voices of Sachal Sarmast and Shah Abdul Latif. She has developed a distinct style of her own that is characterised by her unbridled enthusiasm, marked exuberance and rich and cultured voice that does not suffer from an unorthodox obsession with music.
A prolific singer, a spontaneous and eloquent human being she seems to realise that enduring impact on the listeners cannot be created without a total commitment of the artiste to his/her profession. This should serve as a strong stimulating agent for the up-and-coming artiste, who are aspiring to live in the hearts of millions of music buffs in Pakistan and abroad.
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