Remembering our Legends: Pervez Mehdi - a sonic copy of his mentor

It was in the last week of March 2005, when as Chairman, National Ghazal Committee, I organised a four-day (March 27-30) National Ghazal Festival in Karachi.
Among several artists from Lahore, I invited Pervez Mehdi, the 58-year old renowned ghazal singer to demonstrate his melodic prowess at the national festival He looked hail and hearty and did not show any sign of suffering from a fatal heart disease that took his life in Lahore five months later on August 29, 2005. Among his survivors were wife, two sons and three daughters and millions of fans to mourn his death. His career spanned a period over three decades.
Two broad categories of ghazal singers have dominated the musical scene in the sub-continent. Those, who can only render melodies of other composers, and those who can expertly sing their own compositions that are interspersed with impromptu improvisations. However, there are a few other vocalists who can practice both kinds of ghazal singing styles with ease and competence. Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Farida Khanum, Hussain Bakhsh Gulloo, Abida Perveen and late Pervez Mehdi can be bracketed in this category.
For a singer to give his best there are certain motivating factors, which stimulate and furbish his singing style. Things like sensitive and properly tuned musical instruments, competent accompanying instrumentalists, and a good selection of poetry and, above all, good voice and enchanting compositions combine to stir a vocalist to create congenial environment for a soulful musical experience for his audiences.
Late Pervez Mehdi was so fastidious that, in addition to these pre-requisites for a good performance, he also desired to have at least a few knowledgeable connoisseurs or good professional musicians among his audiences. He made them the focal point of his attention during the concerts as if he was communicating with them through the medium of ghazals. That he thought was essential to establish a rapport and get a feedback from them. Such a relationship between him and his audiences helped to get the best out of his creative melodic talent.
An enterprising musician Pervez Mehdi was quite versatile in presenting several genres of light classical and popular music, which endeared him to a large number of music buffs in Pakistan, India and a number of foreign countries, which he visited on several occasions. He used his vocal resources to sustain the buoyancy of his rendition.
The precision with which he used musical notes created an absorbing effect and one felt fulfilled, soothed and at peace after hearing him sing ghazals, geets, kafis and different varieties of folk songs. His ghazal renditions reflected the striking features of the style of his mentor Mehdi Hassan, which he respectfully tried to emulate. Sometimes radio listeners mistook him for his Ustad. To undiscerning listeners, he sometimes sounded like a replica of his mentor Mehdi Hassan.
Born in August 1947 in a family of professional gharana musicians in Lahore, late Pervez Mehdi received his early training in music from his father Bashir Husain Rahi, who at one time was acknowledged a competent folk singer. From his early childhood Pervez showed his strong proclivity for singing by taking part in music and naat competitions in school ignoring his formal education.
He was simply not interested in schooling of any kind except receiving training in the art of vocalisation. At one time, he tried to learn sitar playing from late Siraj Ahmed Qureshi but not finding easy to express himself adequately through this delicate instrument, he gave it up and opted for ghazal singing.
A regular participants in radio and television programmes Pervez Mehdi also recorded songs which he rendered in duet with leading female artists, including melody queen Noor Jehan, Tasawwar Khanum, Nahid Akhter, Reshman and Nazir Begum.
For a better part of the year during the last phase of his career he toured foreign countries regaling thousands of expatriate Pakistani workers, including countries of the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North American Continent. For him touring abroad was fun and creatively satisfying and productive.
Pervez Mehdi is no more but hundreds of his mellifluous songs feelingly rendered by him, (which are available on cassettes and compact discs) will continue to provide listening pleasure, solace and tranquility to a large number of music buffs in Pakistan, India and other countries, reminding them of his affable manners, smiling face and enduring qualities of his music.