abida parveen

BEGINNER’S GUIDE
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BEGINNER’S GUIDE
ABIDA PARVEEN
Jameela Sidiqqi tells the story of Pakistan’s only
internationally renowned Sufi female singer
CATHERINE DE CLIPPEL
T
52 Songlines
June 2013
hey weep, they faint and some go
into a trance in jam-packed concert
halls, while scores of others sway
uncontrollably in the aisles. It may be
a nail-biting moment for the health
and safety police but these scenes are typical
at an Abida Parveen concert. The Pakistani
singer really has to be seen to be believed;
her numerous recordings rarely do full justice
to her electrifying live performances. At a
stadium performance in Lahore, Peter Gabriel’s
Real World label representatives were hugely
impressed: ‘The power was like at a heavy metal
concert – but it was only Abida accompanied by
a percussionist and a harmonium.’
She is, undoubtedly, one of the world’s greatest
singers and Pakistan’s only internationally
renowned female singer of Sufi music. A woman
in what has always been a man’s world, Parveen
is truly one of a kind. Born in Larkana in the
Pakistani province of Sindh in 1954, she was
drawn to mysticism at a young age and was
initially trained by her father, Ghulam Haidar –
an established classical vocalist of his time. In
a radical departure from the norm, Haidar not
only nurtured his daughter’s immense talent but
also, bypassing his sons, named her his musical
successor when she was just five years old.
Parveen’s repertoire consists largely of Sufi
poetry in the Sindhi and Punjabi languages and
Saraiki dialect, although she also sings a number
of ghazals (rhyming couplets) in Urdu or Farsi.
A great deal of her Punjabi repertoire overlaps
with the texts sung in qawwali (Sufi devotional
music), notably those performed by her near
contemporary, the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,
causing some to dub her a ‘female qawwal’ – a label
that made her uncomfortable despite the fact that
her performances can be just as spiritually uplifting
as that of Khan. Her forte, however, is kafi, a song
form invented by the mystic poet-musician Shah
Abdul Latif (1690-1752) from her native province
Sindh in Pakistan, dotted with Sufi tombs. Kafi
differs markedly from ghazal and qawwali. Ghazal
is a literary genre that can also be read, and qawwali
relies heavily on a chorus of male voices and
rhythmic clapping. But kafi is primarily a solo genre
designed only to be sung. Many author-composers
clearly specify the raga, or melodic framework,
the singer should use. Also, unlike qawwali’s
carefree abandon, which aims to heighten spiritual
awareness in listeners through frenzied rhythms
and syncopated clapping, kafi is a somewhat softer,
more reflective genre. Blending sadness with joy,
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“When somebody listens to
this music, it is their heart,
their soul that is listening…”
it’s akin to a heart-wrenching symphony that
nevertheless ends on an optimistic note.
Parveen’s best-loved and most popular
numbers include verses not only from Shah
Abdul Latif but from all the prominent mystic
poets of the region, often inserting the verses
of several poets into the same song. Her
huge international success is perhaps not as
surprising as her complete – and unconditional
– acceptance in her native Pakistan, where
Sufi music either belongs to hereditary male
qawwals, or to the many solo male artists who
specialise in singing Sufi verse. Women are even
frequently relegated to the back rows as listeners.
But the male/female divide rapidly melts into
insignificance the minute Abida Parveen strikes
the first note with her exceptionally deep and
powerfully controlled voice. Anyone who has
attended her concerts will testify that she
appears wholly ecstatic, as though on some
spiritual sojourn of her own, and totally oblivious
to the impact she’s having on her audiences. For
her, the performance of this music is, in itself,
an act of devotion: “There is a message in this
music, the Sufi message of love,” she said in an
interview for the Channel 4 documentary Sufi
Soul: The Mystic Music of Islam, adding, “when
somebody listens to this music, it is their heart,
their soul that is listening…”
Parveen has been going from strength to
strength since the late 80s, with a sparkling
international career that has seen her appearing
on reality TV shows and judging talent
contests and in India. The latest of these was
the controversial Sur Kshetra, which was a
(supposedly) peaceful battle of musical notes with
India pitted against Pakistan. She is by no means
the first Pakistani artist to have achieved this
god-like status on Indian TV. But she is definitely
the first talent-show judge to flatly refuse to mark
down a not-so-good contestant on the grounds
that he was singing her sacred and beloved Sufi
poetry, albeit a little out of tune.
PODCAST Hear music from Abida Parveen on
this issue’s podcast
DATE Abida Parveen will be performing at the
Manchester International Festival on July 6
BEST ALBUMS
Songs of the Mystics
(Navras, 2000)
This album was recorded
at a time when Parveen
was beginning to get
noticed outside of Pakistan but had yet to be
embraced by India and its gigantic Bollywood
music machine. It features all her famous
numbers including kafis, a couple of Urdu ghazals
and a thumri (light classical song) in Hindi.
‘Ishq: Supreme Love
(Accords Croisés, 2005)
One of her finest albums,
this features her usual
repertoire but with the
most amazing sound quality. French bansuri flute
player Henri Tournier contributes a lovely breathy
texture, improvising around her every vocal
nuance. The flute is no stranger to this genre –
there are numerous songs which feature mystical
folk heroes that play the instrument. This is a
terrific studio recording.
Visal: Mystic Poets from
the Hindi and the Sind
(World Village, 2002)
Another outstanding
album featuring some
rarely-heard numbers and, again, beautifully
enhanced by Henri Tournier’s bansuri.
The Very Best of Abida
(Times Music, 2005)
There are numerous
compilations – in fact the
majority of her albums are
compilations – of which The Very Best of Abida
stands out with its well-balanced mix of her
traditional and modern repertoire.
BEST AVOIDED
Sufiana Safar (Winjit
Technologies, 2012)
An Indian recording – of
which there are many –
where her original old
vocals are needlessly overlaid with mechanical
muzak-style percussion and orchestral tracks.
LIKE ABIDA PARVEEN? THEN TRY…
PATHANAY KHAN,
HAMID ALI BELA
OR TUFAIL NIYAZI
Pakistan’s top three legendary kafi singers –
all men, of course. All have very different styles
of singing but essentially perform the same
repertoire as Abida Parveen.
Songlines 53