Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, was a Pakistani vocalist, musician, composer and music director primarily a singer of qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music. He is considered to be the greatest Sufi singer in the Punjabi and Urdu language, and World's greatest qawwali singer ever; he is often referred to as "Shahenshah-e-Qawali". He was described as the 4th greatest singer of all time by LA Weekly in 2016. He was known for his vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. He belonged to the Qawwal Bacchon Gharana extending the 600-year old qawwali tradition of his family, Khan is widely credited with introducing qawwali music to international audiences.
The Music of Pakistan includes diverse elements ranging from music from various parts of South Asia as well as Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and modern-day Western popular music influences. With these multiple influences, a distinctive Pakistani music has emerged.
Ustad Allarakha Qureshi, popularly known as Alla Rakha, was an Indian tabla player who specialized in Hindustani classical music. He was a frequent accompanist of sitar player Pandit Ravi Shankar and was largely responsible for introducing Tabla to the western audience.
Qawwali is a form of Sufi Islamic devotional singing, originating from the Indian subcontinent, and notably popular in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan; in Hyderabad, Delhi and other parts of India, especially North India; as well as the Dhaka and Chittagong Divisions of Bangladesh.
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is a Pakistani musician, primarily of Qawwali, a devotional music of the Muslim Sufis. Khan is one of the biggest and highest paid singers in Pakistan. He is the nephew of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, son of Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan and also grandson of Qawwali singer Fateh Ali Khan. In addition to Qawwali, he also performs ghazals and other light music. He is also popular as a playback singer in Bollywood and the Pakistan film industry.
Kafi is a classical form of Sufi music mostly in the Siraiki, Punjabi and Sindhi languages and originating from the Punjab, Siraiki vusaib and Sindh regions in the Indian subcontinent. Some well-known Kafi poets are Baba Farid, Bulleh Shah, Shah Hussain, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sachal Sarmast and Khwaja Ghulam Farid. This poetry style has also lent itself to the Kafi genre of singing, popular throughout South Asia, especially Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. Over the years, both Kafi poetry and its rendition have experienced rapid growth phases as various poets and vocalists added their own influences to the form, creating a rich and varied poetic form, yet through it all it remained centered on the dialogue between the Soul and the Creator, symbolized by the murid (disciple) and his Murshid (Master), and often by lover and his Beloved.
Fateh Ali Khan Jullundhri Qawwal was a classical singer and a qawwali musician in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in Jullundur, Punjab, British India in 1901. Fateh Ali Khan was the father of Pakistani Qawwali musicians, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan. Their family has an unbroken tradition of Qawwali, linked closely to the Sufi Chishti Order for over 600 years.
Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan was a Pakistani musician, who played the harmonium in Qawwali music. He was also a member of a well-known family of Qawwali musicians, the younger brother of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the son of Fateh Ali Khan, the nephew of Mubarak Ali Khan, and the father of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.
Badar Miandad Khan, also known as Badar Ali Khan, was a Pakistani qawwali singer. He released several albums in Pakistan. Several albums were also released under UK and Indian labels.
Ustad Sultan Khan was an Indian sarangi player and classical vocalist belonging to Sikar Gharana. He was one of the founding members of the Indian fusion group Tabla Beat Science, with Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, in 2010.
Paṅjāb Gharānā(Urdu:پنجاب گھرانا), is a style and technique of Tabla playing that originated in the Punjab region of what is now split in present-day Pakistan and India. The Punjab Gharana is considered one of the six main styles of Tabla, the others being Delhi, Ajrada, Banares, Lucknow, and Farrukhabad. The repertoire of the Punjab Gharana is heavily influenced by the Pakhawaj.
The Patiala gharana, is one of the gharanas of vocal Hindustani classical music, named after the city of Patiala, India. It was founded in the mid to late 19th century by Mian Kallu, a sārangi player of the Jaipur durbar who received his musical training from the last Mughal king Bahadur Shah Zafar’s court musician Mir Qutub Bakhsh ‘Tanras’ Khan. Mian Kallu became the court musician to the Maharaja of Patiala and eventually, the mantle was passed on to his son, ‘General’ Ali Baksh Khan, who performed with his close friend ‘Colonel’ Fateh Ali Khan, both of whom became court musicians in the court of Maharaja Rajinder Singh. The titles of 'general' and 'colonel' of music were bestowed upon them by the Victor Alexander Bruce, the 9th Earl of Elgin, after the duo had enthralled him with their performance. The duo was popularly referred to as ‘Alia-Fattu ki Jodi’. Although the Patiala gharana was originally founded by Mian Kallu, it is widely acknowledged that it was Ali Baksh Khan and Fateh Ali Khan who popularised the Patiala style and tradition of singing and brought it acclaim and attention across the subcontinent.
The All Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) is a volunteer organization founded in 1959 for the promotion of classical arts in Pakistan and continues to preserve and promote Pakistani classical and folk music and dance. It hosts a concert of music every month and a 5 day annual festival in Lahore, Pakistan typically in the last weekend of October. It has a chapter in Karachi as well. Ever since its inception, it has been a constant source of inspiration for thousands of music lovers nationwide.
Abdul Sattar Khan popularly known as Ustad Tari Khan is a Pakistani tabla player and vocalist. Tari Khan hails from the Punjab gharana and is the student of Ustad Mian Shaukat Hussain. He has been awarded with many accolades such as Taj Poshi, the Hazrat Amir Khusrow Award, as well as Pakistan's Pride of Performance Award in 2008. Tari Khan belongs to the tabla playing gharana called the Punjab gharana.
Sher Miandad Khan (born 1968), is a Pakistani qawwal and a folk singer. He was born in Pakpattan, Pakistan and started his qawwali group in 1996. He adopted qawwali singing as his family tradition. His grandfather Din Mohammad Qawwal was a renowned qawwal of India and Pakistan. He learned music from his father Ustad Miandad Khan. He is a cousin of renowned qawwal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Sher Miandad is the younger brother of another popular Pakistani qawwal Badar Ali Khan also known as Badar Miandad Qawwal.
Altaf Hussain Tafu Khan, better known as Ustad Tafu or simply Tafoo, is a Pakistani musician from Lahore, Pakistan known as a master tabla player. Ustad Tafu is especially adept at playing the musical instrument Tabla and is called the Tabla King in some music circles. Ustad Tafu has also been associated with Coke Studio in Pakistan. He is the father of musicians Tariq Tafu, Tanveer Tafu & Sajjad Tafu.
Sheikh Muhammad Sadiq or S M Sadiq is a Pakistani lyricist and a poet whose written songs frequently have been sung by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and other singers like Attaullah Khan Esakhelvi, Shabnam Majeed and Arif Lohar.
Mian Shaukat Hussain was a Pakistani tabla player who belonged to the Punjab gharana of tabla-playing music artists.
Fanna-Fi-Allah is a Canadian–American group which plays Qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia.
