Back to the roots
During the COVID-19 pandemic, musicians who relied on public performances and social events – performing at weddings and other celebrations – saw their income dry up. In Pakistan, where being a musician is a tenuous business at the best of times, with the Taliban attacking musicians in the north and not that much money to go around anyway, the pandemic was devastating.
What Mekaal Hasan decided to do was search out these musicians and bring them into recording studios. Out of this ambition Rivayat was born. More than just an album or a collection of songs, Rivayat is an attempt to provide a forum for musicians whose music provides the foundation for so much of Pakistan's music industry.
These are the people who pass on the traditional melodies and lyrics that are heard in everything from movie soundtracks to popular music. Yet, they derive little or no financial benefit from any of them. Rivayat celebrates these creators, some of whom can trace their families' musical roots back to the days of the Mughal emperors.
'Traditional' folk meets modern instrumentation
Just because Rivayat roughly translates into English as 'traditional' doesn't mean the album is bent on rigidly preserving the past. Hasan has long incorporated folk music into his rock arrangements and with this release, he has attempted to do something similar. While the traditional musicians were given absolute freedom to record whatever material they desired, he also sent their completed tapes to musicians he knows around the world to add modern instrumentation where appropriate.
Take, for example, the song "Chamba Kitni Dur", a traditional Himachal folk song performed by the ensemble The Manwa Sisters (Fozia Yasmin, Saba Noreen and Zille Huma).
While they recorded live in the studio with musicians – Kashif Ali on tabla, Ghulam Abbas on dholak, Qamar Abbas on cajon, and Mohammad Ahsan and Waqas Ali on flute – Hasan had French guitarist Gwen Lafitte and bass player Shez Raja from the United Kingdom make remote contributions to this track, and others.
The result is an amazing mixture of the modern and the traditional, where the former augments the latter to fill out the sound, without interfering with the texture and style of the original.
In this case, the voices of the three women are the focus of the recording as they interweave in intricate harmonies.
Cross-generational appeal
As part of the project, each of the recordings were videoed (they can be viewed on the Mekaal Hasan Band YouTube channel.
The experience of actually seeing the young women and band sitting on the floor wearing jeans and shirts while singing these traditional songs helps to dispel the myth of these only being sung by old people in traditional garb from little villages buried in the hills. This music is alive and well and thriving in a younger generation.
Perhaps even more amazing is the incredible diversity of music on display in this collection of recordings. Any preconceived notions people may have about all music from southeast Asia, let alone Pakistan specifically, sounding the same will be quickly dispelled. Listeners will also notice while there are definite similarities between this music and some Indian music, there are also noticeable differences.
While both countries share some terminology and common musical structures – for instance, both use the term 'raag' and follow the same patterns the term implies – the sitar is conspicuous by its absence in these songs. While not a raag, the song "Thumri Pahari Mishermail" is an example of cross-pollination between the two musical cultures. While a 'thumri' in Indian music is understood as a particular vocal style, in this case, the tune is an instrumental piece improvised by clarinettist Jaffer Hussain and tabla player Kahului Ali.
Hussain has the distinction of being the only classically-trained clarinettist in Pakistan, so if you were thinking this was a unique sound for this part of the world, you'd be right. That said, this is an incredibly beautiful song that in spite of the difference in its sound doesn't feel at all out of place amidst this collection.
Sufi trance with a difference
Many of the songs featured on this recording are qawwali. Derived from the Arabic word 'qawl' meaning utterance of the Prophet, a qawwali is those words put to music, while the person who sings them is known as a qawwal. Like much of the spiritual music in Pakistan, these songs are Sufi in origin and were created to help induce a trance-like state in listeners to bring them into an elevated spiritual state.
Yet even secular listeners can't help but be drawn in by these pieces. However, don't expect this to be the type of music most are used to equating with inducing a trance-like state. Listen to "Tobah" performed by Shahzad Ali Khan and be amazed at the intensity and pace of the song. This is passion and belief hurled up to the heavens. Tobah – from the Arabic 'tawba' – is the Islamic concept of repentance for sins committed.
Taken in this context, the driving beat and the insistence it gives the song makes sense. Khan's repeated pleas to his listeners to repent are like any religious leader's pleas to his congregation. With the inclusion of bass and guitar adding to the texture of the song, this piece becomes as compelling a piece of music as you'll ever hear.
Each of the tracks included in this collection is equally compelling in its own right. Whether the singers come from the religious traditions of Sufi devotional music or the secular heritage of playback singers (those who provide the singing voices for Bollywood-esque musicals) each of the songs is a joy to listen to. In compiling this collection, Mekaal Hassan has proven Pakistan's traditional folk music to be alive and well.
© Qantara.de 2023