PAGB Presents Enthralling Evening with Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad Qawwals in Boston
By Tahir Ali
Westborough, MA: It was a pleasant Friday evening on November 25th, 2022. Whether it was the weather or the Qawwali event that drew South Asians in large numbers, is a moot point. The Yusra Social Center in Westborough, Massachusetts had a capacity audience.
The Pakistan Association of Greater Boston ( PAGB) management was still courteous enough to accommodate as many walk-ins as it could. According to Shehla Gull, President of PAGB, "even when we told them that there are no more seats available, they still wanted to attend, seat or no seat. We just didn't have the heart to send anyone away."
PAGB's Shehla Gull and Humaira Shaikh welcomed the PAGB members and non-members alike. In her opening speech, VP Humaira welcomed everyone in the audience. She also gave an elaborate account of the 'History of Qawwali' - notably Qawwali goes back all the way to the 13 th century and took birth thanks to the Persian poet, Amir Khusro. Qawwali and its Sufi component have become more popular in the sub-continent.
Board members: Fauzia Sayeed, Komal Kamran, and Ayesha Saddiqa also had their work cut out for them: some played the role of usher, while others attended the ticket counter, and greeted the guests as they poured in.
As the members of the audience made their way into the main performance hall, the first thing that caught their eyes was the glamorously decorated stage. It was huge enough to easily accommodate the entire sound equipment, musical instruments along with the 11 members of the Qawwal party. Jawed Wahid, the sound engineer, was very particular as always about the sound quality and had a bunch of microphones and speakers neatly meshed on the stage. He had made sure that the sounds of the harmonium, tabla, dholak are all in sync with the vocalists in order to achieve the best sound and listening quality. Judging from how the audience was fully engaged with the Qawwals, he managed to achieve just that.
Fareed Ayaz, with his brother Abu Muhammad and son Moiz, made his appearance in the hall and walked towards the stage in the midst of a cheering crowd. Other members of the group were already present on the stage and paved the way for the musical anecdote of "Mera Piya Ghar Aaya". Fareed Ayaz thanked the organizers (PAGB board and promoter Shazia Khan), the Boston audience and singled out past-President Siraj Khan for a special mention. This event had been planned during the term of the previous board when Siraj Khan was leading the team, but the event could not take place owing to delays in getting the visas on time. Luckily, the current Board carried on the projectonce the Qawwals had got their visas. However, this was not their first time in Boston; approximately six years ago Fareed Ayaz and their group had performed for PAGB, under Hassan Usmani's leadership. Hassan who was sitting right in the front revealed to me later that he had the honor of hosting the group at his house, as well.
Fareed Ayaz and his team started off with Sufi kalam and then switched to what the audience liked to hear. Dr Khalid Sadozai was completely mesmerized with the Sufi kalam, Allah Hoo and others that followed, "that's his specialty, but I understand he also has to conform to other requests, but he stayed on the Sufi path for a few hours, and I was completely sold during the first few hours."
Listeners were completely immersed throughout the evening. The group rendered one kalam after another: Chap Talak, Ghar Nari Ganwari, Khaaba-e-Tahayyur-e-Ishq, Yaar Bina, Shahbaaz Qalander to name a few.
The program went on for hours and the audience remained glued to their seats. Khalid Kazi, who was enjoying the show, told me over the phone, "It was after a long while that I enjoyed an event here in Massachusetts. No wonder Fareed Ayaz and Humnawa are not only popular in Pakistan, but also the world over. They have performed in many countries of Europe.”
Naheed Usmani, former President of APPNA, complimented the Qawwals: "They are national treasures of Pakistan, we should try to preserve this form of artwork before it gets lost to ages.” She recalled her conversation with Fareed's son Moiz when he was with his father on his last visit to Boston and asked how is he able to keep up with his studies to which he respectfully responded by saying that reciting and remembering these words is an education on its own. This was an amazing performance with standing room only, they brought the house down. The Sufi kalam that Ayaz and his party rendered (DUA, Hamd, Naat and Alahar) was really enchanting, but Taj-Dare-Haram, was from the top drawer."
Shehla Gull was happy to see many of her Indian friends also enjoying as they swayed back and forth with the music and she was convinced that "Music really knows no borders".
Ayesha Saddiqa summarized the event in a few words, "Our Qawwals started the night slowly by deploying the lyrics of Hamd-o-Sana - building up the tempo - to slowly elevate Qawwali to reach the crescendo"
The Pakistan Association of Greater Boston ( PAGB) team has been successful in organizing five events since they took office in July 2022.
(Video courtesy: Rashid Ali of RANS Studio, photo courtesy PAGB-FB)
