Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali

Many of the great qawwals — singers of devotional Qawwali music — have come from hefty lineages of musicians, and built their groups, known as parties, out of the connective dynastic tissues of siblings and family members. In much of the music you can hear some sense of this; the way the collective melodies and harmonies seem to reach beyond planes of past, present and future, somehow holding roots and heritages along with a distant, different realm, all in one hand.

Such is the case with the exquisite Pakistani brothers Rizwan and Muazzam Ali Khan, and their latest body of work, At the Feet of the Beloved. The siblings come from a veritable Qawwali dynasty comprising some 600 years of qawwals; not least, their uncle, the late, great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (NFAK), widely considered as the ‘Shahenshah-e-Qawwali’ — the King of Qawwali. Taught by Rizwan and Muazzam’s grandfather, NFAK’s work and his exceptional voice helped bring Qawwali to a global audience, spreading the Sufi Islamic form’s message of spiritual love and longing to connect with a divine, higher power, regardless of any perceived barriers of culture, language, religion or ethnicity. It is this sentiment which the duo, along with their party of seven other musicians providing secondary vocals, instrumentation and percussion, seek to continue, carrying the torch and opening up people worldwide to that sublime, uplifting power.