Source: BroadwayWorld, 12 February 2024 — “HAMZA AKRAM QAWWAL & BROTHERS To Perform Sufi Chants OF Pakistan At Roulette In March” — https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwclassical/article/HAMZA-AKRAM-QAWWAL-BROTHERS-To-Perform-Sufi-Chants-OF-Pakistan-At-Roulette-In-March-20240212
On Friday 8 March 2024 at 8 p.m., Hamza Akram Qawwal & Brothers performed at Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue, Downtown Brooklyn, presented by Robert Browning Associates, Lotus Music & Dance and Roulette.
The ensemble — Hamza Akram on lead vocals and harmonium, his brothers Taimoor Akram on tabla and solo vocals and Abdul Akram on harmonium and solo vocals, joined by their father Ghulam Akram on supporting vocals and chorus, with Shahzad Hussain on chorus and clapping and Prakash on dholak — presented riveting interpretations of qawwali, the ecstatic improvisational Sufi vocal tradition made famous in the West by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. With lively rhythmic handclapping and drumming, joyous melodies, inspirational poetry and powerful vocals, they performed songs ranging from 13th-century mystical Persian poems to more recent Punjabi poems about the intoxication of divine love.
Qawwali is a tradition dating back to the late 13th century, associated with Sufism and said to have been introduced to the Mughal court by the Persian mystic, poet and musician Amir Khusrau. The word itself means “utterance”, from the Arabic qaul — a saying. It is, at its heart, sung poetry, and the qawwal’s task is to draw the audience toward transcendence through verses on divine love, the sayings of the Prophet, or a particular Sufi saint.
The brothers represent the 26th generation of the seven-centuries-old Qawwal Bachon ka Gharana of Delhi, founded by their ancestor Saamat bin Ibrahim, the first qawwal of the subcontinent and principal student of Amir Khusrau. Hamza, born in Karachi in 1992, studied with the renowned Naseeruddin Saami and with his uncle Farid Ayaz Qawwal. In 2017 he became the first qawwal since Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to compose film music, writing for the Pakistani feature Rangreza, and that same year the group won the Lux Style Award.
The March 2024 concert was one more step in a New York story that continues today — the brothers returned to Roulette in April 2025 and again in April 2026.
This post is a rephrased summary of BroadwayWorld’s announcement of 12 February 2024, with the performance confirmed by later season listings, shared here for our press archive. Read the original at the link above.
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