KARACHI, June 29: A packed hall of Hotel Marriot had a treat of vocal and instrumental classical music on the second and final day of Tehzeeb Festival & Awards 2013 on Friday.

The programme began with the performance of Ustad Naseeruddin Sami of Qawwal Bachon Ka Gharana and his son Urooj Sami. The duo rendered a few bandishes of Amir Khusro, before presenting a kheyal in Adana raag in Dhurupad style.

Hazrat Amir Khusro’s father, a Turk from Central Asia, came to India in the 13th century during the reign of Sultan Iltutmish. Amir Khusro was born in India and grew up to be a genius — as a poet, a prose writer of Persian, scholar of languages — and was nick-named Tootye-i-Hind. A disciple of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia, Khusro has his grave near the great saint’s resting place in old Delhi.

I remember having heard Naseeruddin Sami’s voice for the first time on the black & white screen of PTV many years ago. He was one of the members of the Munshi Raziuddin’s qawwal party. Those were the good old days of high class qawwali. His voice stood out on account of being extremely sureeli among the other members of the party. Years later, and for the second time, I heard him in the company of my friend Saleem Asmi at the residence of Hoori Noorani. With two perfectly tuned tanpuras he was presenting some raag in his melodious voice. In no time he became popular with the Karachi music lovers and there was no looking back for him now.

His forte being ‘sur’ he uses the surtees (microtones) exceedingly well. It is, therefore, not understandable why he should have a harmonium as an accompaniment that is most of the time too loud, making the sound of the two faultlessly tuned tanpuras hardly audible, even impairing his soulful performance.

Sami presented some obscure raag in which he used the surtees to his heart’s content and followed it by a kheyal of Adana raag in dhurupad style.

Next came the great Ustad Rais Khan in the company of his son Farhan Khan, both in princely attire. They took the stage and Rais Khan read from a speech written in English. This didn’t look like a good beginning, but when the old and young fingers touched the strings of the sitars, the samaeen (listeners) were transported to another world. The duo started with Sham Kalyan and presented two beautiful bandishes of the raag. Ustad Bashir Khan was on the tabla. This was followed by a lovely rendering of a combination of raags — Des and Malhar. It was heavenly to listen to Des merging into Malhar and vice versa. Ustad Rais Khan particularly mentioned about the intricacy hidden in the use of komal gandhar in Des.

What was most satisfying for me was the performance of Farhan. I had never seen him in this mood before. I always used to wonder when would the time arrive when the boy would be allowed to be his own man. The overpowering personality of his father seemed to overshadow the young man. Now, after listening to him at the festival, I understood what wonder it has done, what great benefits that fatherly shadow has brought to the young man. He is now, finally, his own Master — confident, proficient to the core, a true representative of his gharana. Undoubtedly, both Farhan — and, of course, his brother Huzoor, too, who is an equally talented sitarist — are lucky to be born Ustad Rais Khan’s sons. Tabla maestro Ustad Bashir Khan accompanied the father and son and we saw some interesting repartee between the singer and the tabla player.

The doyen of the Patiala gharana, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, came next and surprised us by his ability, despite old age and indifferent health, to still sing with such self assertiveness. He presented Shib Kalyan raag with his son Rustam Fateh Ali, Ustad Bashir Khan accompanying them on the tabla. Shib Kalyan has all the notes of Raag Kalawati, except that it has an additional note, Rekhab. The father and son followed it by a serene rendition of Jaunpuri which was extremely enjoyable. (Jaunpuri is such a ragini that will not appeal only to the deaf!) Ustad Fateh Ali also presented a Pahari ki thumri at the end.

The last performer was tabla master par excellence, Ustad Altaf Husain Tafoo, disciple of Mian Qadir Bukhsh Pakhawaji of the Lahore school. He mesmerised the listeners, who gave him a standing ovation. The dexterity inherent in his fingers — all the 10 of them — to create wonders on the two drums was amazing. Difficult to fathom what human fingers are capable of doing! And difficult, again, to fathom why no Pride of Performance was ever conferred upon Ustad Altaf Husain Tafoo!