Sabri Brothers & Ensemble

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Sabri Brothers & Ensemble · The Sabri Brothers were two brothers from Pakistan who, together with their ensemble, were among the greatest interpreters of Sufi qawwali. The group was led by Ghulam Farid Sabri and his younger brother Maqbool Ahmed Sabri. The band was originally founded by Maqbool when he was eleven, under the name Bacha Qawwal Party. His older brother Ghulam Farid joined at their father's insistence and became the leader, after which the group came to be called the Sabri Brothers. They were closely associated with the Chishti order, a Sufi brotherhood.

Music and breakthrough

In qawwali a leader and a chorus sing religious poems, accompanied by harmonium, dholak and handclaps. The Sabri Brothers were called Shahanshah-e-Qawwali, the emperors of qawwali. They were the first qawwali performers to appear in the United States and other Western countries, and in 1975 the first Asian artists at Carnegie Hall in New York. Ghulam Farid died in 1994 and Maqbool led the group until his death in 2011, after which Mehmood Ghaznavi Sabri took over.

Influence

Their recordings were spread in the West mainly through albums such as Ya Habib from 1990 and Qawwali Masterworks from 1991. The music builds slowly: a calm beginning grows into a fierce, almost ecstatic repetition, in which the lead singer and the chorus drive each other on. In this way the brothers introduced an audience outside Pakistan to an age-old form of religious music.

Listening

• 
  Allah-hoo, Allah-hoo · Sabri Brothers & Ensemble, 1978
• 
  Aaj Rang Hai · Sabri Brothers, 1987

Discography

Studio albums

• 1990Ya Habib
• 1991Qawwali Masterworks
• 1996Ya Mustafa
• 1998Qawwali, Sufi music from Pakistan
• 2003Tasleem
• ?Kawwali Musicians From Pakistan