Despite a visible shift in our national cultural priorities and the consequential decline in the popularity of our traditional varieties of music have suffered in recent decades, Pakistan can still boast of grooming a number of trend-setters in the styles of ghazal singing, whose contributions went a long way in enriching our melodic culture.
Vocalist Ijaz Hussain Hazarvi was one such stylish ghazal singer, who remained a sought-after vocalist from the decades of 1950s to 1970s. Not only was he highly placed in the hierarchy of musicians in the country, but also earned immense popularity equally among layman as well as discriminating votaries of the esoteric art. No other form of poetry has been so popular in our part of the world as ghazal, which is essentially a verse of lyrical and melodious charm brimming with intensity of emotions and rhythmic grandeur.
In Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, this mode of lyrical and musical expression has now become the standard mode, which appeals to the sensibilities of much wider audiences than any other genre of music. Ijaz Hussian Hazarvi was one of the pioneers in promoting the new ghazal style, which with the passage of time assumed classical dimensions.
Hailing from a family of professional musicians from a small town Hazro in Attock District, Ijaz Hussain won kudos for his stylish renditions of thumri-accented ghazals. Polite, affable and refined in manner, the soft-spoken vocalist began his music career in the early 1950s from Radio Pakistan, Lahore.
Initiated in this sophisticated art by his father Nabi Bakhsh Khan and older brother Ustad Allah Bakhsh, he also benefited from the melodic wisdom of Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan and Ustad Barre Ghulam Ali Khan, the two frontline exponents of Patiala Gharana style of Kheyal vocalisation. But in the realm of Ghazal singing, Ijaz Hussain was considered the inventor of his own distinctively individual style.
In its evolution, melodic Ghazal has borrowed Sargam (solfa singing) from Kheyal, which has provided yet another dimension to this melodic genre. Ijaz Hussain Hazarvi has often been credited with introducing Sargam in Ghazal singing for the first time in Punjab and later in Pakistan.
Like other seasoned practitioners of this genre, Ijaz Husain Hazarvi also had the natural ability to transform a literary Ghazal into an enchanting melodic experience.
He was a trained classical vocalist, a skill that helped him much during the formative years of his career. One could easily single out his stylish presentations from the renditions of other Ghazal singers.
Because of high melodic contents and the superior quality of his renditions, Ghazals sung by him were appreciated and applauded by votaries of music of all hues and Gharana persuasions. Proficient in practising several genres of music, his renditions of Kafis of Sufi saints from Punjab and Sindh were simply delightful. Often during his concerts, he fancied rendering folksongs and Punjabi Kafis of Ghulam Farid, Shah Hussain and Bulley Shah as if to remind the listeners of his competence in rendering these melodic genres with equal competence, ease, verve and confidence.
Radio Pakistan Lahore offered him ample opportunities to demonstrate his melodic skill, and after the advent of television in the country, Hazarvi also appeared on the mini screen quite frequently.
The 'Meri Pasand' series of Pakistan Television recorded his music- Thumris, Ghazals, Kafis and folk songs, which have been telecast on several past occasions. The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation and Pakistan Television Corporation will do well by airing Hazarvi's music periodically for the benefit and listening pleasure of the younger generation of musicians and votaries, who have not yet been exposed to his stylish renditions.
Better still, some enterprising individual or groups from music industry should collect his Ghazals to include in an album, which will go well with listeners, who have developed a good taste for melodic Ghazals.