Farid Ayaz Qawwal
Farid (also spelled Fareed) Uddin Ayaz Al-Hussaini belongs to the best known gharana (ancient tradition) of qawwali, Qawwal Bachon Ka Gharana’ of Delhi. This gharana, approximately over seven centuries old, was started by Saamat Bin Lbrahim, the principal student of Hazrat Amir Khusrau. The eminent ghrana has produced famous masters like the late Ustad Tanrus Khan, court musician and tutor in classical music of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mogul emperor.
Fareed Ayaz and party is one of the best qawwal of the South Asian sub-continent. Fareed Ayaz started his training in classical music at a young age under the rigorous and critical tutelage of his late father Ustad Munshi Raziuddin Khan, who himself was a renowned classical musician, a recipient of the President’s Pride Of Performance Medal and was bestowed many other honors by the government of Pakistan.
Farid Ayaz is an accomplished musician in the genre of classical music. He has been performing professionally for the last 30 years, nationally and internationally. He has also been a cultural representative for Pakistan at numerous Pakistani missions abroad. Farid Ayaz and party have performed in the United Kingdom, USA, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Austria, India, Kenya, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Croatia, Turkey, Morocco, Greece, Egypt, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Belgium, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and many others.
Farid Ayaz has total mastery over various genres of classical music, such as dhrupad, khayal, tarana, thumria and dadra which he blends beautifully during his performances of qawwali. His mastery over classical music was acclaimed at the All Pakistan Music Conference annual festival (February 2005), where he was invited to perform as a classical singer and not a qawwal.
Farid Ayaz is well versed in several languages and can ably perform in Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Hindi, Poorbi, Bengali, Marathi, Persian, Arabic and Turkish, in addition to Japanese.
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
