Left to right: Imtiyaz Ghouri, Nadeem Abdul Basit, Saleh Siddiqui, Syed Ali Mahmood, Ustad Shahid Ali Khan, Mujeeb Siddiqui, Abdul Qadeer SIddiqui, Aijaz Ahmed Khan, Mirza Mohammad Baig, Ali Nawaz Chawhan, Mohsin, Shameem Kausar, Hassan Bayazeed and Mirza Qudrath Nawaz Baig. — SG photo by Mazahar Saleh Siddiqui

 

Syeda Amtul

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH — The Asian Cultural Society (ACS) Jeddah organized a musical night in a hall bursting at the seams with an enthusiastic ghazal (Urdu poetry)-loving audience recently here, and the audience witnessed some soulful performances.



The ghazal night titled “Aik Sham Ustad Shahid Ali Khan kay Naam” (an evening with Ustad Shahid Ali Khan) proved to be a perfect musical journey where the audience were treated to the renditions from Saleh Siddiqui, president Asian Cultural Society, accompanied with the enchanting performance of Ustad Shahid Ali Khan.



The audience listened, enjoyed and appreciated the performance with repeated applause and rapt attention.



The program started with some old songs from Bollywood by Mujeeb Siddiqui. The tone of the evening was then set by Mohsin who delivered some famous ghazals of Mehdi Hasan, Talat Aziz, Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Jagjit Singh.



Famous ghazal singer Saleh Siddiqui presented his own compositions of Bahadur Shah Zafar and Akhtar Saeed Khan. His vocal ability kept the audience spellbound, and it seemed as though time literally stood still. Ustad Shahid Ali Khan’s performance added the perfect touch to the night.



Shahid Ali, who belongs to “Punjab Gharana” famous in the classical music world for the past 120 years, said: “I am very fortunate to play tabla with Azad Iqbal (grandson of the great poet Allama Iqbal) who sings ‘ghazal,’ ‘geets,’ ‘thumri,’ ‘dadra,’ ‘tarana’ and ‘khayal.’ He has excellent knowledge of classical music.



I want to maintain my position in the field of classical music with Azad, I am very thankful to the Asian Cultural Society Jeddah, Abdul Qadeer Siddiqui and President Saleh Siddiqui for hosting this tremendous night,” he added.



His father, Ustad Janul Hassan Khan, who was a great artist of Pakistan, has performed with great musical legends like Mehdi Hasan, Farida Khanam, Iqbal Banu, Ghulam Ali, Pervez Mehdi, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan among others. Janul Hassan was a co-learner with Ustad Allah Rakha Khan, father of legendry artist Zakir Hussain. Both were students of same teacher. Janul Hassan used to work in Pakistan Radio with his brother Ustad Shaukat Hussain Khan.



Abdul Qadeer Siddiqui said, “I am very grateful to all artists and guests who make this evening memorable.”



Saleh Siddiqui said, “I am really thankful to all my artists and friends Abdul Aziz Zahrani, Tahir Doger, Sikandar Sindhi, Ali Nawaz Chawhan, Mohammad Tunisi and guitar player Abdul Aziz without whom it would not have been possible to make this event a success. If anyone passionate to learn from an artist like Ustad Shahid Ali Khan, they can contact 0562827310.”