WOMAD

Faiz Ali Faiz

From Pakistan

Nusrat's former understudy deserves his own limelight

WOMAD has always been a welcoming territory for qawwali singers. Not only was Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan a regular fixture of our gatherings for years and years, his nephews - leading Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali - are also no strangers to our stages. Faiz Ali Faiz also has direct links to the great man; not only did his harmonium-playing uncle also line up in Nusrat's group, Faiz had the pressure-heavy task of understudying for Nusrat whenever he was ill. Not that Faiz is a mere soundalike. Sure, his upwardly-spiralling vocal style owes a debt to Nusrat - after all, which qawwali singer isn't going to be compared to such a dominant icon? But Faiz is also someone keen to expand qawwali's boundaries, to explore the similar, if not shared, territory occupied by other styles from across the globe - these explorations include collaborations with both flamenco groups and with that freewheeling French troubadour Titi Robin.

(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2011)

Faiz Ali Faiz

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