Rizwan Muazzam

Career

Both of them are the sons of Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan, they have been performing together as Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali Group since the late 1990s. They played their first major concert in 1998 at the Womad Rivermead festival in Reading, England.

The two brothers lead singers team come from a direct family line of Qawwali music that spans over five centuries. Their grandfather Mubarak Ali Khan was an uncle of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and taught Nusrat the art of qawwali vocal music. They themselves studied under their father, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan, who died in 1996, and were then tutored by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali Group is made up of two lead singing brothers (Rizwan and Muazzam), five secondary singers leading the choral response with vigorous hand clapping, two harmonium players and a tabla player. They perform in traditional Qawwali style - sitting on the ground rather than on seats - which they believe brings them closer to God. They have given many joint performances at the Coke Studio in Pakistan in collaboration with various other fellow musicians including Shazia Manzoor that became very popular in Pakistan.

Party Members or Humnavas

First Harmonium/Vocals - Rahat Ali Khan

Second Harmonium/Vocals - Mushtaq Ahmed Niyazi

Side Vocals - Ghulam Abbas Nomi

Chorus- Zubair Ali Khan

Chorus- Mohammad Aurangzeb

Tabla- Zafar Ali Khan

Discography

Day Of Colours is an album of traditional qawwali, recorded in four days in a tiny studio in Lahore, with songs in Persian, Urdu and Punjabi languages. "Sayyedo-Sarwer Muhammad" (light of my life) was written by the 13th century Persian poet and mystic, Rumi.