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SABRI BROTHERS, The

Pakistani qawwali group fronted by two brothers, Haji Ghulam Farid (or Fareed) Sabri (b 1930, Kalyana, East Punjab; d 1994) and Haji Maqbool Ahmed Sabri (b 12 October 1945, Kalyana; some sources say Doujana). The name Sabri derives from the Sufi Sabriya sect. Their father Ustad Haji Inayat Sen Sabri (ustad being the Muslim equivalent of guru) was also a qawwal (qawwali singer) and taught his sons about qawwali and Northern Indian (Hindustani) classical music. The family claims descent from the legendary Mian Tansen, one of the greatest Hindustani musicians of all time; Tansen was a musician in the court of Akbar, credited with miraculous powers. Maqbool Ahmed Sabri learned further from Ustad Fatehdin Khan, Ustad Ramzan Khan and Ustad Latafat Hussain Khan.

With Partition in 1947 they settled in Karachi; with help from his father, Maqbool Ahmed Sabri formed his first party of qawwals at the age of eleven and in '56 his elder brother (who had been singing with Kallan Khan's qawwal and party) joined him. They first recorded '58 for EMI Pakistan, scoring a popular hit with 'Hera Koi Nahin Hai Teray Siwa'. Hailed as two of the greatest exponents of qawwali in the world and gathering enough awards and citations to fill numerous mantelpieces, their approach to qawwali stayed true to its traditional roots and Sufi heart; they were not tempted by some of the experimental, crossover or fusion directions pursued by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in particular. Much of their recorded work suffered from poor pressings or primitive studio equipment, but the excellent two-CD set Qawwali Masterworks on Piranha well represents the EMI Pakistan-licensed recordings, its 'Poshida Poshida' a definitive example of the power and glory of qawwali. Their Ya Habib appeared on Real World '90, the label previously praised for its recordings of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. They periodically fell out and pursued solo careers but blood consistently proved thicker than mud.

After Farid Sabri's death the Sabri Brothers included his son Amjid, for example at their German festival appearance from mid-'95 (Tanz&FolkFest Rudolstadt on hei-deck '96). Jami on Piranha '96, credited to 'the Sabri Brothers featuring Haji Ghulam Farid Sabri', did not include his brother but was a first-rate example of Farid's later work. Still trading under the name of the Sabri Brothers, Maqbool signed to Green Linnet, releasing Ya Mustapha on their Xenophile label '96. The Sabri Brothers and their party's personnel changed over the decades, but this is an enduring tradition in the Indian subcontinent; as carriers of the torch the Sabris resembled the Dagar Brothers, who have sung dhrupad (a North Indian classical vocal tradition) from generation to generation.