All Pakistan Music Conference: The good, the bad and the ugly

Akbar Ali’s vocals are all that saved All Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) from becoming a disastrous event.

KARACHI: If hell is full of musical amateurs then Arts Council did a terrific job of recreating the devil’s abode on earth with the All Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) which took place on March 2. Except, of course, the artists featured in the festival weren’t amateurs by any means. However, the way some of their performances turned out to be, it would definitely make one think otherwise. 

Kick-starting the event was Naeem Hussain on the shehnai who left no one impressed, moved or inspired. The gap left by him couldn’t be filled by the next artist featured in the line-up — Sagheer Ahmad Mir. His ghazal performance of Hasrat Mohani’s “Roshan Jamaal-e-Yaar Se” and thumri performance “Umaad Ghumad Ghirr Aya Badra” were flawed at best.

Sajid Hussain on sitar and Khursheed Hussain on tabla, initially failed to allure but slowly and gradually picked up the pace. However, it was the tabla player in the backdrop who managed to steal the sitar player’s thunder.

Had it not been for the strong vocals of Akbar Ali, the show’s saving grace, who came next with his pakka raag “Saraswati” which lured the audiences’ attention towards himself and his voice, the entire show would’ve been a waste.

All these acts finally led to Mehnaz Begum’s performance of her mother Kajjan Begum’s dadras “Humrey Ai Hain Sanwarya”. Besides this, one of Faiz’s gripping poems “Dasht-i-Tanhai” was also performed by her. Later in the night, Ustad Naseeruddin Saami performed raag “Adana” and “Maand” for the audience.

In essence, the entire night would’ve been more memorable and impactful had the initial performances not fluctuated on notes of high and low, not just in terms of sound quality, but vocally as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2012.