Popular Afghan singer Ustad Shah Wali enthralled the entertainment-starved audience here Saturday night.
Based in Canada for the last many years, senior Afghan singer Shah Wali is widely known for his velvety voice and command over Pashto folk, light, semi-classical and classical ghazal singing.
The sexagenarian singer kept mesmerising the select gathering for more than six hours with his 10-member orchestra.Shah Wali migrated to Pakistan in the early 1980s after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and settled in Jamrud in Khyber Agency. After receiving good response from Pashto music lovers, he shifted his family to Tehkal Bala in Peshawar and began living there in a rented home.
Shaukat Ali, a former producer of sate-run television in Peshawar, introduced Shah Wali on television while the local radio station also began airing his folk songs, which gained widespread popularity among the listeners across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.
During his stay in Pakistan, he received training from music maestros including Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali and Rafiq Shinwari. In late 1990s, financial constraints forced him to settle in Canada. He opened a music school there and began teaching traditional and classical South Asian music along with Urdu, Persian and Pashto architectonic of music.
“I have 200 students at my art school. They are from different countries and like traditional music more than any other music genre. Pashto traditional music is matchless and everlasting while pop music has no bright future,” said Shah Wali while talking to this scribe.
Recipient of 400 awards from various literary and cultural organisations, he has 2,000 audio and videocassettes and CDs to his credit. Shah Wali visited Peshawar in 2005 after a decade and pledged that he would visit his fans every winter both in Kabul and Peshawar. He, however, could not keep his promise last year because of the poor law and order situation in Peshawar.
His two singer sons, Zar Wali and Mumtaz Wali, are residing in Peshawar. The former recently started work as a music director with the Afghan state-run TV, RTA, in Kabul. Shah Wali this time recorded new and unsung poetry of Rahman Baba, Abdul Hameed Baba, Khushal Khan Khattak, Amir Hamza Shinwari, Qalandar Momand, Rahmat Shah Sail, Abaseen Yousafzai, Khatir Afridi, Khyber Afridi and Murad Shinwari. He also sang popular numbers of two Afghan poets Said Murad Baacha and Malang Jan that he had sung 30 years ago in Afghanistan. Nisar Khalil produced and Prof Abaseen Yousafzai performed as compere of the show in Peshawar while Mas Khan composed the music.
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