Saami Brothers Qawwali

The Saami Brothers, singers from a Sufi musical family in Karachi, perform Khayal and Qawwali in London, closing a UK tour at Union Chapel. This is a live concert of the family's vocal tradition.

The Saami family has passed down one of the oldest continuously transmitted Sufi musical lineages for almost eight centuries. The tradition has no written archive: it has been learnt by ear and handed from one generation to the next, and it has been carried from Karachi to audiences abroad under the leadership of Ustad Naseeruddin Saami. His sons, The Saami Brothers, are the performers on this tour.

Their repertoire covers two forms. Khayal is a meditative, slow style, while Qawwali is more emotionally intense and rhythmic. A concert moves between these moods, from quiet contemplation to rhythmic passages, with improvised sections and close interplay between the voices. The family's work has been recognised with prizes at the Aga Khan Music Awards.

This London date is the final stop of a UK tour and takes place at Union Chapel, a religious building on Compton Terrace in Islington. The concert suits listeners interested in vocal traditions of South Asian Sufi music and in Qawwali in particular.