The Sabri Brothers

With stunning virtuosity, brilliant exposition and tremendous power, they convey a subtlety and sensitive beauty in their singing, led by the soaring voices of Haji Ghulam Farid Sabri, whose periodic refrain of ‘Allah’ between songs was to become a Sabri signature, and his younger brother Haji Maqbool Sabri.

Both were internationally respected for their raw, energetic, highly original style in delivering popular numbers from the traditional Qawwali repertoire, and a distinctive percussion style. This, in combination with a direct and magnetic live presence, made for a wholly unique musical experience – to which thousands of aficionados will testify.

Many consider the Sabri’s instrumentally more adventurous, rougher and more soulful than Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Party. Whichever, the stature of both in Pakistan is colossal.

The Sabri Brothers made music as a conduit for divine expression, summed up in the vision of the Beloved evoked when singing ‘Kali Kamaliya Wale’:

Ghulam Farid Sabri died on 5 April 1994 in Karachi following a heart attack.

Maqbool Ahmed Sabri died on 21 September 2011 in South Africa, also from a heart attack.