Qawwali: Flamenco

In the spring of 1989, preparations for whatwould be the first big festival of world musicin the Iberian peninsula, the BarceWOMAD,commenced under the patronage of theOlympiada Cultural. To compensate for Spain'srelative lateness in taking account of newdevelopments in music, a kind of prologue tothis event was devised, the First InternationalSeminar of Carmen Amaya Flamenco in Begur(Geron). In order to present new initiativesarising out of the important evolution Flamencowas undergoing towards the end of the '80s,a first encounter was set up between a groupof Qawwali players from Pakistan, (the SabriBrothers), a group of open minded Flamencoartists led by Enrique Morente, a popular musicformation from China (the Guo Brothers) and the unpredictable and genial North Americanjazz-man Cecil Taylor. Although objectivelyvery interesting, this encounter did not yetsucceed in producing immediate artisticdialogue between the two musical traditions ofQawwali and Flamenco, despite the impressionthat there existed very tangible links betweenthe two, both in form and spirit.

It was slightly over six years later that, overdinner in a small Barcelona restaurant, SaidAssadi, the Director of Accords Croiss, withverve and vigour took up this old idea again andpersuaded Mingus B. Formentor and MartinaA. Catella to set about bringing to reality itsintuited creative potential. The project wouldbe led on the Pakistani side by the Qawwalisinger Faiz Ali Faiz and his ensemble, and on theSpanish side, by cantaores Miguel Poveda andDuquende, and the guitarist Chicuelo, the lattermoreover providing an invaluable link betweenthe origins of the project and the first real stepstaken, having lived through both experiences