Habib Wali Mohammad

Habib Wali Mohammad

As a youth, Habib Wali received classical music lessons from Ustad Latafat Ali Khan, a nephew of noted musician Ustad Faiyyaz Khan (1880 – 1950).

In college, he became active in the musical functions of Ismail Yusuf College, gaining the nickname 'Taan Sen'.

He completed his bachelor's degree in Bombay.

, (16 January 1921 – 3 September 2014) was a Pakistani ghazal and film playback singer.

Habib Wali Mohammad was born on January 16, 1921, in Rangoon in the Burma province of British India (now in Myanmar) into a conservative Memon family, which later moved to Bombay where he grew up.

His family, Tabani, an industrial house has large business holdings in Pakistan.

During his childhood, Habib Wali Mohammad often listened to Qawwali music.

But due to economic and business reasons, he gave priority to academics.

In 1941, Habib Wali was awarded first prize in a Bombay music competition with 1200 contestants, including the singer Mukesh Chand Mathur.

His winning performance was singing the ghazals of the last Moghul Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, Lagta Nahin Hai Jee Mera Ujray Diyar Mein and Yeh Na Thi Hamari Qismat by Mirza Ghalib.

He received his MBA from Syracuse University, New York in 1947, and then lived in Mumbai for about 10 years before moving to Pakistan.

After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, his family migrated to Pakistan and established an industrial group which includes the Shalimar Silk Mills.

He gave most of his time to the family business, recording ghazals and geets for films in his spare time, however music was not pursued as a profession.

However, he still sang ghazals for the music companies, including a geet written by the poet Parveen Shakir: 'Gori karath singhar'.

In the eighties, he recorded ghazals on audio cassettes which were composed by the noted music director Nisar Bazmi and Pakistan Television, Karachi Center's music director Niaz Ahmed.

In addition, he received offers to become a film playback singer for the Pakistani film industry.

Habib Wali Mohammad was from an early group of singers ever to record ghazals.

But probably because of his background and as a member of a well-established family, Habib Wali Mohammad had never pursued an aggressive and mainstream career as a singer, though he was still highly regarded among the Pakistani public.

His famous ghazals include Bahadur Shah Zafar's 'Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hoon' and Qamar Jalalvi's 'Kab mera nasheman ahlay chaman'.

All of his performances of the ghazals of Bahadur Shah Zafar have been very popular.

His other well-known ghazals, include Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo.

He also sang the famous national song, "Roshan-o-Rakhshan, Nayyar-o-Tabaan, Pakistan rahay".

Habib Wali Mohammad, later in his life, lived in Los Angeles California, United States with his wife, Rehana and his family, including his sons, Rizwan Wali Mohammad Tabani and Nadeem Wali Mohammad Tabani.

Both are ghazal and geet performers in their own right.

Anwar Wali Muhammad Tabani lives in New Jersey and the daughter Rukhsana lives in Karachi, Pakistan.

He recorded his first LP in the 1950s for Radio Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.

Interestingly, the LP record did not have his real name.

Instead, he used his stage name of Kamal Roy and the music was composed by Saraswati Devi.

Encouraged by this recognition, at a young age, he took more interest in ghazal singing.

During his stay in America, he had been out of touch with music.

Hence, he felt lonely and missed his earlier college functions in Bombay.

In his own words, "He was not happy in 'Ujray dayar mein', the same ghazal which had won him an award of a lifetime. He put a lot of effort and came out with a gramophone record of ghazals in his voice. On one side of the record, he dubbed Bahadur Shah Zafar's ghazals and on the other side, Ghalib's ghazals. The Indian public was reluctant to buy them at that time.

Listening to these ghazals, actress Meena Kumari became a fan of his, and since she was at the time affiliated with Radio Ceylon, she had his recordings broadcast often.

This boosted Habib Wali's sales and caused him to become a celebrity.

His brother, Ashraf W. Tabani went on to become the Chairman of Export Promotion Bureau of Pakistan and later served as the Governor of Sindh in the late 1980s.

Some of the ghazals, recorded in the voice of Habib Wali Mohammad are listed here below:

His brother Ashraf W. Tabani was the governor of the province of Sindh, Pakistan during 1988.

He died on 3 September 2014 in Los Angeles, US.

The Tabanis belong to the Gujarati-speaking Memon community.