His easy lyrics have additionally impressed generations of musical artists and we share just some with you this week.
Farid Ayaz Qawwal
Bhala Hua Mori
Kabir’s poetry has usually been adopted into the Hindu and Sikh bhajan tune kind. Definitely Sikhs and Hindus of a sure bent perceive his poetry in a deep and inherent approach. However as this abruptly-ending clip by Pakistan’s sensible qawwal, Farid Ayaz, reveals, it matches equally effectively throughout the construction of the qawwali. The qawwals present contextual and explicative info on one among Kabir’s most well-known lyrics to an viewers that’s much less aware of the nice man’s philosophy.
bhala hua mori gagri phooti, mein paniya bharan se chooti re
bhala hua mori maala tooti, mein raam bhajan se chooti re.
Glad that my (earthen) pot broke, I’m now relieved of the duty of filling water.
Glad that my prayer beads snapped, I’m now relieved of the duty of praying.
Prahlad Singh Tipaniya
Thaara Rang Mahal Mein
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9GaWgZEy9I
Although separated by a whole lot of kilometres from Varanasi the Malwa area of Madhya Pradesh has a deep historic attachment to the thought and individual of Kabir. A complete people sub tradition of singers and musicians who concentrate on performing Kabir and nirgun (a Hindu philosophical idea stressing the last word non-material essence of actuality) songs has lately been discovering new audiences all over the world. Prahlad Singh Tipaniya might be the perfect identified of the Malwa nirguni singers. Born in 1954 he comes from a standard line of singers. His voice is brilliantly clear and robust, reflecting that important immutable hyperlink between the human and the divine.
Thara rang mahal mein/ ajab shahar mein
Aaja re hansa bhai/ nirgun raja pe sirgun sej bichhai
Within the colourful palace/the wondrous metropolis,
come on my swan, my brother / see the seen mantle on the formless king
Trevor Corridor
Kabir
Reasonably than singing his phrases, up and coming reggae-folkie American singer, Trevor Corridor, channels the spirit of Kabir to encourage his personal (barely undercooked) lyrics.
Like an arrow and the hunter
Aiming for the thunder
All of this I’m wondering
Shadows on the sky
Corridor has carried out with lots of the largest names in reggae music together with Michael Franti, the Wailers, Metal Pulse and the inimitable Jimmy Cliff. As this observe suggests, whereas his musical roots might lie deep in Jamaican soil, his philosophical moorings are in India. Along with his musical profession he helps the work of his Allahabad-based guru and his ashram.
Queen Elephantine
Kabir
One other observe that evokes the identify of the fifteenth century poet however by a really totally different kind of band. Queen Elephantine’s music has been known as ‘meditative blues’ , ‘solarized wind from an alien planet’ and ‘distorted dirge and Hindu atmospherics’ (amongst many different issues). The brainchild and mission of Indrayudh Shome, an Indo-American from Rhode Island (through Bengal and Hong Kong), QE has sported quite a lot of line-ups however all the time with Shome on guitar. On this observe Shome’s psych guitar noodlings come to the fore close to the tip of the observe which ends with a somewhat un-Kabir like and considerably alarming pronouncement.
Pandit Kumar Gandharva
Ud Jayega
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYtgWL_ZNDc
Ud Jayega Huns Akela
Jug Darshan Ka Mela
Jaise Paat Gire Taruvar Se
Milna Bahut Duhela
Naa Jane Kidhar Girega
The swan will fly away alone
Spectacle of the world will probably be a mere truthful
Because the leaf falls from the tree
[and] is troublesome to search out
Who is aware of the place it’ll fall
No different singer made the poetry of Kabir such an integral a part of his repertoire because the fabulous Kumar Gandharva. Fairly merely, this well-known rendition is likely one of the pinnacles of recent Indian music. The lyric speaks of the basic non secular nature of existence which Kabir describes as a swan taking keen flight in the direction of the Divine.
