Tabeer (album)

After leaving the band Fuzön in 2006, Ali chose to focus on his solo career as a vocalist. Based on traditional folk and Sufi works, his first solo album Tabeer was commissioned and released in India in September 2008 by the Music Today label. The album was also released in Pakistan by the Fire Records label as their mega Eid release. Rohail Hyatt, the co-creator of Coke Studio, was initially roped in to produce Tabeer but was not ultimately able to work on it. Tabeer amassed significant critical acclaim in both India and Pakistan and received praise for mixing "the earthy with the refined." Ali garnered praise for his "powerful vocals," and for blending catchy pop melodies with folk vocals. == Music and style ==

Rolling Stone (India) described Ali’s vocal stylings in Tabeer as "cull[ing] from Pakistan’s inherent Sufiana (mystical) traces and his traditional Patiala Gharana heritage," and that the album was about establishing his own distinct identity as a vocalist: "these were the songs that I always thought I'd do someday, and when I was approached by the Indian record label Music Today, I thought I'd sing those songs." == Recording and production ==

Tabeer was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Shani (Zeeshan) Haider which was a marked departure from Ali's previous work with Fuzön in Saagar. Ali remarked that he enjoyed having a greater degree of creative control and artistic freedom while working on Tabeer as a solo artiste, compared to working on Saagar with Fuzön, stating: "with Fuzön, we had to use a fixed set of instruments even when they were not needed for a song. On this album, I had the freedom to incorporate only those instruments that are needed." Although Tabeer was designed to cater to Indian musical sensibilities Ali asserted in an interview that he was determined to record and produce the album in Pakistan "because Pakistani musicians and recordings [have] their own distinct sound," which he wanted to highlight in the album, while also trying to avoid the Bollywood music mold. Ali has mentioned that he ended up excluding some of the songs he originally wrote and composed for Tabeer because they were thematically "very dark" and he did not deem them commercially viable at the time. == Composition and songwriting ==

Ali worked on developing tracks for Tabeer for a period of about ten months "Khaireyan De Naal" was the lead single and opening track on Tabeer and was used heavily to promote the album across music channels in both India and Pakistan. Ali borrowed the primary chorus line of the song from Tufail Niazi's folk song of the same name and wrote and composed the song around it. a Punjabi folktale written in 1766 by the poet Waris Shah. Ali received significant critical acclaim for "Khaireyan De Naal" and has mentioned that it is his favorite track in the album. He also composed and sang a version of this song for the soundtrack of the 2015 Hindi movie, Tevar. The album has strong Sufi overtones Ali incorporated guitar- and accordion-led jazz improvisations into his arrangement of this track which is a variation of the popular 600-year-old qawwali, "Dama Dam Mast Qalandar," originally written by Amir Khusrau and modified further by Bulleh Shah. The song is a much-celebrated and widely-sung tribute to the Sufi mystic and saint Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar and is part of the Indian subcontinent's cultural zeitgeist. • "Rohi" is an adaptation of a Kafi titled "Jindri Luti Te Yaar Sajan" (also known as "Dilri Luti Te Yaar Sajan") written by the 19th-Century Sufi poet Khwaja Ghulam Farid. The Kafi was originally sung by Zahida Parveen, The song "Kartar," set in raga Darbari, is based on a time-honored Patiala Gharana bandish, originally sung by Ali's father Ustad Amanat Ali Khan and uncle Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan. Ali described the track as an "old traditional family song" "Kartar" is particularly noted for its rock riffs and high-octane orchestration, and it was featured again as a bonus track in Ali's second solo album, Kyun Dooriyan (2010), with a slightly different arrangement. ==Track listing==

Most tracks are written, composed, and arranged by Shafqat Amanat Ali. "Naina" is composed by Shani (Zeeshan) Haider. in 2007 but was later re-released as part of Tabeer with a modified arrangement. == See also ==