Free Tonight: Faiz Ali Faiz at Millennium Park

By Alexander Hough in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 18, 2009 6:40PM

Every time a great outdoor concert gets rained upon, an innocent puppy angel gets murdered. Got that, Mother Nature? Hopefully that vindictive wench will heed our threat so tonight's free performance by leading qawwali musician Faiz Ali Faiz will go off without a hitch.

Qawwali, Sufi devotional music, has only received widespread international attention since the eighties, when the Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan brought it to prominence. Nusrat died in 1997, and the talented Faiz - the man has some pipes, everyone - has embarked on his first U.S. tour to sustain (and feed off of) the interest Nusrat stirred up.

What to expect: Qawwali parties (as these ensembles are called) typically consist of vocalists, percussion, and harmonium, who play songs that often last a half hour or more. The drums and clapping, pounding away with the inimitable Subcontinental swing, propel the pieces forward, although the emphasis is on the flowing, ornamented vocal lines that soar upward in that distinctively almost-strained chest voice, down again, and to all points in between. Check out Millennium Park's Music Without Borders website to sample some of Faiz's music.

So Mother Nature, if you know what's good for you and the puppies we all hold so very dear, you'll give us a chance to hear Faiz's first (of hopefully many) Chicago performances.

Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park, tonight at 6:30 p.m., FREE