Ustad Nazir Khan, disciple of Ustad Pairna Khan, accompanied the duo on the tabla. Earlier, Ustad Abdullah Khan, the well-known shahnai player from Hyderabad, played the wind instrument, made famous by Ustad Bismillah Khan of India the world over, to a rapt audience, which included sitar-nawaz Ustad Rais Khan and many other well-known singers and instrumentalists.

Folk music is the language of the common man’s heart. It emanates from the depth of his being and reflects his rapture and anguish, his unfulfilled desire and his eternal hope. In other words, it sprouts from the land on which he exists. It was impossible to expect that folk singing could become the high art until Tufail Niazi, the unlettered village minstrel from a remote place called Madairan in district Jalandhar, appeared on the scene.

He took the art of folk singing to such lofty heights where no other folk singer in the subcontinent had reached before. The timbre of his voice enriched with that rare touch of pathos, his ability to modulate it in the most unthinkable ways, and his mastery over sur and taal enthralled even the greatest exponents of classical music and many great artistes sat up when Tufail Niazi stood up to croon.

Usually the tunes and rhythms of Punjabi folk songs are very simple, but Tufail composed his songs in raags as formidable as Marva, Barwa, Bairagee, Lalita and Charukeshi and used taals like roopak, jhaptaal, ekwai and teentaal etc.

With this background in mind, it is heartening to watch Javed and Babar maintaining the high standards set by their late father, since, in this country we have seen most of our contemporary exponents of classical and ghazal singing being disappointed by their offsprings.

Javed and Babar are on the move throughout the year. They have performed extensively in the US (including the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.), in many European countries, China, Korea, Middle East and, of course, India – their last performance was at the International Centre in New Delhi on the occasion of the 400th year of compilation of Guru Granth Sahib. The young men have also made many shagirds in the west.

At the baithak, the two brothers presented many famous songs of their father, (main nai jana kherian de nal, suni malka meri kook papihe wali, main to jhuk raeeyan), including the immortal song of separation, (sada chiryan da chamba) as well as a number of their own compositions.