Death anniversary of Pervez Mehdi on Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD -- The 7th death anniversary of renowned Ghazal singer Pervez Mehdi will be observed on 29th August (Wednesday).

Born in a suburb of Lahore in a family of professional musicians named as Pervez Akhter, he received training in music first from his father Bashir Husain Rahi, a popular singer in his own right. Later, he benefited from the melodic erudition of GA Farooq, a prominent non-professional classical vocalist of Lahore from whom he learnt a number of classical asthai-antras (compositions). He became so much enamoured of the style of his third mentor Mehdi Hasan that he used Mehdi as a suffix with his own name as a mark of respect to his Ustad.

Pervez Mehdi emulated the style of his mentor to such an extent that often while broadcasting his music from Radio Pakistan he sounded like a replica of his teacher in the art of ghazal singing. Pervez was held in high esteem by discerning listeners, connoisseurs and professional musicians for his competence in the extremely melodious renditions of thumri-accented ghazals. His contributions to the musical ethos of Lahore have been widely appreciated and acknowledged both by music buffs as well as professional musicians.

Before his death on August 29, 2005, Pervez Mehdi had frequently participated in stage, radio and television programmes. With his death the melodic resources of Pakistan were further depleted and also deepened the void created by the demise of frontline Pakistani practitioners of the melodic arts.