Born to a musical family in 1947, his real name was Pervez Akhtar. He received his initial in Hindustani classical music from his father, Bashir Hussain Rani. Later he was trained by Mehdi Hassan, who also renamed him as Parvez Mehdi. He also learnt Sitar from Ahmed Qureshi.
His first break was through Radio Pakistan in 1968. Like his guru, he composed himself. Mehdi Hassan’s influence on his compositions and rendering was considerable. Pervez Mehdi released quite a few albums, both in Pakistan and in India. According to APP, Pervez Mehdi rose to prominence through a folk number, Gori-e-Mein Janaan Pardes, he sang along with Reshma. He performed for more than 30 years and sang hundreds of songs, including folk, geet and ghazal for film, radio, TV and private musical sittings. The widely-travelled Mehdi was named recipient for ‘Sitar-i-Imtiaz’ by the President of Pakistan on the occasion of Independence Day this year.
Parvez Mehdi died on 29 August 2005 from a cardiac arrest in Lahore, Pakistan at the age of 58, leaving behind a widow and five children.
The biography above was obtained from ‘last.fm’.
The recordings below are from a program in Gurdwara Sahib Richmond Hill, New York in the early 1980s. These were recorded and kindly provided by Sardar Nachatar Singh Sahota. Accompanying Parvez Mehdi Ji on tabla is Ustad Tari Khan. Please ‘right click’ and ‘save link as’ to download audio files. Enjoy!
Parvez Mehdi – Manukh Ki Take Birthi Sabh Jaan
Parvez Mehdi – Nasro Mansoor Guru Gobind Singh