*http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Direct-Hit/352877/* ** *How AR Rahman's lead guitarist Rashid Ali belted out a chart-topping song*
When writer-director Abbas Tyrewala penned the lyrics of the runaway hit Kabhi kabhi Aditi, he kept the brief simple — a positive, happy, young song. As AR Rahman's lead guitarist Rashid Ali took to composing the opening riff, little did the 42-year-old know that he would be doing more than just strumming the guitar, that he would also be singing the song. "Kabhi kabhi Aditi is a song in which Rahman has experimented with the musicality of the track. And since the Indian audience is hungry for new sounds, it has worked well," says Ali, in town for a Big FM event, about the song that Imran Khan lip synched to in Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na. The UK-based Ali is an artist with Rahman's record label KM Music. They met seven years ago in London. "He saw one of my performances, liked my style of music and things just took off from there," says Ali. He has sung Kahin to hogi in Jaane Tu¿ Ya Jaane Na and Ishq ada in Ada, apart from singing a Tamil tune in K. Balachander's Paarthale Paravasam a few years ago. While many consider Rashid a veteran guitarist and a debutant singer, he says it is the other way round. "I am essentially a singer. Being able to play the guitar and sing add to my advantage as a musician since it allows me to compose," says the musician, who worked on the musical Bombay Dreams as well. "I understand the Indian tonality of songs but I keep my style of singing and composing different, something that blends in different kinds of music," says Ali. He is a self-taught musician whose most important influence have been his mother and the ghazals she sang. While jazz, Latin and Arab sounds went on to leave their mark over the years, Bollywood too was present in his scheme of things. "I have grown up listening to Bollywood," he says. While Ali has been visiting India regularly for the past seven years, he is now staying put in Chennai for a while, busy working on his first solo album, for which which he has sung as well as composed, and is due for release in the coming months. -- regards, Vithur ARR -- The Sweet Cube always
