Thought I would ratchet down the temperature with some music from the other side!!
'Naresh' Narasimhan Sent from my Phone > Good stuff..Pakistan is full of surprises…we have Hina Rabbani Khar, Coke > studio (started in Pakistan and frankly much better than the Indian one > http://www.cokestudio.com.pk/Season.aspx?seasonId=4 ) > ,the new hit movie 'Bol' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GyLFi0YT4A) > and then this Brubeck tribute…do see all the the videos > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/aug/05/izzat-majeedsachal-pakistan-jazz-video >> >> Jazz album by Pakistan music veterans tops western charts >> >> Philanthropist Izzat Majeed's Sachal Orchestra pulls off unlikely musical >> coup >> >> >> >> >> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/05/pakistan-musicians-top-western-charts-jazz >> >> >> The rich strains of eastern music have for centuries wafted across the >> rooftops of old Lahore. But listen today and you might hear something new: >> jazzy riffs and a bossa nova beat. >> >> An ensemble of veteran Pakistani musicians have pulled off an unlikely coup >> with an innovative jazz album which has topped western charts ? prompting >> comparisons with the Buena Vista Social Club which rediscovered a generation >> of lost Cuban musicians. >> >> The Sachal Studios Orchestra has captured imaginations with a catchy >> interpretation of Dave Brubeck's Take Five which blends sweeping classical >> violins with sitars, tablas and other eastern instruments. >> >> The piece has brought praise from jazz greats ? Brubeck, now 90, says it is >> "the most interesting" version of Take Five he's ever heard ? and propelled >> the orchestra's album to the top of the iTunes jazz charts in the US and UK. >> The album, which includes versions of The Girl from Ipanema, Misty and >> Desafinado, reached the top 10 in both countries. >> >> "I'm so excited," said Riaz Hussain, the 55-year-old violinist who arranged >> the music. "I don't have words to express how I feel." >> >> Recording at premises on the edge of Lahore's walled city, the 60-strong >> orchestra mixes local legends with musicians recently enticed out of >> retirement, some from lives of poverty. Few knew much about jazz before. >> >> The project is the brainchild of Izzat Majeed, a London-based millionaire >> philanthropist. Eight years ago Majeed built a state-of-the-art studio for >> the orchestra: engineers from London's Abbey Road provided technical advice, >> while western sessionists were hired to play instruments unavailable in >> Pakistan. >> >> Although it cost more than $2m, his motive is music, not money. "To be >> honest, I never really enjoyed business," said the 60-year-old, who made his >> money in oil, gas and finance (he sold a Pakistani bank for more than $500m >> in 2006). "But I truly love this." >> >> His creation draws on multiple influences, from Lahore to Rio to New >> Orleans. And the buzz is building. The song's video has attracted a flood of >> internet hits, an Oscar-nominated Hollywood producer wants to make a >> documentary, and concerts are planned for the UK and US this winter. >> >> Majeed's wider goal is to rub fresh magic on an old lantern. Pakistan's >> classical music scene was decimated in the 1980s, he said, when the dictator >> General Zia ul Haq crushed the local film industry, known as Lollywood. >> Several hundred musicians, employed to record film scores, lost their jobs. >> >> As the son of a hobbyist film producer, Majeed felt the loss personally. >> "Demand just collapsed after Zia," he said. "That guy dug the grave of >> Pakistan." >> >> The cull forced many musicians into less lyrical trades, where they remained >> in obscurity for decades. Majeed found his cello player running a tea stall; >> others were selling clothes or electrical parts. Mubarak Ali, a shy >> 48-year-old violinist, was selling vegetables from his bicycle, earning >> barely $2 a day. >> >> Now Ali's life has been transformed. At his home a cramped two-room >> dwelling he shares with his wife, daughter and ailing 103-year-old mother ? >> he lovingly lifted his cloth-wrapped violin from a case on the shelf. Then >> he pointed to a new fridge, DVD player and wooden bed. "Sachal paid for >> this, this and that," he said, pointing to each item. "God bless Sachal. And >> God bless Majeed sahib." >> >> Although named after a Sufi poet, it hasn't always been harmonious at Sachal >> studios. In the beginning, rival musicians competed ferociously against one >> another, vying for attention, Majeed recalled. "They wouldn't let each other >> play," he said. >> >> And it remains little known, even inside Pakistan. Preferring to concentrate >> on music rather than promotion, Majeed had done little to push the jazz >> album until a BBC interview propelled it into the charts 10 days ago. "We >> haven't been very good at marketing," he admitted. >> >> The confidence boost is urgently needed. Although Brubeck, Duke Wellington >> and other jazz legends performed in Pakistan in the 1950s, the turbulence of >> the past decade has isolated local musicians. Foreign travel is difficult; >> at home extremist violence has made concerts rare. So is growing >> conservatism; some Sachal musicians said they dared not practice at home, >> fearing they could offend pious neighbours. >> >> Now success has brought fresh hope. "This is the first drop of rain," said >> flautist Baqar Abbas. "It shows that Pakistan is not just a place of bomb >> and suicide attacks." >> >> Ijaz "Balu" Khan, the orchestra's tabla player, said his dream was "to play >> solo with the orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall". >> >> Such high hopes, and the Buena Vista comparisons, may be difficult to live >> up to; Majeed worries his musicians will not even get visas to leave >> Pakistan. But a second album is already in the works, with twangy takes on >> songs by the French crooner Jacques Brel, among others. And the musicians >> are determined to keep experimenting. >> >> "Music is my soul, I can't live without it," said Abbas, the irrepressible >> flautist. "I speak music, I hear music. And now I want to live music." >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >
