'Why give us a visa and then shut the door?'

Malini Nair,TNN | Dec 7, 2014, 06.45 AM IST
Six months ago, Izzat Majeed and his musi cians at Sachal Jazz Ensemble in Lahore started work on Jaidev's immortal ode to peace, Allah Tero Naam. The group that dared to turn Dave Brubeck's Take Five into a startling sitar-tabla-violin piece,reconstituted the Hum Dono classic with raga-jazz flavours. 

The anti-war hymn had become the ensemble's favourite opening number at concerts worldwide. It was also to start Sachal's programme at NCPA last Monday. 

But a hostile knot of visa and police rules scuppered the group's December 1 concert at Mumbai's NCPA. Majeed is back in Lahore before flying to his London home. He is saddened by the incident and the artistes, heartbroken. 

"There were about 1,000 music lovers waiting for us and we stood backstage, unable to play for them. It made no sense. Why give us a visa and then stop us... we all decided to return.The musicians were eager to play but they feared a repeat episode in Bengaluru," he says. 


For flute master Baqir Abbas, playing for Mumbai audiences had been a dream. It was going to be a tribute to great masters of the subcontinent such as Amir Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Salamat-Nazakat Ali Khan, Pannalal Ghosh and Hariprasad Chaurasia. "Hum bahut mohabbat se aye the ki Mumbai ko apna ye anokha sangeet sunayenge (we came with a lot of love to play them our special music). This is after all the home of mausiqui (music). I felt like a kid going to a wondrous amusement park. And then to turn us away at the gates..."

read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Why-give-us-a-visa-and-then-shut-the-door/articleshow/45400310.cms

Philanthropist Bringing Jazz Back to Pakistan

By ADAM NAJBERG

Izzat Majeed grew up in his native Pakistan listening to the sounds of Ella, Dizzy and the Duke.

But it was Dave Brubeck, playing in the auditorium of Lahore’s Nido Hotel next to Majeed’s home, who touched the young man. It was 1958, and though it was a year before the jazz giant would pen his iconic “Take Five,” his sound registered deeply.

 ”He was becoming a great master in his own right,” said Majeed. “That’s where I got hooked on jazz. I remained with music.” 

The millionaire-investor-turned-philanthropist and music mogul will mark a milestone when his Sachal Studios Orchestra of Lahore releases its second jazz album later this year. The first, Sachal Jazz: Interpretations of Jazz Standards and Bossa Nova, went on sale in 2011. It shot to the top of iTunes rankings in both the U.S. and U.K. and drew comparisons to Ry Cooder’s Buena Vista Social Club album, done with Cuban’s biggest traditional musical legends, some of whom had been out of the limelight for decades. 

The first Sachal album featured a version of “Take Five” that even Brubeck is said to have liked. Brubeck died late last year. The tribute to his quartet was played on both Western stringed instruments and traditional Eastern instruments, like the sitar, and was also done as a slickly cut, but somehow still-quaint music video.

The orchestra’s second album, Jazz and All That, has a decidedly different feel, Majeed said. 

“For the second album, I’ve done two things. The entire structure of rhythm has changed. Also, I have brought in Western instruments that would create enthusiasm, rather than in the previous album, when the contribution of Western instruments was minimal,” he said. “That gels well with the sitar, the sarangi (a fiddle-like instrument)…It gives it a sound I really like.” 

Sachal Studios, which also has produced several dozen albums from individual artists since opening, released a teaser video of the orchestra playing an East-West fusion version of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts.”

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/09/11/philanthropist-bringing-jazz-back-to-pakistan/