Daily Times

KARACHI: Legendary Pakistani classical music virtuoso Ustaad Naseeruddin Saami, and a Grammy-winning music producer, Ian Brennan, have just wrapped up an exciting, cross-cultural project: a multi-CD album, all set to be released in 2018.

“(Saami) is a world class vocalist, both virtuosic and soulful at the same time and that is a rare feat,” Ian Brennan had said, while talking to Forbes earlier this year. The Irish-American producer has worked with a plethora of musicians across the globe; from Romania, Italy, Cambodia, Rwanda and Mali, and looks forward to his upcoming project in Pakistan.

Having produced four Grammy-nominated records like Word Music in 2011 and 2015, and Best Traditional Folk Music in 2006 and 2007, and authoring a number of books, Brennan went on to state, “Saami is in a class by himself. I’m hopeful for the day that he will be recognised worldwide and take his rightful place as one of the greats in modern Pakistani musical history.”

Having begun his journey in the field of classical music in the mid-1950s, Ustaad Naseeruddin Saami began learning his craft under the tutelage of his uncle and mentor, Ustaad Munshi Raziuddin when he was only 11 years old. A steadfast practitioner of the ancient Indian classical tradition of Khayal, Ustaad Naseeruddin Saami’s forefathers, along with Amir Khusro – the iconic Sufi musician and poet – formalised the schools of qawwali and khayal in the 13th Century, in Delhi.

Today, Ustaad Naseeruddin Saami stands as a living legend, a rare global treasure in the field of Eastern classical music and is widely recognized not just in South Asia, but the world over.

‘Saami is in a class by himself. I’m hopeful for the day that he will be recognised worldwide and take his rightful place as one of the greats in modern Pakistani musical history’

Trailblazers in their own right, the Saami-Brennan project will prove to be a thrilling collaboration that promises to deliver audiences with a harmonious amalgamation of both the east and the west!

The name of Naseeruddin Saami needs no introduction in the field of music. His ancestors founded the school of music known as the Delhi Gharana. His ancestor Miyan Samath had the privilege of being the disciple of Hazrat Ameer Khusro.

From this family, another great personality Qutub Baksh alias Ustad Tan Ras Khan Sahib was the master in music in the court of Bahadur Shah Zafar. Naseeruddin Saami, of the Delhi Gharana, son of Abdul Hamid Khan Saami was born in a family of classical vocalists, who have been practising their art for more than 730 years. Naseeruddin Saami’s ancestor Miyan Samath was trained by Hazrat Ameer Khusro himself, and the generations of singers that followed kept up the tradition and further honed it to a high level of intricacy and refinement.

Naseeruddin has been guided by four mentors – the main one being his Ustad and uncle Munshi Raziuddin. Ustad Sardar Khan and Piaray Khan are the other three whom he avidly follows.

Naseeruddin started his training from the age of 10 years. His style of singing is called ‘Sudh Bani’. From 1958-62 he trained with his grand uncle Sardar Khan in Lahore.

Naseeruddin is a strict follower in the style of his family tradition-keeping ‘sur’ as the most important component of his singing. His singing is peaceful and calm. Heartfelt rendition of the raga, manifesting the emotions, which are mentioned in the bandish is one of the main aspects of khayal gaiki, in which he excels.

Brennan on the other hand is an American music producer, author and lecturer on violence prevention.

He has authored four books, two on anger, Anger Antidotes and Hate-less; a novella, Sister Maple Syrup Eyes; and one on music, How Music Dies (or Lives).

Brennan travels in search of countries and languages whose music is under-represented internationally, making field recordings of musicians and producing albums of their work. He started out making nine albums of his own music, and hosting gigs, making live recordings and releasing compilation albums of local bands in San Francisco.

Of the albums he has produced, Tinariwen’s Tassili won a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album and Zomba Prison Project was nominated; and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s I Stand Alone and Peter Case’s Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John were nominated for Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. The Sunday Times says he is “visionary”.

Published in Daily Times, December 17^th 2017.