All About Jazz - Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Cheb i Sabbah, musical adventurer, global spiritualist and producer extraordinaire has returned to the Indian subcontinent for Devotion, his seventh album on Six Degrees Records
Hundreds of artists in the world music genre, or for that matter any genre, have come and gone like bottle rockets, but Cheb i Sabbah's light keeps burning and it is his bhakti (devotion) to the spiritual essence of music, and to truth and humanity, that is responsible for his longevity.
Devotion was produced in the past year or so but has been in the making for at least nine years since Cheb i Sabbah started visiting India to record his first release.
His first visit to the Mother land goes back to 1970. He has been to the country several times in the interim, and with each journey he has excavated an aspect of its culture and spirituality with respect and taste to produce sublime albums like Shri Durga (1999) and Krishna Lila (2002).
Both are considered gold standards by classical music purists and casual listeners alike, and remixes from these projects are club staples around the world.
South Asia is a kaleidoscope of multiple faiths, fantasies, languages, cultures and sub-cultures. It is not an easy task to sift through the rich but massive tapestry of religious devotional music and distill it into a flawless 62-minute summary of prayer.
Cheb i Sabbah has managed to produce eight wonderful pieces that are inclusive of its three main religions but are a metaphor for the deep spirituality that suffuses every aspect of life in the Indian subcontinent.
Early this year, during the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, Cheb i Sabbah was among the 70 million devotees at this greatest of human gatherings on earth, and lived with the Naga Babas of Juna Akhara, the oldest order of (naked) sadhus (holy men).
This deeply inspirational experience comes through in Devotion, as does his emotional attachment and practice of Vedic spirituality.
Also palpable is Cheb i Sabbah's embrace of the good in all mystical and esoteric paths. The record features three distinct traditions ofreligious music representing Hinduism, Sikhism and Sufi Islam.
(...)
“Kinna Sohna” (How Beautiful Did God Make You?), is a Sufi tune written by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and sung here by Master Saleem, the versatile young artist from Punjab who sets the song free and makes it his own.
“Qalanderi”, another Sufi track features the sensuous vocals of Riffat Sultana, daughter of the late, great Pakistani classical singer Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, who also happened to be Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's musical guru.
“Qalanderi” is a luminous example of what Cheb i Sabbah does best: taking a valuable artifact and with great care and joy reinventing it for a contemporary audience. This trippy and slow-burning qawwali takes off into the stratosphere and brings to mind the fervent dances of whirling dervishes. It ends all too quickly.
(...)
If there was a Cheb i Sabbah in every country, there would be a thousand windows through which we would see other countries and other cultures and perhaps develop empathy to other people that would help solve some of the problems of our troubled, ravaged world.
Devotion is a step in that direction and a call to the prayer of love.
[Listen to samples at Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/2u6xhm].
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Windows through Empathy
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Cheb i Sabbah, musical adventurer, global spiritualist and producer extraordinaire has returned to the Indian subcontinent for Devotion, his seventh album on Six Degrees Records
Hundreds of artists in the world music genre, or for that matter any genre, have come and gone like bottle rockets, but Cheb i Sabbah's light keeps burning and it is his bhakti (devotion) to the spiritual essence of music, and to truth and humanity, that is responsible for his longevity.
Devotion was produced in the past year or so but has been in the making for at least nine years since Cheb i Sabbah started visiting India to record his first release.
His first visit to the Mother land goes back to 1970. He has been to the country several times in the interim, and with each journey he has excavated an aspect of its culture and spirituality with respect and taste to produce sublime albums like Shri Durga (1999) and Krishna Lila (2002).
Both are considered gold standards by classical music purists and casual listeners alike, and remixes from these projects are club staples around the world.
South Asia is a kaleidoscope of multiple faiths, fantasies, languages, cultures and sub-cultures. It is not an easy task to sift through the rich but massive tapestry of religious devotional music and distill it into a flawless 62-minute summary of prayer.
Cheb i Sabbah has managed to produce eight wonderful pieces that are inclusive of its three main religions but are a metaphor for the deep spirituality that suffuses every aspect of life in the Indian subcontinent.
Early this year, during the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, Cheb i Sabbah was among the 70 million devotees at this greatest of human gatherings on earth, and lived with the Naga Babas of Juna Akhara, the oldest order of (naked) sadhus (holy men).
This deeply inspirational experience comes through in Devotion, as does his emotional attachment and practice of Vedic spirituality.
Also palpable is Cheb i Sabbah's embrace of the good in all mystical and esoteric paths. The record features three distinct traditions ofreligious music representing Hinduism, Sikhism and Sufi Islam.
(...)
“Kinna Sohna” (How Beautiful Did God Make You?), is a Sufi tune written by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and sung here by Master Saleem, the versatile young artist from Punjab who sets the song free and makes it his own.
“Qalanderi”, another Sufi track features the sensuous vocals of Riffat Sultana, daughter of the late, great Pakistani classical singer Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, who also happened to be Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's musical guru.
“Qalanderi” is a luminous example of what Cheb i Sabbah does best: taking a valuable artifact and with great care and joy reinventing it for a contemporary audience. This trippy and slow-burning qawwali takes off into the stratosphere and brings to mind the fervent dances of whirling dervishes. It ends all too quickly.
(...)
If there was a Cheb i Sabbah in every country, there would be a thousand windows through which we would see other countries and other cultures and perhaps develop empathy to other people that would help solve some of the problems of our troubled, ravaged world.
Devotion is a step in that direction and a call to the prayer of love.
[Listen to samples at Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/2u6xhm].
Labels:
review
All About Jazz - Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.Sunday, December 16, 2007
Cheb i Sabbah, musical adventurer, global spiritualist and producer extraordinaire has returned to the Indian subcontinent for Devotion, his seventh album on Six Degrees Records
Hundreds of artists in the world music genre, or for that matter any genre, have come and gone like bottle rockets, but Cheb i Sabbah's light keeps burning and it is his bhakti (devotion) to the spiritual essence of music, and to truth and humanity, that is responsible for his longevity.
Devotion was produced in the past year or so but has been in the making for at least nine years since Cheb i Sabbah started visiting India to record his first release.
His first visit to the Mother land goes back to 1970. He has been to the country several times in the interim, and with each journey he has excavated an aspect of its culture and spirituality with respect and taste to produce sublime albums like Shri Durga (1999) and Krishna Lila (2002).
Both are considered gold standards by classical music purists and casual listeners alike, and remixes from these projects are club staples around the world.
South Asia is a kaleidoscope of multiple faiths, fantasies, languages, cultures and sub-cultures. It is not an easy task to sift through the rich but massive tapestry of religious devotional music and distill it into a flawless 62-minute summary of prayer.
Cheb i Sabbah has managed to produce eight wonderful pieces that are inclusive of its three main religions but are a metaphor for the deep spirituality that suffuses every aspect of life in the Indian subcontinent.
Early this year, during the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, Cheb i Sabbah was among the 70 million devotees at this greatest of human gatherings on earth, and lived with the Naga Babas of Juna Akhara, the oldest order of (naked) sadhus (holy men).
This deeply inspirational experience comes through in Devotion, as does his emotional attachment and practice of Vedic spirituality.
Also palpable is Cheb i Sabbah's embrace of the good in all mystical and esoteric paths. The record features three distinct traditions ofreligious music representing Hinduism, Sikhism and Sufi Islam.
(...)
“Kinna Sohna” (How Beautiful Did God Make You?), is a Sufi tune written by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and sung here by Master Saleem, the versatile young artist from Punjab who sets the song free and makes it his own.
“Qalanderi”, another Sufi track features the sensuous vocals of Riffat Sultana, daughter of the late, great Pakistani classical singer Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, who also happened to be Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's musical guru.
“Qalanderi” is a luminous example of what Cheb i Sabbah does best: taking a valuable artifact and with great care and joy reinventing it for a contemporary audience. This trippy and slow-burning qawwali takes off into the stratosphere and brings to mind the fervent dances of whirling dervishes. It ends all too quickly.
(...)
If there was a Cheb i Sabbah in every country, there would be a thousand windows through which we would see other countries and other cultures and perhaps develop empathy to other people that would help solve some of the problems of our troubled, ravaged world.
Devotion is a step in that direction and a call to the prayer of love.
[Listen to samples at Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/2u6xhm].
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment