“Sound Spirit” a live musical performance powered by ‘Arts Council Music Academy’ held at the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi.

“Sound Spirit” is a series of live musical performances presented by Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi, powered by ‘Arts Council Music Academy’ (ACMA).

Addressing the audience on the occasion President of ACP Karachi, Mohammad Ahmed Shah said; “our youth doesn’t get a platform where they can perform or showcase their talents. The purpose of initiating this series “Sound Spirit” is to create an opportunity for the music community to not only enhances their professional skills but also to create an opportunity to come and collaborate together.”

Ahmed Shah added; “we have been working really hard to bring the best out in the music and you will witness this during this event”.

A large number of people were gathered at the ACP Karachi for the first episode of “Sound Spirit”, which was named as ‘Crescendo’. Along with the ACMA students, some of the most recognized names of the music industry including Natasha Baig, Shallum Xavier, Aziz Kazi, Russel D’Souza and Auj – the Band also performed during the first episode of “Sound Spirit”.

The event was concluded with the special performance of the director of ACMA Adnan Afaq, faculty members and ACMA students under the curation of the creative head, Ahsan Bari.

Mehfil-e-Mausiqi at 12th Aalmi Urdu Conference (12th World Urdu Conference) @ Arts Council Karachi.

12^th Edition of Aalmi Urdu Conference (12^th World Urdu Conference) was held recently at cultural capital of our beloved city of Karachi, the ‘Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi’ from 05^th December 2019 till 08^th December 2019.

As always this year’s edition featured all types of cultural activities relating to our national language ‘urdu’. List of activities included from arts, crafts, dance, theatre, debates, poetry and music.  This year’s music festival at 12^th Aalmi Urdu Conference (12th World Urdu Conference) was titled as ‘mehfil-e-mausiqi ’ which would loosely translate to (musical event).

As we reached late from office but late enough to see Schumaila Rehmat Hussain entering with rousing welcome from all around, she stated off with slow momentum and started gaining pace as her performance progressed. She is lucky enough to be blessed with excellent and crisp vocal tone but needs to improve on her other singing skills. Content that she sung was flawless so was the music that was played to perfection by the musicians who were spot-on but on singing side improvements are much needed. Her best performance of the evening was ‘tanana-hoo ya-hoo’ which did lift-up my mood a bit.

Next in was in-house band from Art Council Karachi by the name of ‘ACMA The Band’, as just in-case if you would be wondering what ACMA means? then its ‘Arts Council Music Academy’. ACMA  The Band is led by legendary veteran guitarist Adnan Afaq.

First performance of ‘ACMA The Band’ was a rhythmic  juggal-bandi between Shahid Ali on darbooka, Shams-ul-Arfeen on drummer and Muhammad Waqas Ghulab on tabla. This was a very exciting and power-packed performance by all three drummers.

After rhythmic juggal-bandi sessionon drums, Ustaad Farhan Rais performed on sitar and showed how talented he is with his instrument.

Then came first real taste of ‘ACMA The Band’. ‘ACMA The Band’ led by legendary guitarist Adnan Afaq features Arman Rahim, Muhammad Zubair & Mustafa Jaan Baloch on vocals along with long-list of distinguished and talented musicians which includes Zeeshan Pervaiz on bass-guitars, Shahid & Mustafa Jaan Baloch on rhythm-guitars, Shams-ul-Arfeen on drums, Gul Mohammad on sarangi, Shahid Ali on darbooka and Muhammad Waqas Ghulab on tabla.

First song from this band was “aadmi say dartay ho, zindagi say say dartay ho”, lyrics of which are by Nazar Muhammad Rashid (aka Noon Meem Rashid). Sung by Arman Rahim, who was best by far and by big margin the best vocalist of the evening. His powerful and impressive vocal tone coupled with his equally on-spot vocal skills (sur) were far better than any vocalist who performed. Band was also supported with flawless and on-spot performance from each member. Adan Afaq stood out as a musician with some awesome sounding guitar rhythms and solos.

 

After listening to first song, others songs didn’t feel that much appealing with Muhammad Zubair and Mustafa Jaan Baloch vocals. Both of them were equally good at what they were doing, but initially after listening to Arman Rahim these two didn’t impress much.

Last song sounded somewhat better as compared to the few songs that were performed in-between first and last song. Last song with lyrics from Habib Jalib was ‘mai nahi maanta’, rounded up ‘ACMA The Band’ performance with a high note. This last song should have been played as a first song and first one as last song.

By the time last performance of the evening Saif Samejo/Sketches showed up, most of the crowd had left and Saif Samejo was left with no option but to sing to bunch of crowd that he had brought along with him from Hyderabad. Reason behind inviting for performing Saif Samejo/Sketches in an Urdu Conference didn’t do down well with me. I am sure that they were here just because of of some political reasons.

Arts Council Music Academy (ACMA) showcases fusion of Eastern and Western Classical Music.

Music Academy Faculty of Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi organized a show-case of fusion of eastern-classical-music and western-classical-music at Arts Council Auditorium on 23^rd August 2019 at Arts Council Auditorium, Karachi.

Arts Council Auditorium was brimming with the aesthetes’ art-lovers and music lovers of all sorts.  Atmosphere at Arts Council auditorium smacked nothing less of a futuristic musical school exhibition that not only makes for the nursery of budding artists and nurtures them, but goes so far as to ensure them extravagant avenues for manifesting their artistic marvels.

The two contrasting genres, classic and fusion (both eastern and western) have evolved through times, through versions and further complimented, though not at all contaminated, with a more local, indigenous touch were the palatable cuisines of the night scheduled for rendition for the art appetite.

Dr. Anjum Rizvi, a renowned journalist, formally commenced the event with his kind words and with short introductions to eastern-classical music and western-classical music. He also praised Mr. Ahmed Shah, President of Arts Council of Pakistan as the man without whom this event would not have been possible. His dream to extend, “art as an expression” didn’t let him sleep and without him this event wouldn’t have been possible.

The performances finally began with the first act which was introduction of sarangi-nawaz maestro Gul Mohammed from the Hushyarpur gharana who showcased his marvelous talents on sarangi. He well supported on Tabla by Muhammad Waqas Ghulab, who had learnt tabla at a very young from Ustaad Bashir Khan. Unknown sitar players equally supported the all around during this act.

Second act of the evening was introduction of vocalist Shahzaib Ali, who comes from traditional ‘Gawaliyar gharana’. He took training from Ustaad Hameed Ali Khan and Ustaad Mehmood Ali Khan. During his performance he showcased his excellent talent as a vocalist which was equally supported by his powerful vocal tone. Shahzaib Ali embarked on his classic venture from within the very walls and halls of arts council before he reached out to professional arenas to resound with his arresting vocals. With him on stage were table-player Waris and renowned key-board player Imran Momina (aka EMU). Again anonymous sitar players were seen behind but their names weren’t displayed.

Third act of the evening was a Folk Balochi instrumental with Farhan Rais Khan on lead with his sitar. Farhan Rais Khan is son late Ustaad Rais Khan, the greatest sitar player the world of music has ever seen. He showed his brilliant skills on his sitar. He had with him Muhammad Waqas Ghulab on tabla, Zeeshan Parvaiz (aka Shaani) on bass guitar and last but not the least Shahid Ali’s percussion on his tarbooka  drums raised the bar a bit higher for rest to come.

Up-next was Ustaad Mehmood Khan, who has more than 35 years of experience in the field of eastern classic singing also comes from a renowned musical family. He learnt his craft from his elder brother Ustaad Zafar Ali Khan. Ustaad Mehmood Khan raised the bar even higher and his masterpiece vindicated the hype created in his name as they announced it.  Supporting musicians for Ustaad Mehmood Khan’s explosive performance were sarangi-nawaz Gul Mohammed, table-nawaz Waris and Idress Hussain Khan on harmonium.

After an electrifying performance from Ustaad Mehmood Khan, first western-classical act of the evening came to fore. Jamal Yousuf’s music career started off early and then he got training as a classical pianist and completed his music studies from Sarah & Ernest Butler School of Music at University of Texas, Austin, USA. Due to some logistic issues hollow-body piano wasn’t available and due to this very reason this performance by Jamal Yousuf felt like only mediocre performance of the day. Other reason may have been previous electrifying performance against which this one seemed pretty ordinary.

Most unique performance of the evening was an all-drum act varying from three different continents. On western-type drums was shams-ul-arfeen, on African tarbooka it was Shahid Ali and on eastern-type tabla it was Muhammad Waqas Ghulab. Instrumental started off slowly with Shams-ul-Arfeen on his drums, and then Shahid with his tarbooka and finally Muhammad Waqas Ghulab with his table kicked in. Only missing element of this performance was missing out on tabla solo which was badly missed. African Tarbooka solo and Drums solo gave an electrifying ambiance within the auditorium.

Another above average performance of the evening was from Zahid Hussain, who with his hollow-body guitar tried to do some heavy and electrifying music but couldn’t succeed much. His solo felt like a bad copy of Salman Ahmed’s iconic instrumental ‘heer’, which he first played during early 90’s, his assistant on this instrumental tabla-player Shahid Ali did lift-up  the mood of the this instrumental with his excellent tabla skills but overall this was an above-average effort.

Ustaad Idress Hussain Khan who is most prominent harmonium player in Pakistan with background of “Ajara House of Music” performed raag madhuvanti. He had with him on tabla Muhammad Waqas Ghulab

Intezar Hussain a renowned eastern classical singer showcased his brilliant vocals and even better vocal chords with Idress Hussain Khan on harmonium and Muhammad Waqas Ghulab on tabla. His brilliant and smooth performance went well along with flow of the event.

Second western instrumental of the evening was played by band consisting of legendary guitarist on lead Adnan Afaq who can called as a grand-master due to immense number of students that he has taught and trained over the period of years, with him was his old friend Imran Momina (aka EMU) on key-boards, Mustafa Baloch student of Adnan Afaq on rhythm guitars, Zeeshan Pervaiz on bass guitars, on drums Shams-ul-Arfeen. Performance by this band brought everyone at the edge of their seats. Adnan Afaq’s lead guitar dominated this performance with a very heavy and groovy tone to it. By far the best and most electrifying performance of the evening.

 

For grand finale a fusion performance between western classical and eastern classical was awaiting us. Adnan Afaq (lead-guitars), Imran Momina (key-boards), Mustafa Baloch (rhythm guitar) and Shams-ul-Arfeen (drums) teamed-up with eastern-classical maestros Imran Abbas Khan (vocals) who comes from famous “gawaliyar gharana”, with Waris (tabla), and Farhan Rais Khan (sitar). All the musicians and vocalist started the proceedings in harmony and improvised accordingly. Adnan Afaq and Imran Abbas Khan were standout performers of this act. This also was the final performance of the evening. Grand finale can be viewed here also;  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qusrwzQYCKY

On concluding note Mr. Ahmed Shah, President Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi praised the efforts put up by staff and music faculty of Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, he said; “an academy that was started with a hope and just couple of teachers, has come a long way and it is unstoppable now”.

This showcase event of eastern & western classical music was attended by many top level government dignitaries including Sardar Ali Shah Minister for Culture Government of Sindh, Saeed Ghani Minister Information Government of Sindh, Shaukat Tarin former Federal Finance Minister along with tops Diplomats from USA, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Sri Lanka & Indonesia witnessed a power-packed show. This show was also witnessed by many celebrities, socialites, music-lovers, members of music fraternity and members of press (including electronic, print and social media). Also present were families who participating musicians.