Shabaz
It's a hard decision for a band to change its name, especially with two albums already to their name, and a good reputation. But that's exactly what the Ali Khan Band did. After five years of existence, fusing Indian classical music with beats and grooves, they became reborn as Shabaz, and with a new name came a new eponymous album on Miles Copeland's Mondo Melodia label.
"The change was purely to eliminate confusion," explains guitarist/producer Richard Michos. "When you go to the record store, there are a lot of artists with the last name Khan, and several with Ali Khan - some people have thought we were Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan."
"The spirit is so strong live, and the groove and melody is there. Live we're much rawer." |
"Time is the teacher, the one that carves people," muses Khan. "The Grand Canyon is beautiful, and it was done by time. It doesn't happen in a day. On our first album we were very enthusiastic, but we were also learning. On the second album we started perofrimng together, creating more stuff, knowing each other better. Now we can combine the experience of those first two CDs, and we have our own sound, by the grace of God."
But there's a lot more going on here than simply three people getting together to make music. Khan and his sister also have the weight of history on their shoulders. Their father was the great Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, who died during 2001, and their vocal tradition stretches back, unbroken, across 11 generations, and 500 years of music - a hefty legacy.
"There was an Indian king, Akbar the Great," Khan explains. "He supported music, poetry, painting, all great art. Two of my ancestors, two brothers, held positions as singers in his court, and they began the tradition of duet singing in Indian classical music. And now, in the 21st century, instead of brother and brother singing together, it's brother and sister."
The classical Sham Chorasi tradition is the one handed down in the family, and Salamat Ali Khan was a master of it, gaining international fame in the '60s and '70s as part of the Ali Brothers, who toured Europe and recorded at a time when minds were opening to Indian music. But the elder Khan was also a groundbreaker, updating ragas, and not always operating entirely within the rules of classical Indian music. His influence spread beyond purely classical music to touch people like the great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and many, many more.
"I think my father was the greatest classical singer who ever lived," says Khan simply. "He contributed a lot, but was also very forward-looking. He was the one who encouraged me to break barriers, when some traditional people said we shouldn't. He told us to listen to our hearts, we weren't doing anything wrong. He wanted us to enjoy the music the way he did. He came to see us and loved to watch the people dancing to our music."
It was perhaps inevitable that Khan and Salamat would become singers; their others brothers are, too, although they're strictly traditional. But these two took it in a different direction - one that probably wouldn't have happened the same way had it not been for Michos. They met in 1994, when Michos, an American rock guitarist who'd become fascinated with Indian music. He began studying Indian music, singing, and the raga form with Sukhawat and his father in San Francisco, becoming more and more involved the more he learned.
"It hit me more than anything else," Michos says, "especially after I grew out of rock music, and was searching for something deeper." A year later, he began playing guitar with Sukhawat and Riffat, performing low-key acoustic shows around the Bay Area. The turning point, he recalls, came when "DJ Cheb i Sabbah asked us to open a show for him at the Fillmore Theater." It was the first time they'd played to a large crowd, and the reaction from the crowd, who'd come to hear the world music DJ (who'd become a recording artist himself) stunned them, with people dancing, and becoming a part of the music. Although they'd remain acoustic for a while longer, they were now definitely a band, and as such, they needed a direction. Unlike many others, they found it in the studio. Michos knew how to use the studio, and as a multi-instrumentalist, could bring a lot to recording. With a background in rock and an interest in the burgeoning dance culture, his expertise helped push the sound along. And so, on the Left Coast of America, the Ali Khan Band, as they'd christened themselves, began developing their own little scene in parallel with Britain's Asian Underground, although Michos was influenced "by some great records, like the Massive Attack remix of Nusrat, or his work with Michael Brook, and Bill Laswell."
Riffat and Sukhawat's contributions shouldn't be underestimated. Although steeped in the classical tradition, they'd always been very open to all kinds of music.
"If you have a good education in music, it's not hard to get into another phase," notes Sukhawat. "It's not so easy, either, since we grew up singing traditionally. We came here a long time ago, and with the passage of time…I was always very enthusiastic about Western music. I like Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, and Stevie Wonder. I started learning the different grooves and beats, like hip-hop and reggae. That helped us transform, and it worked well."
But he's happy to give some of the credit to his father: "Music is music, my father taught us - it's a combination of notes, feeling, and rhythm." And with that combination, drawing on all manner of music, from classical to rock, Qawwali to pedal steel licks, they went into a San Francisco studio to record their debut for local label City of Lights. Tawsir appeared in 1998, a record unlike any that had been made in America to that point, and it hit the CMJ world music charts like a bullet. In retrospect, it does seem like they threw in everything, including the kitchen sink. Tablas and dhol drums alongside programmed beats - that was a natural. Pedal steel and Indian music? Why not? After all, King Sunny Ade made it work with Nigerian juju. But rappers, and the ubiquitous didjeridu? Well, perhaps it was a bit much. But in making the record, they'd unlocked something and begun to get a grip on their sound.
It helped the Ali Khan band find a wider audience, and, filled out to a full band for shows, they were soon opening for the likes of Femi Kuti and King Sunny in the Bay Area.
"The spirit is so strong live, and the groove and melody is there. Live we're much rawer," says Michos. They were able to bring more of that live spirit into Zindagi, their second release as the Ali Khan Band in 2000. While it employed more technology, it also brought in more live musicians to find a mix between the computer and the performer. At heart, Michos said, it was "still songs, and they're generally strong, a nice balance between love songs and Qawwalis. We often use one of their father's classical pieces, put it into a four-beat with a groove. We respect what we're taking it from, and where it's coming from. He really gave us his blessing."
And that illustrates one of the biggest differences between them and the Asian Underground/Asian Massive/whatever you want to call it is that - songs have always been central, with a strong, natural emphasis on the vocal side of things, the feel for tradition strong, but far from rigid, as Khan explains.
"It's a cool type of music we're creating, and it's starting to get really enjoyable," |
The record, more refined than their debut, did well on the CMJ charts, that barometer of U.S. radio play, but didn't help them break through to the next level - which was what they really needed. That would require a bigger label, and at the beginning of 2001 they made that precarious jump, singing with Mondo Melodia. With a new start came the decision to change names, even though they understood it was a risk. But it would help set them apart, and create a firmer identity. They were already working on what would become Shabaz. As before, all three members wrote the material.
"We work as a team, the three of us," Khan says. "A lot of our ideas are based on ragas, and we all work on it. One of us will create a part, but whoever gets a good idea, and one that works, we'll all work on it." They were on a tight deadline to finish the album, and spending a lot of the studio. "It's a continuation and refinement of the first two albums - I play guitar and variations, and I have a keyboard player who does the programming," says Michos of the recording process. "We do the rhythm tracks, and we use a couple of bass players, like Myron Dove (Chick Corea), and a couple of drummers. I use a percussionist who used to be with King Sunny Ade, and he brings a whole new aspect to the music, as does Ramesh Mishra (the celebrated player of the bowed, fretless sarangi)."
But all the time when he's working and composing, Michos says "I'm conscious of the dancefloor. I'll make drum loops and bring our drummers in and have them play with it, then percussion to come up with a big sound. The arrangements are more complicated and refined. And our understanding of how to make it a successful fusion is always growing."
"It's a cool type of music we're creating, and it's starting to get really enjoyable," Khan muses. "We try to blend different musics, white music, Indian music, Pakistani and Qawwali music, even some Eastern music. We try to keep every song a different raga and naturally a different rhythm. What we've done has given us some confidence and some style, and it's really helped to create a new sound."
Work on the album was virtually complete - indeed, they'd handed in finished mixes - when Copeland invited the three of them to join his annual recording week at a French chareau. There they mingled with artists from the label (and several others), writing and quickly laying down ideas - a similar idea to the concept used by Peter Gabriel at Real World. And it bore definite fruit. "Raga" was a piece they worked on with British electronica duo Zohar at the Chateau, and it proved to be a fortunate pairing of talents.
"I have nothing but praise for those guys," Michos says enthusiastically. "They have a lot of the same influences as me, and they brought a lot."
Also present was producer Narada Michael Walden, who might not be noted for his excursions into world music, but who still has a book worth of credits, as performer and in the control room. He ended up working with Shabaz on "Queenie's Jam." They began the piece in France and finished the mixing at Walden's studio in California.
"It was all done informally," Michos remembers,"my wife just approached him and said "I want to do a song with you." And he was just like "Let's go, girl.""
Go they did, with Walden nicknaming Riffat 'Queenie,' endeared by her forwardness and outgoing personality. The result is joyous, smooth - but still utterly Shabaz in its fusion of East and West, the ancient and the modern. And, Micos, feels, "it's an extension of what we've always been trying to do. It's very song-oriented, with strong melodies, and it focuses on the vocalists. The soul and the singing always have to be the main thing. The Sufi songs are coming from a spiritual place, and we wanted to keep the beauty of the vocal style and the soaring melodies, and mix them with a much more modern sound. We're like a rock band, plus tabla and African percussion. The two singers start the show sitting up front. It's a dance band with a real international flavor."
Now, with the disc in the stores, they've made that leap, and it seems to have paid off. The reviews have been excellent, they've played shows with higher profiles, and are laying the groundwork for possible tours in the U.S. and Europe. It might have taken a few years of paying dues, but with the 21st century calling loud, Shabaz are finally ready to break out and take their unique sound around the world.
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