It’s like peeling back the layers of an onion to reveal a continent.
I often marvel at how little I know. It’s truly astounding if I take the time to think about. Thankfully, art often makes allowances for a lack of knowledge by appealing to things other than intellect. While some people find it difficult to let go of a dualistic world view, even for the length of an album, I relish every opportunity.
Naseeruddin Saami is a master, ustad, of Hindustani classical music, specifically Khyal. From Wikipedia:
In khyal, ragas are extensively ornamented, and the style calls for more technical virtuosity than intellectual rigour.
I have no idea if that description is accurate, but I came across it after I wrote that 2nd paragraph and it certainly fits nicely. Here’s a bit more information from the release notes for east Pakistan sky:
Ustad Saami devotes his life daily to keep alive his customized microtonal, pre-Islamic, multilingual (Farsi, Sanskrit, Hindi, the ancient and vanished language of Vedic, Jibberish, Arabic, and Urdu) music. Handed down by his ancestors for over a thousand years, he is the only vocal practitioner of surti left in the world and when he passes, this music will die with him as well.
Now aged seventy-seven, Ustad still practices from 4 AM to noon most days, drilling himself with musical exercises. Though his physical hearing has declined and he requires in-ear aides for daily communication, his powers of perception continue to rise.
east Pakistan sky is Ustad Saami’s third record, released by Glitterbeat, and he is joined by his two sons on harmonium, tabla, and tambura. This is a live-in-one-take recording from Saami’s rooftop terrace in Karachi, Pakistan and if you listen in, and forget what you know, you may just find yourself outside of time, outside of yourself, and in a world that is filled with beauty, mastery, mystery, and history that reaches beyond borders.
