Musical treat for jazz lovers from today
Web posted at: 7/14/2005 3:7:47
Source ::: The Peninsula
Musicians entertaining visitors at the Landmark Mall yesterday.

doha: Jazz lovers in Qatar can expect a musical treat from today when the International Jazz Festival — a major attraction of this year's Qatar Summer Wonders — takes off tonight at the Diplomatic Club. Six globally renowned Jazz artists have flown to Doha to enthrall audiences in the capital this summer.

Jazz is a musical art that emerged from the African American communities around the beginning of the last century. This style of music gained international popularity by the 1920s and since then, Jazz has had a profoundly pervasive influence on other musical styles worldwide.

The festival, organised by Qatar Tourism Authority's (QTA), begins with the cool sounds of Gros Bras and the Zakir Hussain Asian All Stars.

Ustad Zakir Hussain is widely considered to be one of the finest tabla (a popular Indian percussion instrument) players in the world today. He is the son of the late Ustad Allah Rakha, quite possibly one of the greatest exponents of the tabla instrument the world has ever seen.

Zakir has taken the flame that Pandit Ravi Shankar lit back in the fifties, of introducing Indian classical music to world audience (especially the west), to new heights and constantly strives to do that even to this day. Zakir has forged new ways of taking this rich Indian classical tradition to the masses in the west.

He has done this very successfully by working with various musicians from all parts of the world. Zakir has a unique way of fusing his Indian rhythms into the overall collage of music that could be based on any musical style ranging from jazz, rock, folk, African, Japanese or any other genre one can possibly imagine. He has an extraordinary ability to improvise in any form of music with his percussion and blur that line between the traditions.

Zakir has also managed to strike a very good balance between the traditional classical music and the overall space of world music. He spends a great part of his time performing in the pure Indian classical realm (Hindustani and Carnatic), while managing to forge new ways.

As for Zakir, his father did not approve of his dabbling in western music and he promised his father that he would not let that part of his tradition suffer or die and he tries to spend at least six months of the year performing exclusively in the Indian classical realm.

Zakir was a child prodigy and has been touring since the age of twelve. He came to the US in 1970 to assist in the efforts at Ustad Ali Akbar Khan's Ali Akbar School of Music in San Rafael, California. The rest as they say is history. Zakir tours every year with no less than 150 dates in a calendar year including the winter months spent touring India and accompanying various musicians.

Zakir has accompanied virtually every possible touring musician in the Hindustani music tradition including greats such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan to name just a few. He has also actively accompanied carnatic musicians including greats such as L Shankar, L Subramanium to name a few.

Ibrahim Jaber on percussion heads up 'The Gros Bras'. Since his very early age, Ibrahim was in love with rhythm music. Today he is a very talented percussionist who enjoys exploring the universe of the "tam tam". He is a devoted musician for all kinds of music, traditional, classical, oriental or latin.

With his talented musician friends he created the popular "Gros Bras". The Gros Bros talent includes Aboud Saade, bass guitar, Arthur Satyan, piano, Hratch Kassis, saxophone, Fouad Afra on the drums.

The concert starts at 8.30pm and tickets are priced at QR50 each and can be bought at the Diplomatic Club.