Pakistani maestros Sachal Jazz in London, then head to India

November 7 2014

Once the backbone of the Pakistani film industry, these musicians have found a new calling…

OFTEN described as Pakistan’s version of the Buena Vista Social Club, the Sachal Jazz Ensemble are back in the UK.

They play one concert at the Barbican in London in Saturday (November 8) with the string section of the London Symphony Orchestra, before heading off for their debut Indian tour.

On their last visit to the Barbican this summer, they played with jazz legend Wyton Marsalis and spoke www.orangered-oyster-271411.hostingersite.com just after their one-off performance.

Made up of players who learnt traditional instruments from the sub-continent, their strength is their virtuosity and their ability to mix different traditions seamlessly. Hear one of their signature pieces below – what’s the tune?

It means they can play traditional ragas but also mix and mash them up with bossa nova classics and jazz compositions.

The results have impressed jazz music lovers all over the world and their video of their version of Dave Brubeck’s iconic “Take Five” track went viral, garnering almost a million views (to date) and catapulting them to the attention of some of the finest jazz musicians of our age.

Brubeck was impressed himself and declared: “This is the most interesting and different recording of ‘Take Five’ that I have ever heard.”

Musicians who first formed the orchestra had a background in film music dating back to the days when Lahore and Karachi were significant centres of filmmaking, but with the demise of Lollywood the demand for their skills subsided.

Izzat Majeed, founder and manager of Sachal Jazz Ensemble told www.orangered-oyster-271411.hostingersite.com : “ I grew up with them – my father was a film producer and and it took me about seven years to bring them back.” [captionpix imgsrc="https://asianculturevulture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/izzatmajeed4story.jpg" captiontext="Izzat Majeed of Sachal Jazz Ensemble" width="300" imgalt="ACV" imgtitle="ACV" align="right]

He said he knew the musicians personally and often recruited them from their employment at the time.

“A lot of them were doing nothing or they were running tea stalls,” revealed Majeed.

He said that once he had brought them together to play things started to happen and the “Take Five” video helped to establish their international credentials.

“I wanted to create music – I know nothing about it compared to them, it wasn’t difficult to bring them together. After I produced the ‘Take Five’ video it went viral people really noticed.”

Sachal Jazz ensemble with strings of the London Symphony Orchestra, ragas, bossa nova classic and jazz standards, Saturday, November 8 7.30pm – Hall, Barbican¸ Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. For ticket information, please see Barbican

India tour dates
November 29 Concert –Buddh Circuit (NH7 Festival) Delhi
December 1 Concert – NCPA (National Centre for the Performing Arts) Mumbai
December 4 Concert –Music Academy, Chennai
December 6 Concert –Amphi Theatre, UB City Bangalore
December 9 Concert – Birla Sabhaghar, Kolkata

When they were last in London, they played a private concert at Kings Hall Place and reprised one of their signature tunes, here’s an exclusive excerpt…
[youtube width=”500″ height=”300″ video_id=”tO1ZWyoBzN8″]

And here’s the video that went viral, it starts oddly but…
[youtube width=”500″ height=”300″ video_id=”GLF46JKkCNg”]